‘Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ Tina Turner passed away in Switzerland at 83.
According to her spokeswoman, Tina Turner, one of rock’s greatest vocalists and most captivating performers, passed away at 83.
They released the following statement: “Tina Turner, the ‘Queen of Rock’n Roll,’ passed away peacefully today at 83 in her home in Kusnacht, Switzerland, near Zurich, after a protracted illness.
“With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model.”
Her latest health issues included an intestine cancer diagnosis in 2016 and a kidney transplant in 2017.
Mick Jagger said that Turner’s high-kicking, energizing live performances inspired his stage character because 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 memoirs, a biography, a jukebox musical, and the acclaimed 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 child. Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939. As a teenager, she talked or sang 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 performance to sing BB King’s You Know I Love You.
Ike gave her the name Tina Turner after noticing her vocal prowess and registered the name as a trademark in case she ever left him, and he wanted to replace her in his show. When Turner attempted to leave the group early on after gaining a feel of his erratic nature, he beat her with a wooden shoe stretcher and immediately turned nasty.
In her 2018 autobiography My Love Story, Turner stated, “Ike’s realization that I was going to be his moneymaker was the day our relationship was doomed.” “He needed psychological and financial control over me so I could never leave him.”
With the Ike and Tina Turner track A Fool in Love, she made her recording debut under the name in July 1960, breaking the US Top 30 and launching a considerable chart success. However, it was their live performances that propelled them to fame. Ike actively toured the Ike and Tina Turner Revue on the Chitlin’ Circuit, performing in front of diverse crowds like their commercial power. Their first album to chart was Live! The Ike & Tina Turner Show was released in 1964 by Warner Bros imprint Loma Records.
Several of the biggest names in rock courted the pair throughout the second half of the 1960s. They supported 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 single River Deep – Mountain High.
They were a powerhouse on the charts and Grammy winners in the 1970s, but their run ended when Turner split up with Ike in 1976 because he had been abusive and disloyal regularly. The 1975 movie adaptation of the Who’s rock opera Tommy, Baby, Get It On featured her as Acid Queen, a character with the same name as her second solo album, and was her final single with the group.
Turner only received two cars and the rights to her theatrical name as part of the divorce, which was finally settled in 1978. She claimed in the documentary Tina that “Ike fought a little bit because he knew what I would do with it.”
Rest in peace, Tina.
