Ian Gillan Purple. By 1969, after having released nine singles, none of which charted in the UK, and finding their style of music too restrictive for him, he decided to leave Episode Six. By spring 1969, Deep Purple had had a top 5 US hit with "Hush", but the band, particularly Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord and Ian Paice, decided their future lay in hard rock, rather than the psychedelic pop sound of the early band. In June 1969, Blackmore, Lord and Paice went to see Episode Six perform at a pub gig and subsequently offered Gillan the job as new lead singer,
David Coverdale part of a double bill with fellow Yorkshire rockers Def Leppard. In 2009, Whitesnake toured with Judas Priest on the "British Steel" 30th Anniversary Tour. On 11 August 2009, Whitesnake was playing a show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado, when Coverdale suffered some kind of vocal injury. After seeing a specialist, it was announced on 12 August 2009 that Coverdale had been suffering from severe vocal fold edema and a left vocal fold vascular lesion. The remainder of the tour with Judas Priest was cancelled so that this injury would not worsen. In early February 2010, David Coverdale