JOE LYNN TURNER The Joe Lynn Turner Interviews Part 1 & 2 By Mike Eriksson (Atlantis Online) I befriended Joe Lynn Turner in 1992 because of my fanclub magazine DEEP PURPLE FOREVER that I've published in Sweden for a number of years. Joe is a great guy and over the years we talked on many occations and some of these conversations ended up(in part) within the pages of the DPF magazine. I realised that it could be great fun to go back to these interviews now and to present them all in running order, illuminating his career since 1992 as a result. Ofcourse, you will notice that Joe was pretty upset during the first interview, but he had just been fired from Deep Purple at that time in a rather nasty way so that is only human. As time passes, the music scene, lost in Nirvana Tartarus for a number of years, changes and his career picks up again step by step. If you are a major fan this is for you. If you are a Purple historian of sorts, this is for you too. I'm glad to give you The Joe Lynn Turner Interviews here on Atlantis Online. Some quotes by Joe Lynn Turner from the part 1 interviews: About the recording the followup to "Slaves And Masters" Ritchie said that he wanted to re-record everything. He said "The vocals sounds great but we need to get the band to sound better". I opposed this and said "Look, it would be stupid to begin from scratch again, I think it sounds great and if we need to re-record something we can do that later". I just wanted them to get on with it. The next day I went home to meet my daughter and that is when the phone rang. It was our manager Bruce Payne and he told me that I was out. I couldn't understand it but he didn't give me any reasons. What do you think about a Deep Purple without Ritchie Blackmore? That would be strange. As long as he is in the band it will definetely work as far as the songwriting goes. I never saw Jon Lord present an idea. Ian Paice is more interested in the money than he is of the musical end result. Roger could come up with some good ideas. I don't know, they did manage to carry on once before with Tommy Bolin, but that was back in the heyday. I think that Ritchie felt that he kind of had to carry the whole thing on his own shoulders. That the others kind of made a good living on his work. When he quit, maybe that was his way of saying "Screw you, I don't need you!". And you never heard Ritchie talk about a reunion of Rainbow? No, never. To start with, I really don't think that Ritchie knows what he wants to do. If he wants to do Rainbow again he can forget about me, I can tell you that much. I've had enough of him. FY FAN(Joe swears in swedish!). He is not a very nice person. I have heard through a mutual friend that he actually likes me. So this person, who is upset about how badly this was handled, said "Why don't you get Joe on the phone and tell him that you like him then?", but I guess he just can't bring himself to do that. I think it is disgusting and I don't want to work with these people any more. These are only some quotes of these brilliant interviews. Click on the banner below to read the full interviews part 1 (1992 - 1994) on Atlantis Online. Some quotes by Joe Lynn Turner from the part 2 interviews: Did Ritchie chase any women during the Rainbow days? He may have at times but in those days he travelled with his wife Amy and she was a bit of a ----- and not the kind that it would be wise to stir up. I wrote a letter to Bruce Payne and urged him to consider a release with your version of Deep Purple that consists of the b-sides, the jam sessions and live material. But ofcourse he never replied. I've also mentioned the possibility on the official website with no response from the band at all. OK, I think I know what that comes down to and it isn't the fact that I was in the band. It's because they hate Ritchie without pardon. I know that Bruce Payne is really pissed off about the fact that Ritchie left Deep Purple. And nobody has tried to smoothen out anything, to forgive and forget. They still take a hateful attitude towards Ritchie and I think that is pretty low as long as they are touring the world playing his songs every night. I heard that Dougie White sang on your latest album "Hurry Up And Wait". Yes, Dougie came in and sang on 2 tracks, let me have a look at the cover so that I get this right... Yes, one of the songs that he did, "Freedoms Wings", did not end up on the album. If you could put your dreamband together, who would be in it? I have already been in them! I guess you could mix them but consider all the egos that are involved! Imagine Ritchie with...Purple was a dreamband, now they are a creamband! These are only some quotes of these again brilliant interviews. Click on the banner below to read the full interviews part 2 (1995 - 1999) on Atlantis Online. The Hughes Turner Interviews - Part 1 And Mike continues his series with another interview with Joe Lynn Turner that takes us into the era of the Hughes Turner Project, in fact this was the very first interview that he did in which he talked about it. This interview was made on January 15 2001 and it has has only been published in MORE BLACK THAN PURPLE (issue 16) and the swedish rock publication BRIGHT EYES MAGAZINE (issue 12). To reach this point in time in our conversations with Joe, please read the earlier interviews, Part 1 & Part 2. Here again is a quote of this interview: We could see Ronnie James Dio front Deep Purple recently, which was both fun and strange. Strange because of the history. I'm sure Ritchie freaked out when he heard about that. I know him well enough to guess what his reaction might have been. He must have thought "Ronnie has gone over to the enemy". So I think you can forget about Ronnie ever getting the chance to do Rainbow again. Ritchie is not very forgiving and he is not on good terms with certain people in Deep Purple. Click on the banner below to read the full Hughes Turner interview part 1 on Atlantis Online. Also check out Mike's Atlantis Online site, there's loads more of interesting stuff here, like an interview with Blackmore's Night. Just click on the banner.