Interview: JOE LYNN TURNER

by Jorge Patacas

After four successful years singing for Rainbow in the early 80s and before joining Yngwie Malmsteen and Deep Purple, Joe Lynn Turner released his first solo album, “Rescue You”, in 1985. This year, he embarked on a mini Scandinavian tour to perform the album in its entirety, along with some Rainbow classics, offering fans a particularly special experience. We had the opportunity to conduct an in-depth interview with Turner just hours before his show in Norway, where we discussed not only this album but also the inspiration behind his latest effort “Belly of the Beast” (2022), as well as family, AI, the current state of the world, and more!

RISE!: – You’re doing three shows celebrating the 40th anniversary of your first solo album “Rescue You”. Why did you decide to do this only in Scandinavia?

Joe Lynn Turner: Well, it started with the Wings of AOR festival. They wanted to do something different, so I thought it was going to be a challenge because I hadn’t done this in forty years, you know? You don’t remember everything, and the band has to rehearse the songs. Truth be told, we only had one rehearsal before we actually played the first gig, which came off pretty well. I think Wings of AOR was really good, and I hope tonight is even better. Now, I don’t know if we’ll do this again, maybe we will, since the band sounds great and we know the songs now, but that remains to be seen.
Last night we had many people from Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and other parts of South America, as well as people from Belgium, even Chicago, Arizona… I could not believe the number of people from different countries that flew there specifically to listen to this. All of them were so complimentary and wonderful, so I was very touched by that.

R!: – “Rescue You” came out in the mid-80s, so it reflects the unique sound of that era. Do you remember what the approach was for this album, considering it was your first solo experience?

JLT: The direction I was going was absolutely AOR. I was looking for more of a commercial rock sound, you know? This was the era of Bon Jovi, Poison and all these bands, and I wanted to have a bit of a different slant on it, which we did. I was working with Al Greenwood from Foreigner on keyboards, so he was a big influence in the writing. I believe we accomplished it because we had one of the greatest producers in the world, Roy Thomas Baker. He recently passed, which is a shame, but Roy was just amazing. I’m so fortunate to have worked with him. He gave us a sound, I think, because if you play that record today, it still sounds very fresh and very deep. It stands the test of time. So the approach was really just to make commercial music with a message.

R!: – Was there any pressure from the label considering the success you’ve had with Rainbow?

JLT: Of course, there’s always pressure from the label, you know? They need this or that type of single. But I knew they were going to get one or two very obvious radio hits from this record that they could release. I always thought “Young Hearts” was a big radio hit, but they never released it as such. I also thought of “Endlessly” because it’s a ballad and because of its structure and beauty. But record companies are a different animal. They’re almost useless now, in a way, because everyone is distributing their records digitally. Lots of young bands think they need a record company, but they don’t really need it anymore. You’ve got the internet and social media. Record companies today want you to bring the audience to them and then they sign you. It’s a different game now.
So yes, you get pressure from a record company. I had a personal encounter with one of them because they were trying to turn me into something I was not. I told them that I signed to make an album of music, not to do what they wanted me to do. So there’s always that tension. It wasn’t easy. The unfortunate thing is that we spent a lot of money on this record. We lived very well in Bearsville where we did the tracks, but the funny thing is that when we got to the record company to play it for the first time, they loved it. However, they said they were out of money for this particular budget. We looked at each other and just said, “Wow”. What do you mean you don’t have money to support it? The thing is that the band lived simply, but Roy was a very big producer. He had a house on the top of the hill, swimming pools and limousines. He lived a very high producer life. You got to remember who this guy did… Queen, Foreigner, The Cars, and I could go on and on. So he was used to that style, but we kinda got caught in the middle of it all. Plus, there’s a lot of politics in the record business. Some of these guys know nothing about music; they’re just lawyers looking at figures, telling that you spent that much money here and that they don’t have money to push the record. So you’re gonna spend a million dollars on a record and not have any money to push it. Does that make sense? No.

R!: – Are there any of these songs that, when you sing them now, make you relive the moment you sang them for the first time?

