Tina Turner will have seen her career take off alongside her husband Ike Turner. But history will reveal that this mentor was also a terrible executioner, violent and tyrannical with his wife…
Tina Turner, whose death at 83 was announced on Wednesday, wanted to be remembered as the “Queen of Rock ‘n Roll”. A bet won both the career of the singer, but also her incredible destiny, will have shaped the icon that she has become.
Anna Mae Bullock was born on November 26, 1939 in Nutbush, Tennessee, in an America still deeply entrenched in segregation. Daughter of Zelma Currie and Floyd Richard Bullock, worker and foreman, she grew up in a modest environment. With her little sister, she is abandoned by her violent father and will be raised by her grandmother. But in 1957, she had an encounter that would be decisive for her future career: that of a musician, Ike Turner, who brought her on stage and became her mentor, her manager, then her husband. With him, she made her debut at the age of 16 with the blues group “Kings of Rhythm”, then the mythical “The Ike and Tina Turner Revue”, which quickly became one of the most popular black formations in the United States in the United States. 1960s.
How Ike Turner Shaped Tina Turner
But behind the singer’s first successes, daily life is far from rosy. Quickly, Ike Turner gave it his name and transformed “Anna” into “Tina”, in reference to the character Sheena, queen of the jungle, a sort of female Tarzan who appeared in a British magazine in the late 1930s. by Ike Turner, violent musician and addicted to drugs, will gradually become total and hell will become daily.
In her autobiography, released in February 2019, Tina Turner will recount “a relationship defined by violence and fear”, remembering the nickname, evocative, that her husband gave her: “my million dollars”. That of a woman reduced to an investment or even a commodity, however precious it may be. Her marriage, in her own words, will be “a nightmare that will end in a brothel in Tijuana.”
In 1976 Tina Turner fled after an argument with Ike. Alone and with 36 cents in her pocket, she takes refuge in Dallas. For six months, the young woman hides from her husband and survives thanks to associations and friends who take her in. This is the start of Tina Turner’s solo career.
A single comment on the death of Ike Turner
Tina Turner finally manages to escape the grip of Ike Turner and obtains a divorce two years later, in 1978, after sixteen years of marriage. From this husband whom she now wants to forget everything, she will only keep the name, that of a star who will quickly eclipse the musician.
In December 2007, Ike Turner was found dead in his home in San Marcos, near San Diego, California. It is established that he died of a cocaine overdose, to which he was addicted. After this announcement, Tina Turner will make only one statement, via a spokesperson: “Tina is aware of Ike’s death. She had no contact with him for twenty-five years. No further comments will be made. do.”