David Coverdale recording "Slide It In" to re-form Deep Purple. (Ian Paice had left Whitesnake in 1982.) In 1985, Sykes and Coverdale started working on new songs for the next album, but Coverdale soon contracted a serious sinus infection that made recording close to impossible for much of 1986 and which had doctors thinking he might never sing again. Coverdale eventually recovered, and recordings were continued. But before their upcoming album was fully recorded and released, Coverdale had dismissed Sykes from the band. The split with Sykes was, reportedly, not amicable. In many period interviews, Coverdale stated that the next album was
Ian Gillan appeared on the band's next two albums, "Double Trouble" and "Magic". In 1982, Ian Gillan announced the band would fold, as he needed to rest his damaged vocal cords. The rest of the band Gillan, particularly McCoy and Towns, were not happy at the sudden disbanding of the group so soon after the success of "Magic", and sued Gillan for royalties. In 1983, manager Don Arden invited Gillan to join Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward, all founding members of Black Sabbath, to form a supergroup. Although the band had reservations, on 6 April 1983, it was formally announced