Watch: ADRIAN VANDENBERG Celebrates His WHITESNAKE Years In Helsinki

Dutch guitar legend Adrian Vandenberg is celebrating his iconic years with WHITESNAKE during a special tour called "My Whitesnake Years". In 2025, it was 35 years since WHITESNAKE toured the world with the "Slip Of The Tongue" album, and Vandenberg looks back on highlights such as the legendary WHITESNAKE "Live At Donington" 1990 show.

Fan-filmed video of Vandenberg's January 20, 2026 concert at On The Rocks in Helsinki, Finland as part of the "My Whitesnake Years" tour can be seen below.

Vandenberg's touring band for "My Whitesnake Years" is as follows:

Adrian Vandenberg - Guitar
Mats Levén - Vocals
Sem Christoffel - Bass
Joey Marin De Boer - Drums
Len Van De Laak - Keyboards

Vandenberg joined WHITESNAKE in 1987 and played the famous guitar solo on worldwide hit "Here I Go Again". He also co-wrote the entire "Slip Of The Tongue" album and toured with guitar virtuoso Steve Vai. Before his WHITESNAKE years, Vandenberg made his international breakthrough with his own band VANDENBERG, known for the hit "Burning Heart", and shared the stage with rock greats such as OZZY OSBOURNE, KISS and SCORPIONS. After his WHITESNAKE period, he launched the successful VANDENBERG'S MOONKINGS and made a successful comeback in 2020 with his renewed VANDENBERG band. Now he returns to his WHITESNAKE glory years one more time, enabling fans to relive old times.

When WHITESNAKE leader and singer David Coverdale announced his retirement last November, Adrian took to his social media to write: "So..most of you will have heard that David officially stated his retirement. What a legacy he leaves behind! A couple of amazing albums with [DEEP] PURPLE, which is when I became a big fan of Coverdale. One of the very few all-time greatest rock vocalists, instantly recognisable. Then David started WHITESNAKE and made a string of great albums in the bands blues-rock period.

"The first time David invited me into his band was right when the first VANDENBERG album got released. After that during his recording of the 'Slide It In' album but I was still signed to Atlantic Records. Late 1986 the timing was finally right, just in time to record the solo on 'Here I Go Again' and some rhythm geetars. From then on up to 1998 we wrote and recorded a bunch of great music for 'Slip Of The Tongue' and 'Restless Heart'. I always thoroughly enjoyed touring together and the time off we spent listening to music, laughing our ass off and/or hunting down great restaurants. Priceless memories!

"I'm blessed to have had quite a few highlights in my career but it's hard to beat our years together in the 'golden years' of WHITESNAKE writing, recording and touring the biggest venues in the world.

"[2025] it's the 35th anniversary of WHITESNAKE headlining the legendary Donington festival so with my fantastic band of übertalented musicians we're celebrating that glorious day under the 'My Whitesnake Years' flag. I'm convinced we're doing the music justice and since the invitations from all over the world keep coming in, we'll continue that celebrations into 2026!

"Thanks for your music, passion, friendship, encouragement and the amazing legacy you left behind amigo David, enjoy your more than well deserved retirement!"

Adrian also wrote about his "My Whitesnake Years" shows: "Still proud of the songs Coverdale and I wrote and I still get a kick out of playing songs such as 'Judgement Day' and 'Sailing Ships' with my übertalented bandbuds Mats, Sem, Joey and Len each and every time. I'm convinced we really do them justice, but what the fuck do I know, I've only played them a zillion times with some of the best, legendary rock musicians around in my WHITESNAKE years and my top notch bandmates absolutely belong in that Premier World League."

In a November 2024 interview with Alma Hard, Vandenberg was asked why he took a decade-and-a-half break from recording music prior to the 2014 release of the debut album from his band VANDENBERG'S MOONKINGS. He said: "Well, I stayed together with David up until 1998, because we did tour — we toured in 1994 and we toured in 1997, '98. So, the end of 1998, David wanted to stop with everything because he wasn't feeling well and he wanted to stop touring because he didn't seem to enjoy it anymore. So, in 1999, I was with a girlfriend at the time and she got a baby. Or actually we got a baby, and she got pregnant and I thought, 'That's great. I wanna be there for that.' Of course, I didn't wanna tour and then record records because that's a very important thing. But when the baby was three years old, the relationship fell apart, and we weren't married. And it appeared to be a very difficult period. And I thought, 'If I'm gonna record now and start a band and start touring, then I will be one of those fathers who sticks his head around the corner of the door and goes, 'I'm your father, but I have to go.'' So when that relationship went wrong, I wanted to be an important part in the life of my daughter. I thought, 'You know what? I'm gonna live off my paintings for about 10, 11 years,' which is what I did, 'until she's old enough that I can explain to her what I actually do and what I did before.' So, when my daughter was about 11 or 12, she was old enough to explain and she thought it was really cool because there were kids at her school who go, 'Oh, is that your dad? He's famous and he's got long hair' and all that stuff. So before, until she was 11 or 12, for her it was totally normal that I played some guitar and there was painting and all that stuff. So, that's when I started MOONKINGS. She must have been 12 or something. And I really missed playing and touring and doing shows and all that stuff, so I was happy to pick it up again. And I thought, 'Well, the world will have forgotten about me, of course.' That would have been totally normal, because that's how it goes. Pop music is called pop music because people, when it started, with bands like THE BEATLES and pop artists and stuff in the '60s, people thought, 'Oh, you know, that's the kind of music you throw away. It's pop music, popular music. That's music you forget after about a couple of months.' But it's never gone away, fortunately, because that's why I didn't go away either. I'm still here."

Vandenberg was a member of WHITESNAKE for 13 years at the height of the band's fame, contributing the solo on "Here I Go Again". He was also part of supergroup MANIC EDEN, and more recently released a number of albums with VANDENBERG'S MOONKINGS.

Vandenberg's namesake band released its comeback album, titled "2020", in May 2020 via Mascot Records/Mascot Label Group. A follow-up LP, "Sin", arrived in August 2023.

The group's fifth full-length offering, "Sin", was produced by Bob Marlette (OZZY OSBOURNE, ALICE COOPER, ROB ZOMBIE).

Recalling his refusal to return to WHITESNAKE when Coverdale resurrected the band in 2002, Vandenberg told "White Line Fever" that the singer "wanted to stop altogether because he was kind of worn out on the road. He didn't want to do it anymore… When he called me up and said he wanted to start it up again, I couldn't do it because I had all kinds of obligations for exhibitions for my paintings. And those are always planned a year ahead, because art galleries reserve the space a year ahead because exhibitions usually last three to six months or something. I couldn't do it but we did keep in touch always. We still do."

The guitarist added that he and Coverdale became "very good friends over the years, [so] you never know what might happen... We actually have pretty specific ideas about maybe doing a blues album or an acoustic thing or whatever… Sooner or later it might happen, but right now we're really involved in [other projects]. So this is probably not the time. But I wouldn't be surprised if, sooner or later, we end up doing something together in some kind of format. I was in WHITESNAKE for 13 years, which is quite a long time. I still hold the record, I think."