American vocalist in Crimea: “I hope they won’t put me in jail?”

Given the conflict over the Russian annexation of the Crimea, the inhabitants of the peninsula are not spoiled by tours of foreign stars - however, even in the United States there are musicians who sincerely aspire to Crimea. This week there will perform, and not for the first time, the legend of hard rock - vocalist Joe Lynn Turner, last member of Rainbow, Deep Purple and Yngwie Malmsteen band.

On August 12, Turner held a briefing for the local press, assuring journalists that, despite his American citizenship, his sympathies were entirely on the side of Russia. “I was in Crimea a few months ago. Only positive things will happen here, since the truth is on your side,” said the musician.

Turner also spoke about some warnings from the American authorities, which he ignored when he arrived in Crimea. “I hope I don’t go to jail? This is all Western propaganda, there is not a word of truth in the West about what is really happening in Crimea,” the vocalist said.

“I feel uncomfortable in the United States and do not agree with the political decisions of the American authorities. This is no longer the country in which my father raised me,” Turner was quoted as saying by TASS.

In the US, Turner's music is now virtually unclaimed, and the vocalist, whose concert program mostly consists of foreign hits, performs mainly in European clubs and concert venues in the former CIS countries. In Russia, Turner is still loved as one of the first foreign rock musicians who performed in the USSR in the late eighties.