Good to Be Bad

Good to Be Bad is the tenth studio album by British hard rock band Whitesnake, released on 18 April 2008 in Germany, 21 April 2008 in Europe and 22 April in North America by SPV/Steamhammer. It was the band's first album of new studio material in a decade, since 1997's Restless Heart, not including the four new tracks recorded for the 2006 live album Live: In the Shadow of the Blues. The album was the very first collaboration between lead vocalist David Coverdale and guitarist Doug Aldrich. The album charted at number 62 on the Billboard 200 chart, number 8 on the Top Independent albums chart, number 23 on the Canadian Albums Chart and number 7 on the UK Albums Chart. As of sales in March 2011, the album sold over 700,000 copies worldwide, considered as unexpected as an independent label release.

The album contained three singles, "Lay Down Your Love", "All for Love", "Summer Rain", and one promotional single, "Can You Hear the Wind Blow". Despite being released through a hard rock independent label, alongside the album itself (with the exception of the Warner record label only to be released in Japan), all of the singles failed to chart.

On 28 April 2023, the album received a reissue by RHINO Entertainment under the name, Still...Good to Be Bad, similar to the 2011 expanded Japanese version. The reissue contained 2-LP remixes and remasters alongside alternate mixes and demo "Evolutions" tapes. The album was widely made available for streaming despite the majority of the songs from that album appeared on the "Red, White, and Blues" trilogy (2020's Love Songs and The Rock Album, and 2021's The Blues Album), respectively.

Background
Ever since continuing their touring non-stop from 2003 to support the band's 25th anniversary, Whitesnake had signed into new a record contract with Steamhammer/SPV and released their 2006's Live... in the Shadow of the Blues live album, containing four songs which ended up on the album's tracklist. That apparently speculated that plans for a new Whitesnake album would be in business after which Coverdale planned to only tour for a short period time with the band, asserting that it would be just "for fun." However, despite his claims, Coverdale decided to plan ahead in fact that the band was coming up with new material to a need for "new meat to bite into" in order keep the touring "interesting".

Production and composition
Recording sessions reportedly began in 2007 at Coverdale's residence in Lake Tahoe, Nevada (Snakebyte Studios), where the previous lineup had recorded 1997's Restless Heart album back in 1995. It was also recorded at Casa DALA and Clear Lake Audio in Los Angeles, California. Coverdale was joined by Doug Aldrich, who recently played with Dio, as they apparently talked about plans for the new album effortlessly, in which the band had felt the need to make music after an extensive touring load. Coverdale expressed his intellect towards Aldrich, previously a touring member of the band since 2003, as the two have a fruitful working relationship with each other, as stated in an official interview:

"He is a very gifted individual and very enthusiastic. He also helped engineer & mix the record, so he was involved from the very beginning of the project to the end. That is something that has never happened before. Doug’s a welcome breath of fresh air for me. He doesn’t bring any excess baggage. No questionable agenda and no unnecessary ego to stroke. He just gets on with it. He’s very caring and passionate about what he does, and thank goodness, the passion includes Whitesnake. He was exposed to Whitesnake before we met, or worked together, so, he was familiar with the approach and the creative identities I’d established, but, he brings such an incredible energy and urgency to Whitesnake that it helps stretch the boundaries much further, without compromising the original attitude. He’s an electrifying guitarist, as anyone who has seen him can testify. Very inspiring to me. The other bonus, of course, is that we’ve developed a strong, supportive personal friendship…"

After wrapping up ideas for the album, the band rehearsed and started recording with the rest of the current touring members with secondary session guitarist Reb Beach, drummer Chris Frazier, bassist Timothy Drury, and keyboardist Uriah Duffy. Coverdale, Aldrich, and McIntyre produced and mixed the album themselves, while it was mastered by David Donnelly.

The album was slated to be originally released in the summer of 2007. However, the band was still touring extensively throughout the rest of the summer, citing that every major city in the United States headlined the band "every night of the week this season." Despite the delays, Coverdale stated that it was not a big deal for the band to release it at this time, and objected "that there was no real rush for us to finish the project quickly," feeling that he would rather take a year off from touring in attempt to resort the pressure from making the record. This resulted on delays for the recording and production schedule that was meant to be finalized, but it wasn't a major problem to Coverdale. The band tentatively pushed its date ahead to October 2007 and then May 2008. The album was, however, in fact released on April, a month earlier than its anticipated May release date. At that same timeframe, Whitesnake reissued their ground-breaking eponymous album in respect of its 20th anniversary in May and June 2007 through EMI.

In December 2007, Tommy Aldridge had left the group due to pursuing "alternate musical adventures". Aldridge was replaced Chris Frazier, who previously was called up into the touring lineup to re-record some of the tracks that Aldridge appeared on the four new tracks recorded for the 2006 live album but also played on the full-length album. Aldridge won’t return to the band until January 2013, where the band has also parted ways with Frazier after that.

Release and promotion
Good to Be Bad was released on 18 April 2008 in Germany, 21 April for the rest of Europe, and 22 April in North America. The album peaked at number 7 at their native UK chart and finished at the top spot for the UK Rock & Metal albums chart with opening sales around 13,000 copies. In the US, it debuted at number 70 on the Billboard 200 by the end of April, selling only 8,000 copies. It eventually peaked at number 62 as its "first-week" on 10 May, but at number eight on the Independent Albums Chart. In total, the album charted in 19 countries, with Finland and Norway charting the highest at number 5. The album only peaked in the US Billboard Top 200 prior to its release and spent 3 weeks there; however, it also spent 5 weeks in the Independent Albums chart. The record sold more than 74,000 copies worldwide in its first week of release. Nielsen Soundscan initially reported its first week sales in the United States around 28,000 copies as of 8 May 2008. The album only sold around 700,000 copies by 2011, implying the fact that it charted lower in the US from a minor independent label as a factor. Despite earning no sales certification for an independent release, it was considered a comeback album since the release of 1997's Restless Heart as a "David Coverdale & Whitesnake" moniker previously in over a decade.

