(Credits: Ralph Arvesen)
Wed 8 April 2026 2:30, UK
You can bet money that any potential encounter with a black bear won’t be handled with such aplomb as Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale.
Now, the US National Park Service recommends remaining calm, not running, and avoiding direct eye contact. Hard enough with adrenaline racing through the system, but should one come at you, further advice dictates to stand your ground, make yourself look big by raising your arms, and speak in a calm yet assertive way. On top of this, should a black bear take a clawed swipe, official guidelines make clear to “fight back aggressively” and never, ever play dead.
This is all easy enough on paper. Should a slavering black bear come charging at you at full charge, it’s likely any one of us will collapse into a whimpering, blubbering ball and be in need of a new pair of knickers. Not Coverdale, though. It turns out he managed to wrestle an impressive flex of courage when one such black bear decided to make himself comfortable in his own back garden.
Comes with the territory, perhaps? Residing in Nevada’s Lake Tahoe, right by the California border, bears had made their way to the Whitesnake singer’s nearly 10,000 sq ft estate in Incline Village on two separate occasions, owing to its surrounding forestry.
A sliding glass door left ajar by a guest at one of the property’s four bedrooms beckoned a curious bear to wander into the house, after having a dip in the swimming pool in August 2007. Destroying two armed screen doors, the estimated 500 lbs bear then raided the fridge and took a giant shit on the kitchen floor. Lacking an air horn canister at hand, Coverdale instead ignored expert advice and ran toward the black bear, shouting like a madman. It worked, spooking the bear to escape the way he came in.
A close call. Yet, only a month earlier, an even hairier ursine scrape had hit the Coverdale residence. Rinsing a cup in the kitchen, a reach to close the window was met with the heavy breath of an animal against his hand. This was toe-to-toe. Having the trusty canister by his side, Coverdale deployed his madman strategy, successfully shooing the bear into the garden before securing all exits and entrances.
“I don’t mind telling you I almost succumbed to an involuntary bowel movement,” Coverdale freely admitted.
It turns out that the whole area was experiencing a rise in bear home invasions, growing less wary of humans due to repeated dustbin scavenging over the years, and even some maniacs feeding them directly. Coverdale found himself in the middle of a potent spike and declared the predicament a “daily worry” as the previous winter’s drought found bears descending from higher ground to find water and food.
Coverdale ended up leaving the Lake Tahoe property in the early 2020s, stating his arthritis rendered the large complex untenable day to day. Fair enough. It was never gonna take two run-ins with some of America’s most dangerous wildlife to ever shift the rock and roll Yorkshireman from his hard-earned castle.