JLT: It’s funny you ask that because, yes, a lot of that comes back, you know? At first, I was a little bit hesitant about even doing the project because it’s been forty years, and that’s a lifetime for some people. I was thinking, “Who’s really going to appreciate this unless you’re 60 or 70 years old?” (laughs). But there were so many young people there last night; I suppose their parents passed it down. People in the front knew every word, and I was really impressed and touched, as I said, because I didn’t expect that amazing reaction. The whole band was just ear to ear smiling because to do something forty years later is not exactly a current item. So, how was this going to be received? Also, we don’t use any backtracks or tapes, we just plug and play.

R!: – That’s great to hear!

JLT: Yes, and it went over amazingly; people just loved it. There were a lot of vinyls that I signed in remarkably good shape. These people had them in plastic covers, almost as a treasure, and so many said they’d been waiting to hear this record for forty years.
The only time we’ve ever played the album before was when we toured America to support it. The band was really good, you know? We had Chuck Burgi on drums, Bobby Messano on guitar, Barry Dunaway on bass, and Alan Greenwood on keyboards, so the band was tight, and we really knew our stuff. I think there’s a live recording at the Paradise Theatre in Boston that really shows the expertise the band had. We were opening for Pat Benatar, Night Ranger, these types of bands that were out at the time. And of course, we were trying to establish ourselves, regardless of me coming from Rainbow. It was still a new project, so we were frowned upon, and a lot of times they wanted to release us because we were showing them up; our band was so good, and the songs came off really powerful, so they were a little bit afraid. When the opening act starts getting more applause, it gets weird at some point.

R!: – What can you tell us about the experience of being part of the movie Blue de Ville at that time?

JLT: I got called for that role. I think they originally wanted to use Bon Jovi or someone like that, but then, when they saw my videos like “Endlessly”, they said “He’s perfect”. My character was Eric Fury, an over-the-top rock star who was also a representative of the devil, as you saw on the movie. One of the actresses, Jennifer Runyon, just passed away; I heard about this a couple of months ago. My social media team sent me the news because Jennifer and I worked on the movie together, and I was there enough to become friends with her.
One of the funniest experiences I’ve had, honestly. We did it in Santa Fe, which is just gorgeous. It’s a very spiritual area with the Hopi indians and whatnot. It was a wonderful time there. But one of the funny things that happened was that it was a love scene between Jennifer and I. We were on a tour bus, which was actually Burt Reynolds’ tour bus. It was black, silver and red, you know, sexy, really cool! They cut the scene out of the film, I guess they didn’t necessarily need to display that. But it was a kissing scene, and I just remember thinking, “When I finally get Jennifer, I’m gonna give her a really big kiss”. Then the day came, and we were sitting on the edge of the bed. She was looking at me longingly because, in the story, she was in love with Eric Fury before she got married, and this was her last fling. She looked at me and, off camera, said, “I’ve been waiting for this the whole week”. I melted. I got almost intimidated. She was obviously a lot more experienced on that than me, you know? (laughs)
But it was a nice kiss, and they never used it in the movie. It doesn’t matter. But I’m sorry she passed recently. She wasn’t very old at all. People are dying too young these days…

R!: – Talking about that, your latest album “Belly of the Beast” is fantastic! Not only because of the music, the production, and the songs, but especially the message. You were one of the few who actually spoke out about the narratives from 2020 and what’s really going on in the world.

JLT: Thank you. But nobody heard it, you know why? Because they were not awake then, and they’re almost not awake now. I don’t know if you saw this new girl from Australia, Iyah May. She’s got this big song about the strings of the puppets, and she’s getting a lot of recognition from this. Her manager and her record company left her because she’s speaking out, right?
When “Belly of the Beast” came out, there was coverage in the media, but it was so misunderstood. There’s one reviewer that got exactly what I was trying to say in every song, but that doesn’t happen with journalists. Most of the others were saying things like I was talking like I was Jesus on “Tears of Blood”. That couldn’t be further from the truth. They were over their head; they didn’t understand.

R!: – That’s crazy because the message is very clear, both in the lyrics and the interviews you’ve been doing.

