WHITESNAKE has been forced to cancel a third concert on the band's European tour due to an infection of the sinus and trachea suffered by frontman David Coverdale.
Earlier today (Tuesday, June 28),Coverdale released the following statement via social media: "As stated earlier, I am still under doctor's orders of bed rest, and to not sing for 5 days as i recover from this sinus infection. That time frame includes the show in Zagreb this Saturday, July 2nd so we are unfortunately going to have to cancel the Zagreb show as well.
"This is obviously very sad for us, especially our band members that were getting to perform before hometown crowds; Michele Luppi, our Italian Stallion was looking forward to playing in Milan in front of his friends and family, and of course Dino Jelusic, the Pride of Croatia was going to be able to give his all, to his hometown of Zagreb.
"We regret that this is necessary in our attempt to get healthy and be able to finish the rest of our tour."
WHITESNAKE previously announced that it was scrapping its concerts in Milan, Italy (June 28) and Vienna, Austria (June 30) due to Coverdale's condition.
David, who turned 70 in September, is not the first member of WHITESNAKE to fall ill during the group's current European tour. Guitarist Reb Beach missed several shows on the trek earlier this month after being "under the weather." This past Saturday, WHITESNAKE canceled its show at the Rock Imperium festival in Spain due to the fact that drummer Tommy Aldridge "went down" and "was bad enough at the time to have missed the first show ever in his career," according to Coverdale.
WHITESNAKE launched its farewell tour on May 10 at Dublin, Ireland's 3Arena. The band's 14-song set, which was part of a European tour with special guests EUROPE and co-headliners FOREIGNER, marked WHITESNAKE's inaugural performance with the group's two latest two additions, keyboardist, guitarist and backing vocalist Dino Jelusick, and Irish bassist Tanya O'Callaghan.
WHITESNAKE kicked off the concert with "Bad Boys" / "Children Of The Night" and played a set which drew heavily from the "Trouble" (1978),"Ready An' Willing" (1980),"Saints & Sinners" (1982),"Slide It In" (1984),"Whitesnake" (1987) and "Flesh & Blood" (2019) albums. WHITESNAKE also performed its staple cover of "Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City", a 1974 R&B song written by Michael Price and Dan Walsh, and first recorded by Bobby "Blue" Bland for the "Dreamer" album.
Coverdale had both his knees replaced with titanium in 2017 after suffering from degenerative arthritis. He later explained that he was in so much pain with arthritis in his knees that it hampered his ability to perform live.
Prior to the pandemic, WHITESNAKE had been touring in support of its latest album, "Flesh & Blood", which was released in May 2019 via Frontiers Music Srl.