Joe Lynn Turner (August 2, 1951), is an American rock singer, known for his works with Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force, Deep Purple. From the late 1990s, he continued to perform in a large number of solo albums and other studio projects. He played the accordion as a child, grew up with an appreciation for classic R&B and became an accomplished guitarist in his early teens.Born Joseph Arthur Mark Linquito for an Italian family, in high school, Joe formed Ezra, performing original material and cover songs by such artists as Jimi Hendrix, Free, Queen, and Deep Purple. In 1976, Turner enjoyed his first taste of national success with Fandango, a band described as an eclectic mix of R&B, pop, country, jazz and melodic rock. He sang and played guitar on all of the band's four albums. Fandango toured with numerous artists including The Allman Brothers, The Marshall Tucker Band, The Beach Boys and Billy Joel.
After Fandango split, He received a phone call from guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. This resulted in an audition and Blackmore was so impressed that he immediately enlisted Joe in Rainbow. Rainbow, while popular in Europe and Japan, had not reached the same level of success in the US before Turner joined. With his contributions (largely considered more rock oriented), the group was catapulted to a new level of American success. Several tracks from albums with Turner reached the Top 20 on rock radio charts in the early- to mid-80's. "Stone Cold" became Rainbow's first Top 40 hit and the band's videos were played on heavy rotation on MTV. Turner recorded three studio albums with Rainbow: Difficult to Cure, Straight Between the Eyes, and Bent Out of Shape, which featured the single "Street of Dreams". Rainbow disbanded in 1984, and Blackmore rejoined Deep Purple.
In 1985, after the break-up of Rainbow, Turner released a solo album, Rescue You, produced by Roy Thomas Baker, known for his work with Queen and The Cars. He co-wrote most of the songs with keyboardist Al Greenwood (Foreigner). The first single, "Endlessly," received extensive airplay on radio and MTV. Tours with Night Ranger and Pat Benatar and an acting role in the movie Blue Deville followed.
In 1987 Turner also supplied backing vocals to the Michael Bolton album The Hunger. He appeared on the tracks 'Hot Love' and 'Gina'.
In 1988, he joined Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force and recorded the greatly successful album Odyssey (1988). The brief tour that followed the release of the album included a concert in Leningrad which was recorded and then released as Trial by Fire (1989). In 1989 he left the band to join Deep Purple by replacing Ian Gillan, making him their fourth singer. Turner recorded just one album, Slaves & Masters (1990). The album's sound was different from the traditional Purple sound and core Purple fans were unhappy. The album peaked at #87 on the Billboard Charts, and a relatively successful tour followed in 1991. But Turner left the band during the recording sessions of the next album in late 1992.
Turner has been working mainly on his prolific solo career since mid-1990 and has worked with the Finnish rock band Brazen Abbot by Bulgarian guitarist Nikolo Kotzev and with Glenn Hughes under the "Hughes Turner Project" name. Turner also participated in Nikolo Kotzev's rock opera Nikolo Kotzev's Nostradamus. He has also put out 3 albums under the band name Mother's Army featuring Jeff Watson, Bob Daisley and Carmine Appice. In 2005 Turner has performed on the Russian studio project Michael Men Project's album Made in Moscow, along with his colleague Glenn Hughes. In 2006 he took on very successful studio project Sunstorm with bassist Dennis Ward of German rock band Pink Cream 69. Turner was a guest in the Voices of Classic Rock shows. Turner also appeared as a headliner with AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson on the Classic Rock Cares charity tour which was organized by long time friend Steve Luongo who was the drummer/producer of The John Entwistle Band.
In 2008 he has formed Over the Rainbow, a tribute band composed of former Rainbow musicians, Paul Morris-Keyboardist/94-97, and Ritchie Blackmore's son Jürgen R. Blackmore on guitar.
He is currently a member of the touring band "Big Noize" featuring alongside guitarist Carlos Cavazo, bassist Phil Soussan, and drummer Vinny Appice.
Turner recently joined Norwegian group "The Jan Holberg Project", will release their new album Sense of Time in 2011.
