The former Rainbow, Deep Purple, and Yngwie Malmsteen vocalist Joe Lynn Turner called out Ritchie Blackmore for staging the string of 2016 Rainbow revival shows without any of the band’s classic members.
Rainbow has seen many musicians come and go over the years, with Blackmore himself being the only constant member. Turner joined Rainbow in 1980 replacing Graham Bonnett, and would record three studio albums with the group – 1981’s “Difficult to Cure”, 1982’s “Straight Between the Eyes”, and 1983’s “Bent out of Shape”.
The first two albums helped the band establish a larger US presence, and became some of Rainbow’s best-selling releases to date. Turner left Rainbow in 1984, and would replace Ian Gillan as the Deep Purple singer in 1989.
In addition to Blackmore, musicians who took part in Rainbow’s 2016 reunion included ex-Lords of Black vocalist Ronnie Romero, longtime Stratovarius keyboardist Jens Johansson, and Blackmore’s Night bassist Bob Nouveau and drummer David Keith. Blackmore’s wife Candice Night and Christina Lynn Skleros (Lady Lynn) joined as backing vocalists. Both also played with Blackmore’s Night, with the former being the only other constant member.
Speaking to the “Rock Of Nations” podcast in a new interview, Joe Lynn Turner was asked whether he’d like an all-star Rainbow reunion to happen. He replied:
“Well, man, I tried to do that already. Blackmore did the reunion – you know, that ‘reunion’; call it what you want – we were in discussions about having everybody that was in Rainbow together for an extravaganza. I mean, anybody who was still alive, and even paying tribute to [Ronnie James] Dio and everything, and trying to get ’em all in one place at one time, do a two-and-a-half-hour show at least, an authentic Rainbow reunion.
“And it just got squashed down by his management and everything else. I mean, Live Nation showed up. I had a documentary, a 3D documentary, like the Guns N’ Roses – same guy, Barry Summers, who did that; he’s a good friend of mine – and it just fell on deaf ears. And that reunion became – I don’t know what it was, really, because it really wasn’t a reunion of anything. There was nobody in Rainbow before who was there. It was Blackmore’s Night, really, with a new singer. That was it.”
Turner went on, saying:
“There’s a lot of people that loved Rainbow but they were too young to go to the concerts or they never saw them live, and this would have been the chance for those people – and I have a lot of people in my own family like this – that wanted to go see Rainbow but really see Rainbow. And that was not it.
“That was, in my opinion – I’ve already said it’s a cheap imitation, a weak cheap imitation of… I don’t know, man. I don’t even know what to call it. It was a trainwreck for me. I think he damaged the legacy that way of Rainbow. ‘Cause Rainbow was a fabulous band from start to finish.”
