An American former singer of some unimportant Brit band known for only one silly song really though this isn't it.
Neither is this one, but still a great track:
With stints in other irrelevant bands ...
He also wrote a minor hit (a bit in the BÖC mode) for your Scottish fellow kilt wearer Brian C:
Finally responsible for a cult favorite AOR album together with Al Greenwood of Foreigner and Bobby Messano of Starz:
Joe has had alopecia since he was a child, Purple and Rainbow fans have been aware of this for quite some time, sort of if you were a Priest fan and not deaf, dumb and blind (plus hopelessly obsessive straight) you knew already in the late 70ies that the only women that played a role in Rob Halford's life were his mom and his sis. Joe's now come out with his hair loss. What you see in the vids above are his assortments of wigs through the years.
I'm not aware that he's gay (and just as happy if that is his personal life style choice or destiny), he's from New Jersey, they don't have that there, he's had that black nail polish for years. The bald promo shot with the juvenile white ball python is also a (not so) small dig at David Coverdale. Some years ago, Joe acccused David of using live backing pre-recordings for his vocals with Whitesnake (and I believe he was right, Coverdale has been struggling for a while and I've seen weird things happen at WS gigs too). David hit back with a real cheap shot, first denying the use of pre-recordings and then adding "
What's next, will he accuse me of wearing a wig on stage?" I thought that incredibly low and petty given that Joe had a condition.
So we have a little intra-Purple alumni strife at our hands!
I think Joe looks better bald than with his fake 80ies style hairdo, but if you suffer from alopecia wigs become second nature I guess. I also think that by now there are more effeminate looking ex-Deep Purple singers than Joe ...