In a recent interview with Rolling Stone Joe Lynn Turner explained Ritchie Blackmore‘s decision to go out and play Rainbow classic material with a new group of musicians, also saying Blackmore’s “wasn’t playing well” and “there was no fire” in Rainbow’s performances.
Here’s what Lynn said:
“I’ll give you the short version of this. Months and months before, a friend of mine, Barry Summers, who did the Guns N’ Roses 3D movie and all that stuff… He wanted to do the same thing with this Rainbow reunion. I was getting phone calls from Carole (Stevens), Ritchie‘s manager. That’s Candy’s (Night) mother. What happened is that she convinced Ritchie I wanted half of everything, and I wanted all this and millions of dollars.
”I spoke to Rick Franks at Live Nation. He was the main guy back then. We had a conference call without four or five other agents. I was on the call with the agents first. All of a sudden, I heard, ‘Hello, this is Rick Franks.’ And then silence. It was like the king walked in. I didn’t know who he was. He said, ‘Joe, if you can get the nod from Blackmore, I’ll put you out 164 dates a year. I’ll get you the best slots on the festivals. I’ll make you‘special guest.’ You name it. Blah blah blah. Because your idea of an extravaganza reunion is just perfect.’ […]
“I wanted that reunion. I wanted a real reunion. I wanted to call in Doogie White. I wanted to call in Graham Bonnet. Had (Ronnie James) Dio been alive, I would have called him in. I wanted all the ex-members to play a good two- or two-and-a-half-hour show. There’s a lot of people, including my wife, who is half my age, have never seen us live.
”They love the records, but they never saw us live. I wanted to put something together like this. I had the go from Barry. I had the go from Rick. I was trying to convince Carole, but she’s a control freak. Anyone will tell you that. And I heard from a very reliable source, an insider, a producer, exactly what she was telling him.”
He went on:
”She was telling him a bunch of lies. I got offered a wage. I went, ‘A wage?’ I told that to [bassist] Bob Daisley. I wanted to bring him in. He’s a good friend of mine. Daisley went, ‘I won’t work for a wage.’ I go, ‘No. How could we work for a wage? We need a little percentage of this thing. Throw us a bone.’
“With that, she just nixed the whole thing. Candy apparently found this singer [Ronnie Romero] on YouTube, sold Ritchie on the ideas, and paid him peanuts. There was your replacement singer. Never wrote a song. And they called it Rainbow. That’s not f*ckin’ Rainbow. That was a money grab.
”He would have made more money doing what I wanted with this production than he’s ever made with her… He had Blackmore’s Night as his band. I saw videos. There was no fire. There was nothing there. It was flat. It was pointless. He wasn’t even playing well. And I came out in the press and accused him of destroying the legacy, which is true. I speak my mind.”