Joe Lynn Turner - Uber Rock Interview Exclusive

Joe Lynn Turner – Uber Rock Interview Exclusive

Written by Eamon O’Neill
Sunday, 22 March 2015 03:00

With an extraordinary C.V. that has seen him work with some of the music world’s biggest selling artists, Joe Lynn Turner has had a truly remarkable career. Although a successful solo artist in his own right, it is for his work with Ritchie Blackmore in Rainbow that he is perhaps most well known. As vocalist throughout their commercial heyday, Turner recorded three albums with the band and scored a worldwide hit single in ‘I Surrender’ before things came to an end. Although he hooked up with Blackmore once more, joining Deep Purple for a short lived stint in 1989, the pair says Joe still have unfinished business. A reunion of their former band might not be somewhere over the rainbow after all and “the probability is greater right now than the possibility”, he says. For now though, the singer is heading out an intimate series of acoustic dates dubbed ‘An Evening With Joe Lynn Turner’. Getting it straight between the eyes; Eamon O’ Neill.

How are you today?

Absolutely wonderful, I’m actually sitting in a park soaking up some sun, so it’s pretty swell all round. I just flew in from Bulgaria yesterday. I did the X Factor show out there so I’m a bit jetlagged.

You appeared on the X Factor in Bulgaria singing ‘Street Of Dreams’ with contestant Slavin Slavchev. How did that come about?

Someone alerted me that this Slavin guy was singing Rainbow’s ‘Can’t Let You Go’ as one of the songs on the X Factor contest. So I watched the video and we posted it on my Facebook page with a positive comment about it. The next thing I knew I got a call from the producers saying “would you be interested in actually coming here for the finals?” I was thinking that the finals might be a month away, but it was due to take place on the Monday, and I was talking to them on the Thursday and Friday, so it was really quick. I jumped on a plane Saturday, arrived Sunday, did the show Monday and arrived back home yesterday.

How was it performing on a show like that?

The show was great, I gotta tell you. The production was great, and from a technical standpoint I thought that they did a really good job. For TV, with a full production and all, it was top-notch in that respect. It’s always a thrill, but I just wanted to make sure that I was not there just to sway the audiences towards Slavin, as I feel for all contestants. But each contestant had someone standing by them. One girl she had this guy James Arthur who won the X Factor in the UK, and this other girl had the Bulgarian winner from last year or something like that. My guy won anyway and for whatever it’s worth, I congratulated him and I told him, “all the best”, but the hardest part is now to come, to see if you can live up to that.

Was it nice to be representing the hard rock side of things on a show that wouldn’t normally feature that style of music?

That was exactly it. The choice of songs was not necessarily ‘normal’, for these type of shows, so I was extremely honoured that he had chosen that song. I found out after speaking with him that he was in a rock band, and of course they were very influenced by all the classic rock stuff, especially Rainbow and Purple and so on and so forth. He did ‘Street Of Dreams’ in honour of everyone’s dreams that all these contestants had. In that respect I felt that it was a great honour for me, but it’s always good to be kept in the public eye.

You’re playing a series of ‘An Evening With Joe Lynn Turner’ shows that are happening in the UK in April. Are you looking forward to them?

Oh yeah, it’s been way too long since I’ve been there. I think we did the UK back in HTP days, when I was with Glenn Hughes, so it’s been way too long, and way overdue. I would have loved to have come with the full electric set, and still might in the future, but these will be acoustic shows. I’ll be carrying another guitar player as well, and the two of will just go through it. Part of this whole is a Q&A, because it is ‘an evening with’ me. Usually they have a microphone set up so that the audience can ask their questions, but even if they have to just shout it out, I want people to actually ask; “how did you write that song?”, or “what does that mean to you?” or “what was Ritchie doing here?” – things of interest that they’ve probably been wondering for years. I think that’s the special point of an evening with Joe Lynn Turner. It’s like we’re not just doing an acoustic set and then off stage. They’re also offering a VIP package. It’s kind of a very exclusive meet and greet before the show where what I do is play three songs that wouldn’t normally do in the set, that you probably never hear me do anywhere else or will ever again. We’ll also do photos and have a cup of coffee together or something like that. After that the show begins and then the regular festivities happen.

VIP

It seems that these shows will be interesting for you as they are for the audience.

Well the important thing is the Q&A. I’m really interested in it. I did it a few times before and it was outstanding because of the questions that people have, and the depth that they go into. It’s quite touching. I would say for both of us it’s going to be a very intimate evening, because you’re going to share part of your life and they’re going to share their life as well by asking. By asking these questions it says probably more about them than it does me because it shows what their interests are, and what makes them tick, so to speak. You can always tell a person by his question, because that’s what made them think. I’ve found when I have done this before, that there’s been some really really deep, great questions that people have that you wouldn’t actually realise until you start doing these things. And that’s really what I’m looking forward to. Singing songs is just something I do, but even acoustically it’s much more intimate because it’s just simple guitars and a voice. It’s not supposed to be all polished up, it’s just supposed to be sitting around the camp fire, so to speak and having a good time.

