Few stars travelled so far \u2014 she was born Anna Mae Bullock in a segregated Tennessee hospital and spent her latter years on a 260,000 square foot estate on Lake Zurich \u2014 and overcame so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Physically battered, emotionally devastated and financially ruined by her 20-year relationship with Ike Turner, she became a superstar on her own in her 40s, at a time when most of her peers were on their way down, and remained a top concert draw for years after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With admirers ranging from Beyonc\u00e9 to Mick Jagger, Turner was one of the world’s most successful entertainers, known for a core of pop, rock and rhythm and blues favourites: Proud Mary, Nutbush City Limits, River Deep, Mountain High, and the hits she had in the ’80s, among them What’s Love Got to Do with It, We Don’t Need Another Hero and a cover of Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her trademarks were her growling contralto, her bold smile and strong cheekbones, her palette of wigs and the muscular, quick-stepping legs she did not shy from showing off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She sold more than 150 million records worldwide, won 12 Grammys, was voted along with Ike into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 (and on her own in 2021) and was honoured at the Kennedy Center in 2005, with Beyonc\u00e9 and Oprah Winfrey among those praising her. Her life became the basis for a film, a Broadway musical and an HBO documentary in 2021 that she called her public farewell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Until she left her husband and revealed their back story, she was known as the voracious on-stage foil of the steady-going Ike, the leading lady of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ike was billed first and ran the show, choosing the material, the arrangements, the backing singers. They toured constantly for years, in part because Ike was often short on money and unwilling to miss a concert. Tina Turner was forced to go on with bronchitis, with pneumonia, with a collapsed right lung.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other times, the cause of her misfortunes was Ike himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As she recounted in her memoir, \u201cI, Tina,\u201d Ike began hitting her not long after they met, in the mid-1950s, and only grew more vicious. Provoked by anything and anyone, he would throw hot coffee in her face, choke her, or beat her until her eyes were swollen shut, then rape her. Before one show, he broke her jaw and she went on stage with her mouth full of blood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Terrified both of being with Ike and of being without him, she credited her emerging Buddhist faith in the mid-1970s with giving her a sense of strength and self-worth and she finally left in early July, 1976.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ike and Tina Turner Revue was scheduled to open a tour marking the country\u2019s bicentennial when Tina snuck out of their Dallas hotel room, with just a Mobil credit card and 36 cents, while Ike slept. She hurried across a nearby highway, narrowly avoiding a speeding truck, and found another hotel to stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI looked at him (Ike) and thought, \u2018You just beat me for the last time, you sucker,\u2019\u201d she recalled in her memoir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turner was among the first celebrities to speak candidly about domestic abuse, becoming a heroine to battered women and a symbol of resilience to all. Ike Turner did not deny mistreating her, although he tried to blame Tina for their troubles. When he died, in 2007, a representative for his ex-wife said simply: \u201cTina is aware that Ike passed away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Little of this was apparent to the many Ike and Tina fans. The Turners were a hot act for much of the 1960s and into the \u201970s, evolving from bluesy ballads such as A Fool in Love and It\u2019s Going to Work Out Fine to flashy covers of Proud Mary and Come Together and other rock songs that brought them crossover success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They opened for the Rolling Stones in 1966 and 1969, and were seen performing a lustful version of Otis Redding\u2019s I\u2019ve Been Loving You Too Long in the 1970 Stones documentary Gimme Shelter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett gave Oscar-nominated performances as Ike and Tina in the 1993 movie What\u2019s Love Got to Do with It, based on \u201cI, Tina,\u201d but she would say that reliving her years with Ike was so painful she couldn\u2019t bring herself to watch the movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ike and Tina\u2019s reworking of Proud Mary, originally a tight, mid-tempo hit for Creedence Clearwater Revival, helped define their assertive, sexual image. Against a background of funky guitar and Ike\u2019s crooning baritone, Tina began with a few spoken words about how some people wanted to hear songs that were \u201cnice and easy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut there\u2019s this one thing,\u201d she warned, \u201cyou see, we never ever do nothing nice and easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rock stars helped bring her back. Rod Stewart convinced her to sing Hot Legs with him on Saturday Night Live and Jagger, who had openly borrowed some of Turner\u2019s on-stage moves, sang Honky Tonk Women with her during the Stones\u2019 1981-82 tour. At a listening