Chords for Joe Lynn Turner - Call from Rainbow's Ritchie Blackmore (4 of 11)

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_ _ _ _ _ _ I'm living in a one-room _ flattened village, East Village.
No, it was a West Village this time, because I lived on both sides of the village.
And _ _ a guy named Barry Ambrosio, who should be mentioned, because he's passed [F] now, cancer.
And Barry, _ _ _ I called him before he died.
I have to mention that, because I get choked up.
Because fate plays a big role in this.
And Barry mentioned me to Richie, and was a big proponent of mine.
I had no idea, I never knew the guy.
But he had seen the band in the Long Island Clubs, Fandango.
He said, this guy's a great singer and a guitar player and everything.
So they tracked me down, and Barry's on the phone with me, and I say, who are you?
And he goes, I'm Richie Black, most personal.
And I'm like, yeah, right.
_ And he's asking me all these questions, like, who are you really?
Because I'm going like this, look, I'm going to hang up now.
This is ridiculous.
Message.
So I said, well, _ _ _ so, okay, I said, _ _ _ put him on, if he's really there.
And all of a sudden I hear this voice, hello, mate, I'm a fan of yours.
And I went, who are you?
And he goes, I'm really Richie Blackmore.
And I went, ah, okay, the game's far enough.
Okay, which one of my friends is this?
And he said, no, no, I'm really Blackmore.
And I went, and I like your style, and I want you to come and audition. _ _ _ _ _
_ And he says, well, _ I'll put, I think, Colin on.
I think Colin gave me all the info.
But he says, we'll deal with that later.
Do you want to do it?
And I said, yeah, of course I want to do it.
You know, like, you're my favorite guy.
_ _ _ So I think Collie got on the phone and _ gave me all the,
and I took a train from New York City to _ Syosset, Long Island.
At that time the studio was called Syosset Sound.
And I went in, and it was no more than a hello, you know, and a handshake.
And I got right on the mic.
I mean, it wasn't very friendly.
It was more business.
And there was Bruce Payne, the manager, as you know.
And there was some girls there.
I don't know who they were.
But, _ _ and Colin and Roger.
Roger was at the desk. _ _
And they threw these songs at me.
And they said, okay, can you make up lyrics?
And I said, yeah.
And I had my bag with me, which I always did, which Richie called my magic bag.
Because I just write lyrics, and I just write stories and things.
And I just pulled out some stuff, and they played an empty track.
And I just went, play it back, play it back.
This feels like this.
And I just made up a melody.
And they were all, like, nodding.
_ And all of a sudden I knew what I was singing.
I surrendered.
Wow.
And Richie came in with a beer and a Heineken and said, do you want to be in the band?
And I needed a gig.
And I had a cold.
This is the great part of it.
And I had a cold.
But my teacher taught me to sing above a cold.
Because you don't really sing from your throat.
You sing from the diaphragm.
And you shape things.
And to make a long story short, I just went, absolutely.
And he said, well, you'll start today, and you're not going home.
And we've got a room for you at the Burt Bacharach Hotel, which [D#] I've never heard of, ever in my life.
Never will again.
And I stayed there for two weeks.
And they bought me, like, clothes and stuff so I could stay there.
It was almost like they didn't want me to go home.
They'd lose me or something.
And they just went, you're staying here.
And that's it.
And we wrote songs together, Freedom Fighter, Midtown Tunnel Vision, things like that.
You know what?
It was really just beyond surreal.
Because I needed a gig.
So I was going to take the gig.
Because quite frankly, when I was going around New York City with the guitar on my back, looking for gigs,
and I would do the auditions, _ they never picked me because, quite frankly,
I was better than the artist that they were trying to develop.
And I know that.
I mean, I had more charisma and I had more talent and I had better singing abilities and guitar playing.
So I knew I wasn't going to get picked.
So I said, I know I've got to get my own band.
That's it.
I have [F] to get my own band.
Because I'll never be able to be in the back line.
_ [F#] Now, did you call home?
Oh, yeah.
And they went, who?
And I went, you can't believe it now, Deep Purple.
The guys from Deep Purple.
It's called Rainbow now.
And they went, but it's not Deep Purple.
And I went, but it doesn't matter.
It's Rainbow.
And they went, but it's not Deep Purple.
And I went, _ ah.
You know, because they didn't get it.
Because they never heard of Rainbow, but they knew Deep Purple.
Because all they had was Purple records and I had one Rainbow Rising record.
And the rest I really wasn't familiar with.
Because I went into country music and jazz and a whole bunch of other idioms, you know,
because I like different things.
[F] Wow.
Yeah, I do.
I like different musics.
So were your parents real supportive for you being in the music business?
Well, my dad was totally.
So they were, yes, both were supportive.
But my mom, I'll never forget, great statement.
She said, you need something, you have to go back to school because you need something to fall back on.
And I said very arrogantly, I'll never fall back.
If anything, I'll fall on my face.
You know, tough guy, right?
And she [Fm] never forgot that to this day.
She said, you know, you're still going to fall on your face.
I was in New York City in Fandango.
My first band on RCA had broken up.
And I'm looking for a gig and I got the call from Blackmore.
He didn't want a guitar player singer.
Naturally, he wanted a singer.
So my hands got real big because I didn't know what to do.
Everybody hides behind the guitar.
So you have to learn a whole new shape and a whole new position and everything.
And at first, I got creamed.
I mean, I was called gay and I was called, you know, a fop, you know,
because I was coming from America and they were all this English stuff, you know,
and it's all very like this, you know.
And I was more like the American bands where you could just run around the stage and just have a blast.
But, you know, Richie was like, wrap your leg around the mic and be strong.
And he taught me a lot.
And I do that.
I didn't know the enormity of Rainbow because I knew Ronnie Dio sang the first record.
And after that, I told you I went on to different music, you know.
I had a band like the Eagles and stuff like that.
And I went into like jazz, playing jazz guitar.
_ You know, because, you know, so when I finally got this call, you know,
I was like, well, yeah, you're out of Deep Purple.
And I know you started Rainbow, but I didn't know the enormity of it until I started playing gigs.
And I was like 25,000 people, you know.
I was [G] like, my God, this is huge.
And I got _ full of myself and I went through all that, you know.
It's easy to do, isn't it? Rock star. _ _ _ _ _ _
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