I’d like to talk to you about your fascinating career. You’ve performed with some of the most legendary names in music. Ritchie Blackmore is one of the most enigmatic individuals in music. How was it working with him?

I love Blackmore. I actually love working with Ritchie. I mean, Ritchie’s got a reputation for being difficult, to say the least, but I always found him very interesting, very intelligent and awfully amenable. If you’ve got a good idea, he’s going to respect that. If you’ve got a stupid idea he’s going to tell you it’s stupid. It’s just that simple, isn’t it? So I found him very easy to work with because we both wanted the same thing. We both wanted a sort of perfection, a magic, a chemistry to happen. And to achieve that with Ritchie was a dream come true for me, and I think for him as well because to this day we still have a mutual admiration and respect for each other. And I’ve been in touch recently with his management, and we are talking about – because I’m sure you’re going to ask it – we are talking about possibly getting together again and doing something. We’re not sure what it will be exactly. It all depends upon what he really wants to do; does Ritchie want to go out and do sixty cities? Does he want to do six cities? Does he actually not want to play live at all? Does he just want to make a CD? The creative end is undecided, is what I’m saying.

It seems like you have maintained a positive relationship with Ritchie Blackmore throughout all these years. Do you think that’s why something is possible?

Well there’s always possibility, but the probability is greater right now I think than the possibility. Let’s put it this way; Ritchie’s a dark horse and he could change his mind at any given moment, so you have to put that into the equation, but as we speak, the probability is very good. I’ll leave it that, because if I say more, which I have, the press tends to really twist things, and I’ve read things that I didn’t even say.

Rainbow came to an end when the MKII line-up of Deep Purple reunited. Were you disappointed when it ended?

Well, I knew about the Purple reunion. We were on our way back from a tour in Japan, and we were all discussing it. I was launching a solo career at that time so I had things to do, and the promise was that we were going to get back together as we really felt that we had unfinished business. So there was no disappointment, and I felt quite elated that I was part of, in a way, putting this whole Purple thing getting back together. There was the big three back in the day; Zeppelin and Sabbath and Purple, and Purple was my favourite, so I thought, well, I’m really part of this. I was privy to the whole information before it happened and in a way I had sort of been asked to bless it. The future was bright, and the promise was, yeah well, we’ll do another album someday, we need to finish this off. The biggest disappointment was that when they did the ‘Stranger In Us All’ album [in 1995 with Doogie White on vocals], that I wasn’t really called in for that. I know the reasons why, and I understand perfectly clearly what happened there. There were many influences in Richie’s life at that point that sort of guided him away from my presence being on that particular Rainbow album. That album didn’t even chart, and you know, it’s unfortunate as it’s a good album. Doogie sang well and the songs were pretty good, but it didn’t have what the other albums had; the magic and the chemistry and the alchemy that we had. It’s a shame, and I know he [Richie Blackmore] knows that because it’s come back to me. But at the same time, we do have other influences in our lives at different times. Sometimes you look back and you say “I should never have listened to that”, but it happens. So, that was more the disappointment than anything. It was more like ‘aww shucks’ disappointed – I wasn’t like crying in my beer or anything. But I was more than happy for Purple to come back and have such a brilliant album [in ‘Perfect Strangers’] at the time.

You worked again with Ritchie Blackmore quite surprisingly when you were asked to front Deep Purple in 1989. Were you surprised to receive that call?

I was surprised, because at the time, fortune had smiled on me, and I had Foreigner and Bad Company interested in hiring me. I went and rehearsed with Foreigner for about a week and a half, and then Lou [Gramm] decided to come back. Then because of my relationship with Mick Jones [Foreigner guitarist, writer and producer in his own right] we went off to work together on Billy Joel’s ‘Storm Front’ album, [which Jones produced and Turner performed backing vocals on] and a couple of other things. And then Purple called, and I said, well, this is a roll of the dice, but Purple was always my favourite band, and it’s in the family tree, so I said, I’ll take the Purple gig.

Deep Purple released one album with you on vocals, 1990’s ‘Slaves And Masters’.

In my opinion, and I’ll cut right to the chase, ‘Slaves And Masters’ is still one of the best records. It’s one of Ritchie’s favourites as well, and pound for pound, song for song, it’s a great album. The only reason it didn’t get its dues is because of the backlash which was mostly from journalists and the Deep Purple fan club ran by this guy called Simon Robinson. It was a great album, and still is. If you listen to it again you’ll notice that the production, the song writing, the performances, it’s all brilliant. But people seem not to like change, you know? “Oh no, it’s Ritchie and Joe! Oh no it’s Deep Rainbow!” Oh for fuck’s sake, of course it’s ‘Deep Rainbow’! It was Roger Glover, me and Ritchie, so it was three Rainbow, and four Purple. Sometimes I just don’t understand it really. Ritchie, he actually shakes his head at that.