party for his 1983 album Let\u2019s Dance, David Bowie told guests that Turner was his favourite female singer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More popular in England at the time than in the US, she recorded a raspy version of Let\u2019s Stay Together at EMI\u2019s Abbey Road studios in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the end of 1983, Let\u2019s Stay Together was a hit throughout Europe and on the verge of breaking in the states. An A&R man at Capitol Records, John Carter, urged the label to sign her up and make an album. Among the material presented to her was a reflective pop-reggae ballad co-written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle and initially dismissed by Tina as \u201cwimpy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI just thought it was some old pop song, and I didn\u2019t like it,\u201d she later said of What\u2019s Love Got To Do With It.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turner\u2019s Private Dancer album came out in May 1984, sold more than eight million copies and featured several hit singles, including the title song and Better Be Good To Me. It won four Grammys, among them record of the year for What\u2019s Love Got to Do With It, the song that came to define the clear-eyed image of her post-Ike years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople look at me now and think what a hot life I must have lived \u2014 ha!\u201d she wrote in her memoir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even with Ike, it was hard to mistake her for a romantic. Her voice was never \u201cpretty,\u201d and love songs were never her speciality, in part because she had little experience to draw from. She was born in Nutbush, Tennessee in 1939 and would say she received \u201cno love\u201d from either her mother or father. After her parents separated, she moved often around Tennessee and Missouri, living with various relatives. She was outgoing, loved to sing and as a teenager would check out the blues clubs in St. Louis, where one of the top draws was Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm. Tina didn\u2019t care much for his looks the first time she saw him, at the Club Manhattan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThen he got up onstage and picked up his guitar,\u201d she wrote in her memoir. \u201cHe hit one note, and I thought, \u2018Jesus, listen to this guy play.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tina soon made her move. During intermission at an Ike Turner show at the nearby Club D\u2019Lisa, Ike was alone on stage, playing a blues melody on the keyboards. Tina recognised the song, B.B. King\u2019s You Know I Love You, grabbed a microphone and sang along. As Tina remembered, a stunned Ike called out \u201cGiirrlll!!\u201d and demanded to know what else she could perform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over her mother\u2019s objections, she agreed to join his group. He changed her first name to Tina, inspired by the comic book heroine Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, and changed her last name by marrying her, in 1962.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In rare moments of leniency from Ike, Tina did enjoy success on her own. She added an explosive lead vocal to Phil Spector\u2019s titanic production of River Deep, Mountain High, a flop in the US when released in 1966, but a hit overseas and eventually a standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She was also featured as the Acid Queen in the 1975 film version of the Who\u2019s rock opera Tommy. More recent film work included Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and a cameo in What\u2019s Love Got to Do with It.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turner had two sons: Craig, with saxophonist Raymond Hill; and Ronald, with Ike Turner. (Craig Turner was found dead in 2018 of an apparent suicide). In a memoir published later in 2018, Tina Turner: My Love Story, she revealed that she had received a kidney transplant from her second husband, former EMI record executive Erwin Bach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turner\u2019s life seemed an argument against marriage, but her life with Bach was a love story the younger Tina would not have believed possible. They met in the mid-1980s, when she flew to Germany for record promotion and he picked her up at the airport. He was more than a decade younger than her \u2014 \u201cthe prettiest face,\u201d she said of him in the HBO documentary \u2014 and the attraction was mutual. She wed Bach in 2013, exchanging vows at a civil ceremony in Switzerland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s that happiness that people talk about,\u201d Turner told the press at the time, \u201cwhen you wish for nothing, when you can finally take a deep breath and say, \u2018Everything is good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Editor: msserwanga@gmail.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tina Turner, the unstoppable singer and stage performer who teamed with husband Ike Turner for a dynamic run of hit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[164],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tribute"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/TNAQYTBMXZCFJASSSPT4PEPZLM.