JOE LYNN TURNER Has 'Nothing But Good Things' To Say About RITCHIE BLACKMORE

March 2, 2023

In a new interview with the WHMH FM Rockin' 101 radio station, former RAINBOW and DEEP PURPLE singer Joe Lynn Turner was asked about his experience working with the notoriously moody guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Oh, man, I've got nothing but good things [to say]. There's always negativity in bands, but I respect Ritchie, and he's very brilliant at what he does. And, yeah, he can be difficult, but other than that, anybody who knows what they want and what they're doing is difficult, because he's kind of a perfectionist. And being a perfectionist myself, we kind of got along on that. And we came out with such great songs together and pushed RAINBOW into a different area, really, on the Billboard charts and so on. And we just had a blast doing it. So I have fond memories of him, difficult or not."

Last September, Turner slammed Blackmore for the guitarist's decision to go out and perform classic DEEP PURPLE and RAINBOW material with a new group of musicians instead of reforming RAINBOW with a more "authentic" lineup. At the time, Turner — who fronted RAINBOW from 1980 until 1984 and was a member of PURPLE from 1989 until 1992 — said that he had been in talks with Blackmore for at least a year about a renewed collaboration before he found out from a French newspaper that Ritchie was returning to rock music but excluding Joe from the project.

Blackmore stepped away from his Renaissance-inspired brand of music with BLACKMORE'S NIGHT for the first time in 2016 to perform a handful of shows with a brand-new lineup of the band he had formed after quitting DEEP PURPLE.

The current incarnation of RAINBOW includes singer Ronnie Romero, originally from Chile but now settled in Romania after living in Madrid, Spain for a number of years, as well as STRATOVARIUS keyboardist Jens Johansson, BLACKMORE'S NIGHT drummer David Keith, bassist Bob Nouveau (a.k.a. Robert "Bob" Curiano, ex-BLACKMORE'S NIGHT),and backing singers Candice Night and Lady Lynn.

Joe sang on the RAINBOW album "Difficult To Cure", which featured the band's most successful U.K. single, "I Surrender".

During Turner's time with RAINBOW, the band had its first USA chart success and recorded songs that helped define the melodic rock genre.

Photo credit: Agata Nigrovskaya

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