JLT: The point of the matter is that I said it four years ago, and almost nobody picked up on it. I wrote about the spiritual war, talked about the vampirism, the children, and everything because I’ve dipped into occultism and all of this. If you look at my past albums, for example, in my other band, we’re doing “Babylon” now, which refers to Mystery Babylon from the Bible, which is America, and it’s gonna be destroyed. I’ve talked about the New World Order. Looking back, I was extremely political then. How dumb can you be not to understand when the lyrics are, “The brotherhood has you all in control. The secret society. They lead you blind, they jam up your soul”? (Editor’s note: Lyrics for “Babylon” from the 2000 album “Holy Man”). Now, with “Belly of the Beast”, a lot of people thought I was promoting satanism!
What I’m trying to say is that I know if there’s a positive, there’s a negative. That’s what I’m talking about here. That negativity was coming on. Look at the whole world now. Every leader is selected, not elected. Your votes don’t count. It’s all an illusion. I said it in the song “Black Sun”: “Your life is just an illusion, and the truth is just a lie”. It couldn’t be more obvious, but nobody asked about it; nobody questioned it.

R!: – That’s the word: Question. Nobody questions.

JLT: Nobody questioned what I was talking about, what I was trying to say, you know? I write “Rise Up”, and I’m saying, “Die on your feet or live on your knees”, which is an old saying, and then, “We’ve been betrayed, fooled, and deceived”. But people just want to be entertained. They don’t want to be awakened.
Art should disturb you, whether it’s good or bad; it doesn’t matter. When you look at a piece of artwork, it should do something to you. That’s the same with a song. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not; it should affect you. That’s what art is. It disturbs you; it conjures up in the mind, in the heart and the soul. Everybody’s dead in the soul; it’s almost as if they have no soul. It’s very disappointing, and that’s why I’m glad you are awakened and asking me these questions.

R!: – I heard you say that rock lacks rebels these days and, unfortunately, it’s true. You would think there would be more rebels than ever now, especially in this kind of music. What do you think is going on?

JLT: I think it’s all costumes. Everybody’s dressed up like these heavy metal guys and everything. What does it mean? Are you a rebel? Are you an outlaw? Are you against the establishment? Are you trying to find out what’s going on here? No. It’s a costume party. It’s not real at all.
As an artist you can really become very disappointed and lose your passion for it, not because you’re not reaching the audience or whatever, but because nobody is reading or understanding what you were reading. You end up feeling alone and isolated. They’ve got no clue.

R!: – It’s crazy because if you just question things, then you eventually find out what’s going on. You can even find the documents where it’s all written.

JLT: And it’s all over the internet. They don’t even have to pick up a book. Mark Twain said, “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them they’ve been fooled”. They’ll fight you tooth and nail. They don’t wanna know they’ve been fooled. They will call you crazy or a conspiracy theorist. Now everybody’s finding out it’s all true. “What do you mean they’re trafficking children and drinking their blood? What do you mean there’s all this sex, aggression and murder going on? What do you mean we’ve been played?” they will say. It’s all a game that’s being played upon them by “the magicians”.
There are two different energies in life, and it depends on which energy you plug into. It’s as simple as that. I’ve plugged into negative energy before, and I had consequences. Fortunately, I’ve been out of that for years, but that’s how, as an iconoclast, I wanted to experience that negative side if there’s a great positive side.
I grew up in a church, serving Mass, studying Latin, and then a priest tried to molest me. All of a sudden, my mind went, “You’re a soul searcher”, and then I started searching: what is this about? What is spirituality?
I don’t believe in organized religion at all. You don’t need to give money to God; you don’t need to pay for God’s forgiveness and love.
The concept of the construct of governments and education -or indoctrination, really- is manipulation. It’s just to control you. For example, a television program. It’s called a “program” because they’re programming you. They make you believe in a certain way on how things are supposed to be, then they keep you working so damn hard that you can’t really even have time to research this. So, I don’t dislike or hate them for that. It’s beyond that; It’s sadness. They work 9 to 5 for five or six days a week, then they go home and watch two hours of those programs on what life should be, maybe have sex with their wives, be with their children, do what they do, and start all over again. So, when would they have time to learn what I’ve learned? I have to forgive them for that, but at the same time, I don’t forgive them for being cowards and trading their unalienable rights as human beings.