You initially worked on ‘The Battle Rages On’, the follow-up to ‘Slaves and Masters’ before the band reunited with Ian Gillan. Wasn’t it you who famously dubbed that album ‘The Cattle Grazes On’?

[Laughs] I can’t take credit for that, but I can take credit for sort of bringing it into the limelight. A friend of mine from the UK actually called it that [laughs]. And I also thought it was brilliant: “The Cattle Grazes On”! So I sort of used it and it’s become legendary at this point, because it wasn’t such a great album. I mean let’s face it, it was not a ‘great’ album. I mean, ‘Perfect Strangers’, yeah ok that was great. There was cut or two on it, but I mean, what we were doing on that second album before it blew up, was going to be ‘Slaves And Masters’ revisited, only to the tenth power. And it never got the chance to see the light of day because of ego and infighting and jealousy. You know, a band is like a bad marriage, where there’s just a lot of fighting and all kinds of crap going on, and I got fed up with it actually. I just said, “look, I’m out”, and they said, “well you’re fired!”, and I said, no, “I quit”. [laughs] Ritchie didn’t want me to go at all. I mean, he was the one that was holding out and finally, seven or eight months later, there was no record, no progress, and BMG came along and said “look, we’ll give you a very large ‘x’ amount of dollars, to just get [Ian] Gillan back in the band and forget all this”. And he [Ritchie Blackmore] did, and that was when he left Purple. I think he did four live shows with them and then he quit, right there on stage. So it’s all in history, the answers are there.

You subsequently worked with another ex-Deep Purple member, Glenn Hughes on Hughes Turner Project at the turn of the millennium.

That’s right. My wife and I we were listening to it last night actually. It’s great stuff, two brilliant albums, musically. Glenn was my mentor and he’s just a brilliant singer. I feel it’s some of the best work we’ve done. We had a really good time touring, and then Glenn needed to do what he has to do. He’s a fantastic artist in his own right, and we see each other now and again, so it’s all good.

Moving on, and you’ve worked with a truly amazing amount of diverse artists, from Cher to Michael Bolton and Billy Joel. Do any of these stick out in your memory in particular?

All of them, absolutely. They all have great memories around them, regardless of whether it was negative or positive, because the experiences alone were incredible. I remember Cher, when we were doing her record, it was also with Desmond Child, who was an amazing writer who co-wrote all the Bon Jovi hits. And if you listen to the bass riff on one song on my solo record ‘Rescue You’ called ‘Get Tough’, you’ll hear ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’! Richie Sambora [Bon Jovi guitarist] came up to me on night, and we were drinking pretty hard and he said, I’m gonna steal that riff, and I went, “yeah, go ahead!”, and he did! [laughs]

JLT 1

Have you ever been offered something that you’ve had to turn down and later regretted?

You know, I believe that out of every situation, positive or negative, you get something. You learn something, and it’s all part of life experience. There may be some things that I didn’t quite like, or that I though should have turned out differently, but everyone thinks that they see things the right way. You can look back years later and meet again and have a beer and say, “remember that?” Yeah, well we should have done this and we should have done that. It happens. But no regrets, you know? You just can’t look back and say, well I hate this guy or whatever, and there’s people who do. It has an effect I find on your whole internal spirit and life, so I never harbour heavy feelings.

Going back to your forthcoming tour, and with such a huge discography to dip into, what sort of set list can fans expect?

Oh, this is going to be fun. We’re going to do some obvious songs from Rainbow, ‘Stone Cold’, ‘Street Of Dreams’, things like that, but we’ll do some Deep Purple stuff, ‘Love Conquers All’, even ‘King Of Dreams’. Possibly we’ll do ‘Hush’ even. We could even do ‘Smoke On The Water’! I mean, why not? We want people to interact. I want the people to sing, and raise a glass, and to have a good time. What it’s all about is intimacy. I want it to be like we’re sitting in your living room, like we’re old friends and we’re all just hanging out. I don’t want to put on any airs. It’s not going to be ‘polished’, it’s going to be raw and real and honest. When I do the whole electric thing, that is kick ass and it’s just a great show, but I want this to be an intimate evening. I want to talk about the song maybe, and then sing the song. We’ll sing some Beatles songs, and do things like that, just to have fun. When I’m in Belfast , Van Morrison – big influence – we’ll do ‘Moondance’, you know what I mean? We’re doing it off the cuff, and I want the people to realise that this is not ‘sit back, cross your arms and look at what’s going on’. They’re going to be part of the show.

It sounds like you’re really looking forward to the shows.

This is taking me back to my beginnings. When they first approached me to do this thing acoustically, it reminded me that I used to do nothing but acoustic when I was in Fandango. We’d pack the clubs playing Crosby Stills and Nash, and The Eagles and harmony stuff like that. I remember what a great feeling that was, to have the people right up there in your face, and singing along, and just talking to them. You could smell the beer on their breath, you know?! So that’s what I want to bring to these shows.

Thanks for talking to me today.

It’s been a pleasure.

Joe Lynn Turner will play the following shows over the next few weeks: