In a 2015 interview with Heavy Metal Hill, Michael spoke about how he landed the gig with WHITESNAKE. “I became a member of WHITESNAKE in 2010 while I was on tour with LYNCH MOB,” he said. “Brian Tichy was the drummer and my good friend. He had already secured his position with WHITESNAKE and they were already talking to another bass player — a friend of ours. And it looked very promising for this bass player and I just assumed that he was going to be the guy. I was also working toward going out with Jason Bonham in the LED ZEPPELIN EXPERIENCE. I had two jobs going on. I was pretty happy with that. I never even imagined my name would be put in the hat with WHITESNAKE. Long story short, David Coverdale decided to keep looking for bass players and Brian had mentioned he was out and about with LYNCH MOB and David asked him who was on bass. Brian mentioned me, so I sent some video of me playing live and then one thing led to another and I found myself up in Tahoe auditioning for David live. Then he called me while I was in Seattle and asked if I wanted to join the band. That was a great day… I had three jobs, WHITESNAKE, LYNCH MOB and the LED ZEPPELIN EXPERIENCE with Jason (Bonham).”

Coverdale, who turned 70 in September, recently confirmed that he plans to retire from touring after WHITESNAKE‘s next batch of concerts around the world.