Former Rainbow and Deep Purple vocalist Joe Lynn Turner recently spoke with Eddie Trunk about guitarist Ritchie Blackmore's return to rock with what Turner has dubbed "a cover band."

Turner: "I was shocked, only because for over a year… See, the truth is I wanted an authentic lineup for Rainbow. I think the way that it should have gone down is an authentic lineup. I was talking to Bob Daisley, Bobby Rondinelli, Roger Glover, Don Airey… there’s a whole bunch of guys out there that were really willing to sort of get involved with this, open up their schedules and get involved. And, apparently, Ritchie didn’t wanna do that. So I spent a good year of my time working that out with Carole Stevens, his manager. And I was shocked, because I’ll tell you why. She was putting my name out there — and I have all the e-mails to prove this, by the way — she was putting my name out there, and it was… even in German, with a big agency out there in Germany, saying, ‘Joe Lynn Turner and Ritchie Blackmore this June, 2016, together again. The perfect pair. Blah blah blah.’ And she was getting feedback from it.”

“I’m honestly flabbergasted, because it made so much sense, especially with the deal that was presented to him. It made so much sense… number one, for the fans. You know, I’ve read a couple of things he said. He said he was doing it for nostalgia. Well, if he was doing it for nostalgia, why wouldn’t he do it the right way? So I don’t understand that contradiction sometimes. If we were gonna do it for nostalgia, we would have done it with an aggregate of guys that were authentic. And, to me, that’s the way to come out. We would have honored Ronnie Dio’s era (Rainbow vocalist from 1975 - 1979), we would have gotten Graham Bonnet (Rainbow vocalist from 1979 - 1980) up there, Doogie White (Rainbow vocalist from 1994 - 1997) up there. To me, it was gonna be a Rainbow extravaganza, and it was all set. A few songs from these guys, a few songs from those guys. It would have been great. We would have (Ritchie’s son) Jürgen Blackmore out on guitar… family. It was just gonna be a big party, and he just didn’t go for it. So I’m still scratching my head.”

“The one thing I will say I’d like to defend a bit is the fact that everybody thought I was delusional, and I know I wasn’t delusional at all; I was talking to Ritchie’s camp, and they were telling me this was gonna happen. So all these people that came out and said, ‘Oh, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.’ And, ‘It’s all wishful thinking.’ No. That’s not the truth at all. This really was going down, and as people can see, it is going down.”

Blackmore will be back to the stages of rock in 2016. Two shows in Germany were recently 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 2016 at Genting Arena in Birmingham, England.

Blackmore has since revealed his band line-up for these exclusive shows, which will include singer Ronnie Romero, keyboardist Jens Johansson (Stratovarius), drummer David Keith (Blackmore’s Night) and bassist Bob Nouveau. The first official band photo can be viewed below.

Blackmore recently spoke with Billboard.com about these 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.”