R!: – We did an interview around ten years ago, and back then you said that the magic and mystery that used to be around bands is gone with social media, and that’s true. But now we have to deal with AI too. What’s your view on this? Do you feel the younger generations will embrace it more and more, or will they eventually reject it?

JLT: Reject it? Not for a while. As far as I can see, AI is here to stay. Fortunately or unfortunately. I’m not taking a stance. What I’m trying to say is that I’ve seen the power, the awesomeness, and the freightening part of AI. I’m involved with a company that does AI. You know why? Because that boat is gonna sail and I’m not gonna be left on the land. I wanna be on that boat. Now what does that mean? It means I wanna know everything about it, and I wanna show that you can use AI as a tool to enhance your art, to polish the edges, and to do certain things, but not as your art itself.
Do I really think AI is going away? Not for a long time. So, eventually, are people going to rebel against it? Well, a couple of months ago, there was a number one Billboard song that was AI, and people didn’t even know. Some were saying they wanted to see the guy in concert, and another comment would say, “You are an idiot! It’s AI. There’s no real guy”. They don’t know because they’ve been programmed to think everything fake is real. We live in a fake world.
People don’t understand that their divinity is inside of them and that they create their own reality. That’s the truth. There are laws of manifestation and intention. These are universal laws that everyone has the ability to use and produce, but for some reason, the governments, the education systems, and the media -which is a very evil institution- prevent the average people from reaching their divinity. Also religion. I have to say this, I’m sorry, but religion tells you to look outside of yourself for God, and if you ever really read the Bible, Jesus tells you to look inside and not to worship false idols. Worshipping a Pope is blasphemy. He says it. And yet, billions of people follow this, so they’ve been deceived. How can they be soul searchers when they don’t even understand they have a soul? You have to forgive people’s ignorance because Jesus also said, “My people would die from ignorance”, because they do not know. He was trying to teach them that this is a frequency. We’re on a vibration. Heaven is here; it’s what you project, it’s in every word or action. If you want hell, you can have that as well. It’s not some fiery place over some cloud. I think Jean-Paul Sartre said it best: “Heaven is in your mind, and Hell is other people” (laughs).

R!: – The industry has changed drastically over the years, and recording music is easier than ever these days, but that has led to a lot of bands lacking talent or originality. It’s very hard to find something really original or with really good songs these days. Do you like any new bands, or do you prefer the classics?

JLT: There are some good bands. I can mention Dino Jelusick; he’s great, and he happens to be a good friend of ours too. I think he’s writing some amazing stuff. His style is unique, his voice is phenomenal, and he’s multi-talented. He plays piano, guitar, drums… this guy is a monster talent. The things he say, like “Power to the People” and everything he talks about is very important. I like him a lot. He’s a very good person too.
But you know? I look for bands to like, and I’m trying to find one of these that’s gonna knock me out. It’s very difficult nowadays because they all start sounding and looking alike. I call it “cookie-cutter”. It’s like, “ok, that band made it; let’s sound and look like them”. It’s really not so original, you know? I mean, I still like my R&B and soul music, but even that is becoming just fabricated.
As a writer, I’m trying not to be too influenced by anybody else because it will show, but I obviously have my influences from forty years ago. I like music that has melody, a message and good lyrics, so that’s what I’m trying to do now. Instead of another “Belly of the Beast”, I’m going to do an AOR album. Although I have a song called “Demonica”, which is about incubus -the spirits that come out at night- the rest will be tracks like “Empty Promises”, a love song about heartbreak, or “Jealous People”, another great song about how people lie about you and they’re jealous. But they’re all really hooky songs. It’s a fun record, but it’s not “Belly of the Beast”, you know? I’m done saving the world.

R!: – When is this new album coming out?

JLT: It won’t be for a while because I’ve been doing too many other things, like sitting here right now. But once we start rolling, I’ll just start singing. The tracks are pretty much written, so it’s just a matter of me laying down the vocals, dusting up some production, mixing, and mastering it, and we’re done. I’m not even sure if I want to put it out on my current label Mascot, or if we just want to release it ourselves. We don’t know what we wanna do yet.

R!: – What’s the advantage you see in having your wife as manager?

