Published: Less than 10 min ago
The queen of rock’n roll is dead.
She was “Simply the Best”.
She rose from the ashes of abuse and abuse – and became one of the world’s biggest artists.
Tina Turner is dead, 83 years young.
Her life became a triumphal procession.
Anne May Bullock from Tennessee became one of the world’s most beloved and successful female artists.
She sold over 100 million albums and no solo artist has sold more tickets than her – of all time.
She was nominated for 25 Grammys – and won eight of them.
But it wasn’t always easy.
Her great happiness – and misfortune – in life was Ike Turner.
Made success with Ike
Ike and Tina Turner.
Without Ike no Tina – without Tina no Ike.
They met in Saint Louis, where her mother had moved, when she abandoned her daughters and left them with her own mother.
Back then she was still called Anne May.
Growing up was no joke. Her father abused her and in Ike the story would continue in the same way.
But young Anne May had no idea.
After some hesitation, she got to sing with Ike, eight years older, and his band. When in 1960, aged just 21, she had to step in for a sick singer in the song “A fool in love”, her journey towards the stars began.
The song became a huge R&B hit, reaching number two on the US charts.
Tina Turner was born – and the band changed its name to The Ike & Tina Turner Revue.
And she would eventually become a much bigger star than the man she married two years later. The man who would become her great misfortune.
But in the 1960s and 70s they had a string of big hits, such as “Honky Tonk Women”, “Come together” and “River Deep, Mountain high” – all produced by Phil Spector, the legendary music producer who would later judge for murder.
Abused and violated
But life with Ike was no bed of roses.
Tina Turner herself has told how he abused and violated her for many years – so badly that she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder for the rest of her life.
– I have had a life bordered by abuse, there is no other way to tell the story. That is the reality. That is the truth, she said herself in the documentary “Tina”, which came out in 2021.
Ike Turner, of course, denied the abuse, but admitted that he did hit her sometimes without thinking.
Today, both Ike Turner and their common son Ronnie are dead. Ronnie died as recently as last year. Her eldest son, Craig, who she had with saxophonist Rauymond Hill, took his own life in 2018, aged 59 – a great sadness for his mother.
In the mid-1970s, the marriage began to crumble. Ike’s drug addiction made him both erratic and violent. And it went beyond the band and the successes.
Finally, in 1976, Tina Turner left her husband – and two years later the divorce was final.
She was poor.
And had to operate on his nose – because Ike broke it.
Sung with Mick Jagger
Tina Turner had to work hard to survive.
She began touring intensively to cover her living expenses.
She was persuaded to record “Let’s stay together” – which became a hit in Europe.
And eight years after the divorce, Tina Turner made one of the most fantastic comebacks in the history of rock music.
Without Ike, Tina could become the great artist she was clearly destined to be. In May of that year, the single “What’s love got to do with it” was released – a huge success. Number one on the Billboard Top 100 – and a song that is still frequently played around the world to this day.
The album “Private Dancer” sold over 14 million copies.
The rest is rock history at the highest level.
For the rest of the 1980s, she delivered hit after hit – one bigger than the other.
She played Auty Entity in “Mad Max beyond Thunderstone” with Mel Gibson – and the song “We don’t need another hero” from the film became another world hit that still lives on.
She performed at Live Aid with Mick Jagger in 1985 – they sang “It’s only Rock’n Roll (But I like it”) and that too went down in history.
She sang a duet with Bryan Adams in “It’s only love”.
Filled the Globe
In 1986, she went on her “Break Every Rule Tour” – and broke records in Rio de Janeiro when she performed in front of 184,000 spectators.
Three years later came the album “Foreign Affair”, with hit songs such as “The Best”, “I don’t wanna loose you”, Steamy Windows” and “Be tender with me baby”. On that tour, she drew over four million fans to her 121 performances.
She visited Sweden countless times – the first time already in 1972, at Scandinavium in Gothenburg, together with Ike.
She did her last tour in 2009, when she celebrated 50 years as an artist. Then she filled the Globe two nights in a row.
Later that year, she also did her last gig in her life, in Sheffield in the UK.
Considered active euthanasia
The last ten years were edged both by illness and grief.
In 2013, three weeks after she married German Erwin Bach, Tina Turner announced that she had suffered a stroke.
She suffered from cancer and in 2017 she suffered kidney failure, which led to a kidney transplant.
Before she received a new kidney, she considered using active euthanasia in Switzerland, where she had moved at the time.
But she persevered – and persevered for a few more years.
Only to experience the death of both his sons.
– It was not a good life. The good did not balance out the bad, she said herself in the documentary, aged 81.
Already in 1991, she became a star in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the first time, then together with Ike. In 2021, she became a star there again, then as a solo artist.
A star that shone brightest alone.