YNGWIE MALMSTEEN Frontman DOOGIE WHITE Talks About His RAINBOW Days

A brief question-and-answer session with current YNGWIE MALMSTEEN/CORNERSTONE and former RAINBOW singer Doogie White has been posted on Doogie's official web site. A few excerpts follow:

Q: Have you ever done a duet with a female vocalist?

Doogie: In the distant past I recorded a couple of duets with Nikki B from NEVER THE BRIDE. If I can dig them out I will post them on MySpace. In my session days I was called on to do duets to pitch songs for writers but I never got copies of these.

Q: Who would you love to sing with?

Doogie: I would be happy doing [backing vocals] with Bowie or James Taylor. I'd love to work with Tony Iommi. I did a bunch of those tribute albums and sang on a few "rock opera" kinda albums over the last few years. My rule is, if I like the song, if I can bring something to the song, if the cheque is too large to resist...then I will do it.

Q: What do You think of the heavy metal scene today and is there a new singer that you know he will be world class?

Doogie: I am glad that good rawking guitar bands are back. Nothing excites me more than hearing a cranked guitar.

Q: Is there any songs actually recorded with RAINBOW that's not released?

Doogie: No! We only finished the songs that appeared on the record. It was a very deliberate decision as we did not want the record company releasing songs later on that were deemed not good enough to make the first release. We did demo a couple of songs on seven-track and three more on 16-track but they are either with Ritchie [Blackmore] or his former management.

Q: Was there any writing done for a follow-up to [RAINBOW's] "Stranger In Us All"?

Doogie: I certainly worked on quite a few new ideas, some of which I passed to Ritchie at the final show we played together. A couple of the songs have made it to the CORNERSTONE albums, but with a Steen [ex-ROYAL HUNT and current CORNERSTONE bassist Steen Mogensen] twist rather than any structure Ritchie may have brought. It really doesn't matter however many years later that they made an album, as our type of music is not following fashion nor trends. Timeless, if you will.

Q: We all know that Yngwie Malmsteen writes all music and lyrics for his albums, and the musicians are the "actors in his play", to quote him. What's your part in the writing of last CORNERSTONE album, "Two Tales of One Tomorrow"?

Doogie: The title track is a perfect example of how Steen and I collaborate. I had the riff and melody for the verse which I recorded and sent to Steen. He reworked it arranged it and sent it back with the bridge and chorus music. Then I re-wrote a couple of parts and that was that. With other songs, Steen will send a complete arrangement and I will do the melody and lyrics. Other times he will have a rough idea for a melody and include it in the arrangement. Rune [Brink, CORNERSTONE keyboardist] has a song on the new album called "Prey" which is a very cool song with a great riff and memorable hooks

Q: How do you maintain a "voice of rock" such as yours?

Doogie: Years of abuse. It is a big old muscle that has to be treated with respect. On an Yngwie show I can drink 2/3 liters of water. I never drink alcohol before or during a show anymore as it dries the cords out. Smoking is not good for the same reason. So if you are doing nine shows back to back plus 3-to-4-hour soundchecks as we do with Yngwie, you need to take care.

Read the entire question-and-answer session at this location.