Joe Lynn Turner accuses Ritchie Blackmore of damaging Rainbow's legacy
He doesn't pull any punches
Joe Lynn Turner has accused Ritchie Blackmore of damaging ‘the legacy’ of Rainbow with his ‘trainwreck’ reunion.
After almost two decades away, Ritchie Blackmore revived Rainbow in 2015 with the line-up of Jens Johansson on keyboards, Bob Nouveau on bass, David Keith on drums, and the then relatively unknown Ronnie Romero on vocals. Blackmore’s wife Candice Night and Lady Lynn were also backing vocalists.
Between 2015 and 2019, the new incarnation of Rainbow played 15 live shows including arena dates in Birmingham, Glasgow and London.
At the time, former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner gave the reunion a series of tongue lashings in interviews, and he claimed, amongst other things, that Ritchie Blackmore made a “mistake” by not putting together an “authentic reunion.”
In a recent interview with the Rock of Nations with Dave Kinchen and Shane McEachern podcast to promote his upcoming new solo album ‘Belly of the Beast’, Joe Lynn Turner doubled down on his stance on the Rainbow reunion.
Asked if he’d like to perform with Rainbow again, Turner replied (via Blabbermouth): “I tried to do that already. Before (Ritchie) 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 them 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.”
Dubbing the Rainbow reunion as Blackmore’s Night “with a new singer”, Turner continued: "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. Because Rainbow was a fabulous band from start to finish."
Rainbow’s last show was at Spain’s Marenostrum Music Castle Park over three years ago in June 2019.
Joe Lynn Turner’s new album ‘Belly of the Beast’ is released on Friday 28th October via Mascot Label Group.
Alongside announcing the record last month, Joe Lynn Turner made his life-long condition of alopecia public.
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75) Pink Floyd – ‘Wish You Were Here’ (1975)
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74) Iron Maiden – ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ (1982)
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73) Guns N’ Roses – ‘Paradise City’ (1987)
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72) Guns N’ Roses – ‘Estranged’ (1991)
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71) Bon Jovi – ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ (1986)
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70) Iron Maiden – ‘Powerslave’ (1984)
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69) UFO – ‘Lights Out’ (1977)
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68) Neil Young – ‘Like a Hurricane’ (1977)
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67) Judas Priest – ‘Beyond The Realms of Death’ (1978)
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66) Free – ‘All Right Now’ (1970)
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65) Extreme – ‘Play With Me’(1989)
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64) AC/DC – ‘Back in Black’ (1981)
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63) UFO – ‘Love To Love’ (1977)
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59) Pearl Jam – ‘Alive’ (1991)
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58) Metallica – ‘Nothing Else Matters’ (1991)
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55) Thin Lizzy – ‘Emerald’ (1976)
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53) Steve Vai – ‘For the Love of God’ (1990)
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52) Deep Purple – ‘Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming’ (1996)
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39) Deep Purple – ‘Smoke on the Water’ (1972)
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38) AC/DC – ‘Let There Be Rock’ (1977)
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29) Led Zeppelin – ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ (1970)
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28) Queen – ‘Brighton Rock’ (1974)
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19) Gary Moore – ‘Still Got The Blues (For You)’ (1990)
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16) Bon Jovi – ‘Dry County’ (1992)
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