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Doogie White Interview
October 2001

Vocalist Dougie White has just completed the South American WTEAW tour with Yngwie. YJMGA found out his view on the recent excursion.

Doogie, thanks for chatting to us again. First off, what were the rehearsals like before the SA tour?
Well, they were a few days longer than we had expected, due to the madness that was going on in NYC. It was very warm and humid and we played for hours and hours. It was also incredibly loud, my ears have only now stopped ringing.

You had played South America with Rainbow a few years back, did it live up to its original charm from the old days?
Yes of course it did, it was as wild as I remember and very beautiful too. It was different in that we had to do a lot more flying and hanging around in airports. The crowds were just as crazy and loud as I remember and I met a few old faces from before. Could have done without the airline losing my luggage in Argentina though having come straight of stage in Monterray and flown for 12 hours.

Porto Alegre, whats your take on what happened and the aftermath?
You know, it was a football/tribal thing, it was not, in my opinion politically motivated. If Yngwie had played "god save the queen" in Scotland he may well have been booed. When I mentioned in Chile that we had been in Mexico and Argentina, they booed. If people were throwing things in PA I never saw it, if people were chanting for bin Laden I never heard it. I have no problem going back to PA and I told this to the fans that came to the hotel after the show. Maybe some people don't understand a football mentality, sometime I don't but I did that night.

The setlist was fairly varied, which songs did you enjoy singing that you may have been dreaded a little prior to stretching the old vocal chords onstage?
It was a good set to sing. I was dreading 'Hiroshima' and 'The Wizard'. They were tough however the toughest used to be 'I'll see the Light'. More to do with where it came in the set than anything. 'Crucify' was no picnic either but I`m better for having sung these tunes they streatched me to my limits and beyond. Now bring on some more.....

Which song went down the best with the crowd (except for The Star Spangled Banner obviously)?
The older tunes like 'You Dont Remember' and 'Seventh Sign' went down really well. New songs like 'Bad Reputation' also had them singing along.

Did you get the chance to play any snippets of the Rainbow 'Stranger In Us All' material?
No, no. Yngwie doesn't need to play those songs. I doubt if he knows any. He know lots of Purple but I never heard him play any Rainbow. We played 'Mistreated' a couple of times and 'Highway Star' once but we never knew we were going to do them till Yngwie started them.

Do you know what Yngwie's opinion is on that album?
We never talked about it. He liked my performance with Ritchie at the Hammersmith many gigs ago.

Who's the loudest on stage - Yngwie or Blackmore?
Ritchie is louder only because he uses the side fills where Yngwie uses only his amps to full effect. I have never heard a guitar quite as loud as YJM. "More is more Dougie, How the fuck can less possibly be more".

Has Yngwie mentioned anything to you about working on the next album together?
We had a conversation.....................

How did you get on with the rest of the band?
I enjoyed playing with them very much. It was good to hang out in twos and threes and share stories and play loud RAWK. A few nights Ritchie ears must have been burning when Mick and I got together. Only good stuff mind you. I hope we get to do it again.

Finally how would you sum up the past few weeks?
A fun filled festival of raucous ravenous rock with a Ferrari drivin, Rolex wearin, Strat lovin, Marshall punishin, Crazzee Viking...... and I had a blast.

Thanks to Doogie for talking to GA again.
Oct 2001

Web Links
Official Doogie White website