JLT: Managers I had before couldn’t be trusted and I trust her. She’s also a lawyer, and she’s in my corner all the time. She knows best about everything and keeps things under control. It’s been successful ever since she came in. It’s been fifteen years. It’s a hard job, but she’s got it. We have everything we need, you know? We made our money the hard way, but we didn’t sell out. I think that’s the word. We’re in control of our schedule and our lives.

R!: – When people think about artists managed by their wives, they usually think of Ozzy Osbourne, which leads me to the next question. You played with musicians who also played with Ozzy, but have you guys ever met?

JLT: Oh yeah. Look, I ran with the pack in Los Angeles for quite a few years, so I was there with the cocaine, the women, the booze, and everything else. Come on, you name it. You name the guys, and I know them. Motley Crue, those guys were insane. Look, if you’re in this business, you’re gonna meet people passing through and hang with them. I hung out with David Bowie for a while, great guy and amazing artist. But sure, you know, it’s just that I didn’t want that lifestyle anymore. I didn’t see a point in it. L.A. is a very strange place.
I’ve never opened for Ozzy, but I was always at parties, whatever. I was there when he was snorting the ants by the pool.

R!: – Really?

JLT: Yeah, I was there in a lot of situations that need not be mentioned, but I was right in the thick of things sometimes, you know what I mean? If you mention somebody, I probably know them, and they know me. Did I prefer to stay there and hang out with them? No, I actually got as far away as I could.

R!: – You have a son who is three years old now. What values do you think are the most important to teach him, considering the current state of the world and the indoctrination that’s going on?

JLT: Yeah, we’ve talked about that because the world is crumbling, and we wonder what’s gonna be left for him and the others his age. But I think he’s showing signs of incredible independence and his own will. When you tell him to do something and he doesn’t want to do it, it’s not just the average kid saying “no”; it’s a kid who knows what he intends to do, as opposed to what you want him to do. He walks his own path, kind of, and at that age, it’s remarkable.
He shows signs of strength and initiative that we think are really gonna pay off for him later in life as a man. But also, he could take it a little too far because he’s kind of aggressive about it (laughs). So we have to tame the aggression, so he’s still aggressive and forceful to get what he wants in life. We see that already in him.
I think what you have to teach him are the basics: honor, respect, dedication, hard work, vision, dreams and “never say die”. Just continue with what you believe in. I’ve always wanted to instill in him the same things my father told me: when you stop believing in yourself, when you have those moments of doubt, I believe in you. I think Rumi has a great poem that says, “And you’ll be a man, my son!” (Editor’s Note: it is actually from Rudyard Kipling). That’s what I want to instill in him. That he’ll be a man when he can face everything, when others are losing it around him and he can still stay strong. No fear. He can still love even after rejection and all of this. That’s when you’re a man.

JOE LYNN TURNER DISCOGRAPHY

Solo:

Rescue You – 1985
Nothing’s Changed – 1995
Under Cover – 1997
Hurry Up and Wait – 1998
Under Cover 2 – 1999
Waiting for a Girl Like You EP – 1999
Holy Man – 2000
Slam – 2001
Challenge Them All EP – 2001
JLT – 2003
The One EP – 2004
The Usual Suspects – 2005
Second Hand Life – 2007
Live in Germany – 2008 (Live Album)
The Sessions – 2016 (Compilation)
Street of Dreams – Boston 1985 – 2016 (Live Album)
Belly of the Beast – 2022

with Fandango:

Fandango – 1977
Last Kiss – 1978
One Night Stand – 1979
Cadillac – 1980

with Rainbow:

Difficult to Cure – 1981
Straight Between the Eyes – 1982
Bent Out of Shape – 1983
Finyl Vinyl – 1986 (Compilation)

with Yngwie Malmsteen:

Odyssey – 1988
Trial by Fire: Live in Leningrad – 1989 (Live Album)

with Deep Purple:

Slaves and Masters – 1990

with Mother’s Army:

Mother’s Army – 1993
Planet Earth – 1997
Fire on the Moon – 1998

with Brazen Abbot:

Eye of the Storm – 1996
Bad Religion – 1997
Guilty as Sin – 2003
A Decade of Brazen Abbot – 2004 (Live Album)
My Resurrection – 2005