Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow will be back to the stages of rock this year. Two shows in Germany are confirmed, taking place at the Monsters Of Rock Festival 2016 on June 18th and Loreley, Freilichtbühneon on June 17th. A UK date has also been confirmed. It will take place on Saturday, June 25th at Genting Arena in Birmingham, England.

In a recent interview with Greece's Rock Pages, former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner addressed the issue of Blackmore's new incarnation of Rainbow.

Rockpages.gr: What is your opinion of what’s called Rainbow now, the new band that Ritchie Blackmore formed?

Joe Lynn Turner: "Well, I’ve already come out to the press about it, saying that I don’t believe that this is Rainbow at all! I think that this is a Ritchie Blackmore band, but certainly not Rainbow… in fact, if anything there is three members of Blackmore’s Night. I think Dougie said it best to me, he said: 'You know Joe, it’s not Rainbow unless they do an album and a tour.' And I said 'I have to agree with you Dougie...' because, that’s the truth you know… until you can write the songs, make some sense out of it all, do some great gigs, add to the name Rainbow… otherwise our legacy, whether it’s Ronnie, God bless him, or Graham, or myself, or even Dougie, comes down in stature. Because, then anybody can be in Rainbow like this. So, I don’t agree with it and I’ll answer probably another question of yours right now… I wanted to create an authentic Rainbow reunion. I was talking to Carol Stevens, the management, over a year and a few months – no kidding! Everyone called my delusional that I believed Ritchie would ever rock again. Everyone called me this, that… I got a lot of crap in the press. I am pretty sick of that by the way, because you are a bunch of idiots, if you don’t realize that! She didn’t want to go along with a multi-million dollar deal I’ve set up with UMG, Universal Music Group, if you don’t know what that is, Rockfuel media for an HD, 3D DVD, who just went to No.1 with the Axl Rose Appetite For Democracy DVD, so it’s great people, okay? We were going to have re-packaging of our box sets etc, and I was talking to Rick Franks over to Live Nation who wanted to put us on the biggest festivals. And to my surprise, to my shock… I found out he didn’t want to do it… Why? I will never know. I have my suspicions and I’ve read a lot of fans comments on their suspicions, and some of them I think are correct. But, I really don’t know why. It’s a shame. Because, I believe that the fans deserve it. I believe Rainbow deserves it. I wanted to do something like an extravaganza you know… sing Dio songs, Bonnet songs, everybody… Bob Daisley on bass… I talk to people… and they were all into it. It’s a shame really!

Check out the complete interview below. The transcript is available via the link above.

Blackmore has revealed his band lineup for these exclusive shows, which will include singer Ronnie Romero (Lords Of Black), keyboardist Jens Johansson (Stratovarius), drummer David Keith (Blackmore’s Night) and bassist Bob Nouveau. Check out a new band photo below:

Blackmore recently spoke with Billboard.com about the upcoming special shows:

“I’m now 70, so I just felt like playing some rock ‘n’ roll for a few days. We’re going to do four or five dates of just playing the old rock stuff, Purple stuff and Rainbow. I’m doing it for the fans, for nostalgia, and the singer I found is very exciting; he’s a cross between Dio meets Freddie Mercury. So this will mean exposing a new singer to the masses, and I’m sure he’ll become pretty famous because of his voice.”