Joe Lynn Turner: Talks Sunstorm In New Interview

Classic Rock Revisited founder Jeb Wright recently caught up with vocalist Joe Lynn Turner. An excerpt from the interview discussing Turner's popular AOR side project, Sunstorm, is available below: 

Jeb: You recently released the third in your Sunstorm series. Give me a brief overview of how you began this project.

Joe: "I had some leftover material from the ‘80’s, I actually still do, and I got a call from the owner of Frontiers Records and he said that he wanted to do an album with some of my leftover songs and then bring in some outside writers to fill up an album. It was a project to finish my demos and get them out all over the world."

Jeb: How did he know of your demos?

Joe: "One drunken evening someone took a cassette of about fifteen songs out of my hotel room. It made its way onto a CD and then it was bootlegged all over. It is quite funny that Frontiers heard that. On this Sunstorm album, I don’t have any of those old songs on this album, as I was in Turkey for six weeks and I didn’t have a hard drive. I had no access to my stuff. We decided that we would do these songs that I did with Michael Bolton and Cher. I sang backgrounds on these albums back in the 1980’s. We decided to start with that and then bring in some outside writers and make another album. It really came out great."

Jeb: I have to ask you this, Joe. I like you and I like your music but Joe Lynn Turner used to get a lot of shit back in the day for being too pop to be in a hard rock band. Aren’t you fanning those flames by putting Michael Bolton and Cher songs on an album?

Joe: "You know what, that was a load anyway. I did the biggest selling records for both Rainbow and Yngwie Malmsteen. Those were not pop records. They just had good music on them and good writing on them. What pisses me off about that whole time is that 'Since You’ve Been Gone' is one of the most poppy songs of all time. I will not play that song today. Rainbow didn’t have any of that garbage on it when I was in the band. You can quote me on this: The fans that say that sort of thing, honestly, don’t know what the fuck they are talking about. I don’t give a shit. I’ve got more crap about that. I look back and listen to 'Since You’ve Been Gone' and hear those clap claps and I say, 'You’ve got to be kidding me?'"

Jeb: The people that were giving you shit were probably cranking that song up.

Joe: "They were listing to that and I was playing “Stone Cold” and they called me a pop singer (laughs)."

Go to this location for the complete interview.