Reissues
On 7 September 2011, Warner Japan released an expanded album version under the name Still... Good to Be Bad exclusive to Japan only. The expanded Japanese reissue consisted of 4 bonus tracks from the previous live album Live... in the Shadow of the Blues with the drum tracks only to be re-recorded by Chris Frazier. It also contained a bonus DVD that featured the band performing at Cutting Room in New York City on 10 April 2008, with two music videos (Ready to Rock & Lay Down Your Love), the whole 2006 live album performance, and an exclusive interview of the album followed by a slideshow that plays the acoustic version of Summer Rain. Another version of this album was reissued on 13 April 2013 with the Japanese tour included.

On 24 February 2023, Whitesnake and Rhino Entertainment announced the album reissue to celebrate its original 15th anniversary respectively on remixes and remastered versions on the album in 4-CD and 2-LP formats, along with previously unreleased material with former and current band members' mixes and their demo "Evolutions" released on 28 April 2023. The songs also contained new mixes featuring Hook City Harlots (Cami Thompson, Misty Rae & Jackie Landrum) and "Hook City Horns" (Rick Metz on saxes and Joshua Reed on trumpet), both recorded with the 2023 remix overridden with it. The album cover art is similar to the original release but the track listing and the album title still holds the previous 2011 Japan reissue with bonus tracks taken from their previous live album Live... in the Shadow of the Blues. A 2008-2009 world tour box set was included in Blu-Ray format.

Whitesnake has premiered new videos published on YouTube for "Can You Hear the Wind Blow", "All I Want is You", "Call on Me", "Lay Down Your Love", and "All for Love", taken from the 2023 reissue.

Promo tour: before the release
Right before the release, the album's promotional tour began on 23 March 2008 in Wellington, New Zealand at Westpac Stadium right until they hit the brakes at Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide, Australia on 31 March 2008. Coverdale and Aldrich later performed at the Cutting Room in New York City on 10 April by singing an acoustic version of "Can You Hear the Wind Blow", "Lay Down Your Love", and "All I Want, All I Need." The whole performance was later included in the 2018 Unzipped complication box set as "Starkers." The band took a touring hiatus for over a month to announce tour dates after the album's release.

2008 Good to Be Bad world tour
The Good to Be Bad tour resumed at Manaus, Brasil on 3 May 2008 and later went on to forty countries followed by South America, Europe, and Japan, respectively. During the summer of 2008, the band co-headlined in Sweden Rock Festival dated from 4–7 June. They also toured with Def Leppard (consisting of former Whitesnake's lead guitarist from 1987–88, Vivian Campbell) in the UK supported alongside Thunder and Black Stone Cherry, both respectively toured for each of the two leg sets, first at Glasgow SECC on 17 June, lasting for about a month until 17 July at Nottingham at Motorpoint Arena. Whitesnake also co-headlined with Alice Cooper from 18 November through the first day of December. Former Whitesnake band member Adrian Vandenberg was guested on two concerts, on 15 June at Arrow Rock Festival located at Nijmegen and at Tilburg (concluding the tour) on 20 December, both of which happened during the 2008 Good to Be Bad tour. The band then again took a six-month touring hiatus to recuperate for the upcoming 2009 Still... Good to Be Bad tour.

2009 Still... Good to Be Bad European tour
Whitesnake went on for the very next extra leg set for the album's tour on 21 May 2009 at Sandnes, Norway. The set then followed to further western European countries like Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg, France, Holland, Belgium, and Ireland, respectively. The tour set ended on 14 June 2009 at Download Festival in Donington Park, UK.

Reception
Overall reviews are mainly positive throughout the course of the album. IGN's Jim Kaz favorably described the album: "a well-worn leather jacket, Good To Be Bad has a warm familiarity about it that just feels right [...] has enough shining, mega-rock moments to endear itself to fans old and new. Without posturing or pretension, it just rocks."

AllMusic's Thom Jurek initially expressed his support for the album stating, "his (Coverdale's) brand of ROCK with chugging outsized guitars is palatable because of his reliance on crafting excellent choruses and hooks. It's a hell of a comeback and ranks right near the top of the Whitesnake catalog," but cited a minor setback, "it seems strange that such a timeless sound has vanished from mainstream rock -- guitars just don't sound like this on records anymore." Despite this, he positively rated the album 4/5.

Classic Rock's Philip Wilding mildly gave out a mixed review on the album's Still... Good to Be Bad re-release, giving it a 3.5 out of 5. He stated about the album: "was something of an unexpected gem for those who had given up on the band returning to their original soul and blues roots. [...] Even when Coverdale's vocal slips off-key, the recording doesn’t spare the singer’s blushes. It’s not ever likely to be the first thing you turn to on this hefty reissue, but it’s guaranteed to be the disc [Disc 4 called 'Evolution'] that will keep bringing you back for more."

Awards
Good to Be Bad won the Classic Rock Award for "Album of the Year" in November 2008. The band was also honored for the "Best Album of The Year" with the 2008 Dino Award in The Dinosaur Rock Guitar forum.

Similarly, the album's worldwide reissue was ranked 17th by Dig! magazine (part of Warner) among the "Best reissues of 2023: 20 Essential box set and vinyl releases."

Track listings
All songs written by David Coverdale and Doug Aldrich, except where noted.

Personnel
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.