Joe Lynn Turner, born Joseph Arthur Mark Linquito on August 2, 1951 in Hackensack, New Jersey, began performing in local New Jersey bands as a teenager, including a group called Ezra, named after the poet Ezra Pound, whose setlist consisted largely of original material and Deep Purple covers . His first real taste of national exposure came fronting Fandango, and he began his musical career as the frontman of the southern rock-leaning quartet Fandango in the late 70s, singing and playing guitar on the band's four albums, from a 1977 self-titled debut to Cadillac in 1980 . That run of records, blending rock, blues and melodic songwriting, put Turner on the radar of a much bigger opportunity that would define his career.
That opportunity arrived when Ritchie Blackmore came calling, and Turner received a life-altering invitation to join Rainbow, a band founded by Blackmore after his departure from Deep Purple, who was searching for a new vocalist to take the group's sound in a different direction . Turner's stay in Rainbow lasted from his 1981 debut on Difficult to Cure until the group's breakup in 1984, during which time Rainbow released five albums and earned hits like "Stone Cold" and "I Surrender" . His run with the band produced the biggest commercial success of his career, as he fronted Rainbow from 1980 to 1984, helping them score the biggest American hits of their long career, including "Stone Cold" and "Street of Dreams" . Rainbow's dissolution set Turner on a path toward another storied hard rock institution.
Following Rainbow, Turner launched a solo career and continued to build his reputation across the rock world, and in 1985 he released his debut solo album, Rescue You, produced by Roy Thomas Baker, with the first single "Endlessly" receiving meaningful airplay . He then briefly joined forces with guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen before landing one of hard rock's most scrutinized gigs, as in 1989 he became a member of Deep Purple, contributing to the album Slaves and Masters (1990) and touring with the band on a world tour in 1991 . Turner has continued releasing solo material for decades since, and he has gone on to issue dozens of wide-ranging efforts like Holy Man (2000), Second Hand Life (2007), and Belly of the Beast (2022) , while also lending his voice to other artists, since he has co-written and appeared on albums by Mick Jones, Riot, and Lita Ford, and provided background vocals to platinum-selling efforts by Cher, Michael Bolton, and Billy Joel .
In the years since his classic rock peak, Turner has remained a prolific and restless collaborator, forming new projects and reuniting with old bandmates rather than resting on his earlier fame. He teamed with Deep Purple alumnus Glenn Hughes for the Hughes Turner Project, and later teamed up with Pink Cream 69 members Dennis Ward, Uwe Reitenauer, and Chris Schmidt for the melodic AOR project Sunstorm, and in 2014 joined guitarist Karl Cochran, bass player Tony Franklin, and drummer Carmine Appice for the Frontiers Records project Rated X . He also formed a touring outfit of former Rainbow musicians, and in 2008 formed Over The Rainbow, a new band comprising former Rainbow musicians including Bobby Rondinelli on drums and Greg Smith on bass, alongside Ritchie Blackmore's son . Today Turner remains active on the touring and recording circuit, still revered by hard rock and melodic rock fans as one of the genre's most distinctive voices, having successfully filled the shoes of both Ronnie James Dio and Ian Gillan in two of rock's most demanding frontman roles.
Turner's road through Rainbow, Deep Purple and a long solo career eventually crossed paths with the lens of Wayne Dennon, who captured him in concert once, in 2006, a show now preserved among the 18 photographs of Turner held in this archive. Those images, viewed by visitors more than fourteen thousand times over the years, stand as a quiet but lasting piece of Wayne's broader mission: documenting the working rock and roll circuit as it passed through town, one show and one voice at a time.
