According to her spokeswoman, Tina Turner, one of rock’s greatest singers and most captivating entertainers, has away at the age of 83.
They released the following statement: “Tina Turner, the ‘Queen of Rock’n Roll,’ passed away peacefully today at the age of 83 at her home in Kusnacht, Switzerland, near Zurich, after a protracted illness.
“With her, the world loses a legend of music and a role model.”
Her health has deteriorated recently; she received a diagnosis of intestinal cancer in 2016 and underwent kidney transplantation in 2017.
Mick Jagger said that Turner’s high-kicking, energizing live performances served as influence for his stage character because of how she confirmed and accentuated Black women’s early role in rock’n’roll.
After spending two decades making music with her controlling husband Ike Turner, she went it alone and, after a few false starts, with the release of the album Private Dancer, became one of the key pop idols of the 1980s. Three autobiographies, a biography, a jukebox musical, and the renowned documentary film Tina all provided accounts of her life.
Turner was up near Nutbush, Tennessee, where she recalls picking cotton with her family as a young girl. Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939. As a youngster, she talked or rather, sung her way into Ike’s band in St. Louis after singing in the little town’s church choir. He had first turned her down until he overheard her take the stage during a Kings of Rhythm concert to sing BB King’s You Know I Love You.
Ike gave her the name Tina Turner after seeing her vocal prowess and registered the name as a trademark in case she left him and he wanted to replace her in his show. When Turner attempted to quit the group early on after getting a feel of his erratic nature, he beat her with a wooden shoe stretcher. He immediately became nasty.
In her 2018 autobiography My Love Story, Turner said that “Ike’s realization that I was going to be his moneymaker was the day our relationship was doomed.” “He needed to have psychological and financial control over me so I could never leave him.”
With the Ike and Tina Turner song A Fool in Love, which cracked the US Top 30 and began a series of solid chart success, she made her recorded debut under the moniker in July 1960. However, it was their live performances that propelled them to fame. Due to their economic success, Ike aggressively traveled the Ike and Tina Turner Revue on the Chitlin’ Circuit, performing in front of crowds that included people of many races. Their first album to chart was Live! The Ike & Tina Turner Show, which was released in 1964 by Warner Bros subsidiary Loma Records.
Several of the greatest names in rock courted the pair throughout the second half of the 1960s. They backed the Rolling Stones in the UK and then the US, and celebrities like David Bowie, Sly Stone, Cher, Elvis Presley, and Elton John visited their Las Vegas residency. Phil Spector produced the 1966 song River Deep – Mountain High.
They were a powerhouse on the charts and Grammy winners in the 1970s, but their run came to an end when Turner split up with Ike in 1976 because he had been abusive and disloyal on a regular basis. Baby, Get It On, from the 1975 movie version of the Who’s rock opera Tommy, featured her as Acid Queen, a character with the same name as her second solo album, and was her last song with the group.
Turner only received two automobiles and the rights to her theatrical name as part of the divorce, which was finally settled in 1978. She said in the documentary Tina that “Ike fought a little bit because he knew what I would do with it.”
Peace be with you, Tina.
