Vocalist Joe Lynn Turner, best known for fronting Ritchie Blackmore's RAINBOW during that band's creative peak in the 1980s and later as the frontman for Yngwie Malmsteen, has been called The Man With The Golden Voice, and it's easy to understand why; nearly everything Turner records sounds blessed by the gods of hard rock. His commanding presence, powerhouse range, and emotional resonance has made him the go-to vocalist for a number of artists. Now some of this session work is collected on a brand new collection of studio recordings called simply "The Sessions" and released on October 7 via Deadline Music. The CD release contains superb, supercharged versions of rock classics from "Lunatic Fringe" to AC/DC's "Back In Black", THE DOORS' "Riders On The Storm" to QUEEN's "Fat Bottomed Girls". The album also features guest appearances by Michael Schenker (UFO), Steve Lukather (TOTO), Steve Morse, Phil Collen (DEF LEPPARD), Brad Gillis (NIGHT RANGER), and more!
"The Sessions" (cover) track listing:
01. Stone Cold (with Vivian Campbell)
02. Lunatic Fringe
03. Let the Music Do the Talking (with Al Pitrelli, Carmine Rojas & Pat Torpey)
04. Mirror Mirror (with Icarus Witch)
05. Hellraiser (with Steve Lukather, Billy Sherwood, Jay Schellen & Paul Taylor)
06. 14 Years
07. Dance The Night Away (with Reb Beach)
08. Back in Black (with Phil Collen)
09. All Shook Up (with Michael Schenker)
10. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You (with Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Tony Franklin & Doane Perry)
11. All Day and All of the Night (with Brad Gillis, Rudy Sarzo & Simon Wright)
12. Bloody Well Right (with Dave Kerzner)
13. The Seeker (with Leslie West)
14. Jungle Love (with Steve Morse)
15. Two Minutes To Midnight (with Richie Kotzen)
16. Fat Bottomed Girls (with Reb Beach)
17. Riders On The Storm (with Tony Kaye & Steve Cropper)
Buy the CD at this location.
Joe Lynn Turner recently slammed Ritchie Blackmore for the guitarist's decision to go out and perform classic DEEP PURPLE and RAINBOW material with a new group musicians instead of reforming RAINBOW with a more "authentic" lineup.
Regarding why he thinks Ritchie has chosen to go out with a whole new RAINBOW lineup instead of bringing back some of the musicians who played on the band's classic records, Joe said: "The first thing I think I can say is that he's been misguided by people around him. That's what I really believe. I believe he's been misguided, and I believe he trusts these people and I think that he made a mistake doing this."
He continued: "I wanted an authentic reunion. I wanted guys from Doogie [White] and Graham [Bonnet] and [bassist] Bob Daisley and [drummer Bobby] Rondinelli, and all these guys, and I wanted to have a RAINBOW extravaganza, because there are a lot of fans that love RAINBOW that still haven't even seen RAINBOW, and this would be the ticket for them — you know, maybe a two-hour extravaganza. So I guess the people, his advisers or whoever, could not sell him that particular [idea], or maybe they never even told him that. I actually have a feeling that he was not full of the information at the time, because certain things have come to pass that sort of indicated that he didn't know about it, to me."
Joe was the singer of RAINBOW between 1980 and 1984 and he sang on the 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.