Artisan News Service - December, 2003

EX-RAINBOW VOCALIST JOE LYNN TURNER TALKS ABOUT THE SEEDS OF HTP (HUGHES TURNER PROJECT)

Former Rainbow and Deep Purple vocalist Joe Lynn Turner and former Deep Purple vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes are on their second Hughes Turner Project album, HTP II, and a third album is in the works for 2004. Turner told ARTISAN NEWS SERVICE the two had been friends for a long time, but it wasn’t until his solo band needed a fill-in bassist that the soulful singer decided to entertain the idea of working with his friend. He said members of his solo outfit were in Japan doing promotion in support of the 2000 album release, Holding Man, trying to figure out what to do to keep the tour alive after the bassist at the time went to tour with Alice Cooper.

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"We’re out to dinner, we’re having a few sakes and the next think you know, I said, ‘I’m calling Glenn Hughes!’ And they were laughing because they thought it was absolutely ridiculous. But, I got on a GSM phone, and I I woke him up in L.A. and I just said, straight out, ‘Glenn would you do this for me? I really need a favor,’ and he said,[Joe, in his best English impression] ‘For you?! I’ll do it.’"

He added, "We get to Japan we do the tour and the crowd loves it, and the record company, Pony Canyon, says, ‘Do you guys wanna do a CD?,’ and so that’s how it happened."

When Joe Lynn Turner isn’t in HTP mode, he’s in solo artist mode. Earlier this year he released the full-length solo album, JLT. He’s also not shy about exploring other avenues of income, namely jingles. He recently teamed with Foreigner’s Mick Jones to sing a new version of "Feels Like The First Time" for the new Folgers coffee campaign.

-- Darren Davis