In a recent interview with 80’s Glam Metalcast, former DEEP PURPLE and RAINBOW vocalist Joe Lynn Turner revealed that he nearly joined a couple of other legendary classic rock bands in the late 1980s prior to the recording of PURPLE‘s “Slaves And Masters” LP. “I had two other phone calls [before I joined DEEP PURPLE],” he said. “One was from FOREIGNER, and one was from BAD COMPANY, before they got Brian Howe. This was all in the same month. And I was on top of my game at that point. So, the thing with FOREIGNER didn’t work out, because I went and rehearsed with those guys, and Lou [Gramm, original FOREIGNER singer] heard about it and he just went, ‘I’m coming back.’ So, they worked things out. They worked things out, which ended up [with] me singing on [FOREIGNER guitarist] Mick Jones‘s solo album, and also on the Billy Joel album that he produced.
“Make a long story shorter, or longer, BAD CO. — Rick Wills, the bass player from FOREIGNER, had said, ‘Yeah, BAD CO.‘s interested,'” he continued .”So, I talked to — I think it was just the road manager, somebody who was the [intermediary] between us, and and I told him, ‘I just had an offer from DEEP PURPLE,’ and they’re, like, my favorite childhood band. And I had known Ritchie [Blackmore] and Roger [Glover] before, so it felt comfortable. But it still was DEEP PURPLE. And I was over the moon about it, really. It was terrific. And I’m very happy I made that choice, because I think Brian Howe did a great job with BAD CO., and I really enjoyed doing a record with [DEEP PURPLE]. And we were supposed to be doing a second [DEEP PURPLE] record [with me on vocals] when they patched up some things with [Ian] Gillan and got a big, big money offer from the record company to do so.”
Joe was the frontman 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.
Back in 2016, Blackmore said that Turner should have been inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame alongside other former and current members of DEEP PURPLE “for his singing and writing on ‘Slaves And Masters’,” an album Ritchie called “one of my favorites.”
Shortly after Blackmore made his comments, Turner said that he was “proud and blessed to be a part of the DEEP PURPLE legacy. I am humbled and touched by the recent Blackmore post concerning my work with the band,” he said. “His respectful and supportive comments of my efforts on the ‘Slaves And Masters’ album were better than any ‘award’ I could receive especially from an organization that has ‘lost the point’ many years ago.”
