WHITESNAKE MUSICIANS
TOMMY ALDRIDGE born 15 August, 1950
Tommy Aldridge's first big break occured when he joined Black Oak Arkansas in 1970. He recorded various albums with them right up until 1976. In 1977, Pat Travers hired him and he remained with him until 1980. With Pat Thrall on second guitar, Aldridge was part of the most successful Pat Travers Band line-up. After the split, he went to London to record with Gary Moore's project G Force. The biggest break of his career took place in 1980 when he replaced Lee Kerslake (who left to rejoin Uriah Heep) in Ozzy Osbourne's legendary line-up featuring the late Randy Rhoads on guitars and Rudy Sarzo on bass. Tommy recorded two studio albums with Ozzy, namely Diary Of A Madman(1981) and Bark At The Moon (1984). He also appears on two live albums Speak Of The Devil (1982, aka Talk Of The Devil) and Tribute To Randy Rhoades (1987).

Tommy Aldridge playing for Whitesnake during the 1987 tour. Tommy was fired and re-hired several times by Ozzy. During one of these breaks in 1983 he did some live dates with Hughes & Thrall, the group founded by his former bandmate Pat Thrall and Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple. In 1987 it was rumoured that he was to join Swiss band Krokus but he instead participated in the recording of Stars for the Hear n' Aid project and put together the MARS Project with Tony McAlpine, Rudy Sarzo and vocalist Rob Rock. Their one and only album Project: Driver came out in 1987 and was, commercially speaking, a flop.

After some work with Vinnie Moore (Mind's Eye in 1987), he joined Whitesnake and remained with them until 1990 performing on the 1987 promo videos and the follow up album Slip Of The Tongue(1989). One of his big regrets is not taking the drum stool when offered it prior to the recording of 1987 - although he once described Aynsley Dunbar's performance on the record as stellar, and probably impossible to beat. In 1992, he got an offer to replace Ken Mary in the pomp rock group House of Lords, recording their third and possibly best Demons Down album. During interviews with the HoL, Tommy mentioned that he felt DC had let his personal problems affect Whitesnake. After the House Of Lords split, Tommy teamed up with his old Whitesnake friends Rudy Sarzo and Adrian Vandenberg, as well as former Little Caesar singer Ron Young, to record the Manic Eden record (Adrian's project). This project ended when Whitesnake reformed for the Greatest Hits tour in the same year - Tommy was not asked to re-join.

The mid-nineties saw the veteran drummer team up with the French guitarist Patrick Rondat (who once appeared on the G3 tour with Joe Satriani) for the albums Amphibia (1996) and On The Edge (1998). During this period Tommy played on the album Dragon Attack - Tribute To Queen. He also toured with guitar wizard Yngwie Malmsteen (1995-1996) but the two of them fell out whilst touring.

Following a stint touring Europe with the John Sykes/Scott Gorham version of Thin Lizzy, and an appearance on Sykes' 1998 20th Century album, Tommy could be heard on the One Night Only(2000) live album. 2001 saw him lending his sticks to the Ted Nugent solo album Full Bluntal Nugity but the following year he found himself back in a new Whitesnake touring band. His performances were a huge reminder of what we'd been missing - as his legendary solo section impressed even the most avid drum solo haters! Whilst his performances are represented on the Live... In The Still Of The Night DVD, he was to exit before the recording of the Good To Be Bad album (2008), choosing to once again tour with the John Sykes/Scott Gorham version of Thin Lizzy.

WHITESNAKE DISCOGRAPHY:
Slip Of The Tongue, 1989.
Greatest Hits, 1994.

This article was written by Phillip Hackney


Copyright © 2008 P Hackney.

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