A Conversation with Joe Lynn Turner

For the better part four decades, now, Joe Lynn Turner has been one of the best and most influential voices in all of rock music. From his beginnings with melodic rockers Fandango, it was clear that Joe’s voice was something special, a potent, visceral blend of power, virtuosic range and smoky soul that has always kept one foot rooted firmly in the blues, a style that garnered him the attention and admiration of one Richard Hugh “Ritchie” Blackmore, a man with something of a knack for knowing a great singer when he hears one, leading him to recruit Joe to replace Graham Bonnet for Rainbow’s fifth studio record, 1981’s “Difficult to Cure”. This proved to be a very fruitful collaboration, yielding three excellent, critically-acclaimed studio records: “Difficult to Cure”, “Straight Between the Eyes” and “Bent Out of Shape”, as well as the band’s first top 40 hit, “Stone Cold”, which propelled Rainbow’s music into the mainstream and their videos into heavy rotation on MTV.

When Blackmore broke up Rainbow to reunite with Deep Purple in 1984, Turner began his solo career with “Rescue You” in 1985, collaborating with ex-Foreigner keyboardist Alan Greenwood on this melodic 80s pop AOR release that showcased the singer’s incredible range and strong R&B influence, spawning a hit and an MTV video with the single “Endlessly”. Following successful touring stints with both Pat Benatar and Night Ranger supporting the record, Joe then switched mediums entirely, landing the role of Eric Fury in the made-for-TV movie “Blue DeVille”, his first and only foray into the acting world, but not his last into the industry altogether, having also done a gig as the Musical Director for the documentary film: “Canadian Ballet: Striptease Dancers of the North” in 1987.

In 1988, one of Ritchie Blackmore’s most prominent and prolific disciples, Yngwie Malmsteen, then tapped JLT to front what would arguably become the best record of Yngwie’s career in “Odyssey”, a record heavily-influenced by Rainbow, but given a definite, immediate credibility and legitimacy by Turner’s presence and input. The record almost didn’t happen, though, as Yngwie was nearly killed when he wrecked his Jaguar at the beginning of production, leaving him in a coma in the ICU with bleeding in the brain, a condition that could’ve killed him had Turner not intervened and prevented Yngwie’s shady manager at the time from transporting him against the doctors’ recommendation to a cheaper facility to keep from having to pay the $80,000 required to keep Yngwie in the ICU. Malmsteen did eventually recover from his injuries, fired his manager and completed the record with Joe, launching a brief but successful tour that included a show in Leningrad that was recorded and filmed for the release of the outstanding “Trial by Fire” live album and video in 1989.

As fate would have it, the paths of Ritchie Blackmore and Joe Lynn Turner were destined to cross yet again when Ritchie needed a vocalist to replace Ian Gillan in the winter of 1989 for Deep Purple’s follow-up to 1987’s “The House of Blue Light”, and after considering several other big name vocalists, he ultimately turned to Turner once more to complete what Blackmore himself later described as "one of his favorite Deep Purple records" and his favorite since the band’s reunion in 1984, the superlative and highly-underrated “Slaves And Masters”, released in 1990. They followed the record with a successful tour during a time when other bands were cancelling their own tours out of fear of travelling in a very volatile world in the midst of the first Gulf War.

After working and writing with the band for a subsequent record that was never released, JLT left Purple to resume his solo career and to work on a new “supergroup” project, “Mother’s Army”, featuring Turner, guitarist Jeff Watson of Night Ranger, former Ozzy Osbourne/Uriah Heep/Rainbow/Gary Moore and Black Sabbath bassist Bod Daisley and legendary rock drummer Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge/Beck, Bogert & Appice/Blue Murder & King Kobra fame. Mother’s Army released 3 outstanding records between 1993 and 1998, with another rock drumming legend, Aynsley Dunbar, replacing Appice on their final record, “Fire on the Moon”, in 1998.

Throughout his career, Joe has been one of the hardest-working, most prolific singers in the business, redefining the term “professional musician” by lending his talents to a long and varied list of full-scale projects, advertisements and guest appearances running the gamut from Billy Joel, Cher and Paul Carrack to heavier, hard rocking acts such as TNT, Brazen Abbot and an excellent, 3-record collaboration with former Deep Purple bassist/singer Glenn Hughes, which also featured such heavy-hitting rockers as John Sykes, Steve Vai and Chad Smith among others. Joe’s golden pipes have also reached the ears of millions of unsuspecting tv viewers through countless television commercials, including a song for a Japanese beer commercial that actually became a radio hit, “Challenge Them All”.

Joe’s boundless energy and tireless work ethic haven’t slowed a bit through the years, and he’s remained one of the few rock singers of that caliber whose range, power and control haven’t faded at all with age. Even at 63, his voice has only aged like a fine wine, becoming ever more complex and mature without losing an ounce of its initial quality. He remains as busy and passionate about his music as ever, and has recently reunited with former Mother’s Army compatriot Carmine Appice for another melodic hard rock supergroup called “Rated X”, featuring Turner, Appice, ex-Firm/Blue Murder bass wizard Tony Franklin and Joe Lynn Turner Band/Ace Frehley guitarist Karl Cochran. Their self-titled debut album will be released on on Frontiers Records, and judging from the quality of the first two video singles, “This is Who I Am” and “Stranger In Us All”, it promises to be yet another muscular, melodic hard rock masterpiece, chock-full of soaring, powerful vocals, big arena-rock riffs and catchy hooks, smoking guitar solos and massive grooves that should make any long-time Joe Lynn Turner fan, or any fan of melodic, blues-based hard rock ‘n’ roll for that matter, want to crank it up and drive just a little too fast to it.    ~ Shane Handke

Full video of Steve's conversation with Joe is below. Enjoy and SHARE!