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10988,"url":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/ministry-of-energy-permanent-secretary-eng-irene-batebe-crowned-best-performer-of-2023\/","url_meta":{"origin":9098,"position":0},"title":"Ministry Of Energy Permanent Secretary Eng. Irene Batebe Crowned Best Performer of 2023","author":"UgandaUpdate","date":"December 22, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Eng. Irene Batebe, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (MEMD), has emerged the best performer of 2023 at the Ministry\u2019s end of year party held at Nican Resort in Seguku. Batebe was recognized for her exceptional leadership, unwavering commitment, and consistent performance exceeding expectations. She was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "National News"","block_context":{"text":"National News","link":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/category\/national-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/WhatsApp-Image-2023-12-21-at-14.30.22-750x375-1.jpeg","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/WhatsApp-Image-2023-12-21-at-14.30.22-750x375-1.jpeg 1x, https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/WhatsApp-Image-2023-12-21-at-14.30.22-750x375-1.jpeg 1.5x, https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/WhatsApp-Image-2023-12-21-at-14.30.22-750x375-1.jpeg 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7695,"url":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/tshala-muana-the-raunchy-dr-congo-diva-who-captivated-a-continent\/","url_meta":{"origin":9098,"position":1},"title":"Tshala Muana: The raunchy DR Congo diva who captivated a continent","author":"UgandaUpdate","date":"December 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In the mid 90s Tshala Muana was introduced to the Uganda entertainment industry by leading Congolese music promoter Tamukati Ndongala who also passed away in 2017 She perfomed at Ggaba beach, Serena ,Sheraton and Lugogo attracting huge crowds By Jacobs Odongo Seaman African music critic One of Africa's most celebrated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/127961713_gettyimages-1125467130.jpg.webp","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/127961713_gettyimages-1125467130.jpg.webp 1x, https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/127961713_gettyimages-1125467130.jpg.webp 1.5x, https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/127961713_gettyimages-1125467130.jpg.webp 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5460,"url":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/popular-cnn-un-correspondent-richard-roths-life-saved-by-colleagues-kidney\/","url_meta":{"origin":9098,"position":2},"title":"POPULAR CNN UN CORRESPONDENT RICHARD ROTH’S LIFE SAVED BY COLLEAGUE’S KIDNEY","author":"UgandaUpdate","date":"April 18, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Richard Roth, (67 )CNN's senior UN correspondent, the last remaining original employee of CNN, is recovering after a successful kidney transplant earlier this week. In a note to colleagues on Friday, Roth asks: \"How do you thank someone who gets you off dialysis and saves your life?\" Perhaps this is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Foreign International News"","block_context":{"text":"Foreign International News","link":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/category\/foreign-international-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/roth.jpg","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/roth.jpg 1x, https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/roth.jpg 1.5x, https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/roth.jpg 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12507,"url":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/celine-dion-returns-to-stage-for-dramatic-performance-at-olympic-games-opening-ceremony-in-paris\/","url_meta":{"origin":9098,"position":3},"title":"Celine Dion returns to stage for dramatic performance at Olympic Games opening ceremony in Paris","author":"UgandaUpdate","date":"July 27, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"USA fields the biggest team followed by hosts France Celine Dion\u00a0made her return to the stage at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris in truly grand fashion. The superstar singer closed the ceremony on Friday immediately after the lighting of the Olympic cauldron, with a performance from the first stage\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Paris Olympic Games 2024"","block_context":{"text":"Paris Olympic Games 2024","link":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/category\/paris-olympic-games-2024\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/OIF-1.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6535,"url":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/serena-williams-career-over-after-ajla-tomljanovic-defeat-at-us-open\/","url_meta":{"origin":9098,"position":4},"title":"Serena Williams’ career over after Ajla Tomljanovic defeat at US Open","author":"UgandaUpdate","date":"September 3, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Serena Williams waved farewell to the US Open - and her illustrious career - amid emotional scenes after she lost to Australia's Ajla Tomljanovic on a thrilling night in New York. Williams, who turns 41 this month, expects it to be her final match. It will end a 27-year professional\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports"","block_context":{"text":"Sports","link":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/category\/sports-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/4449.webp","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/4449.webp 1x, https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/4449.webp 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15476,"url":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/jamaican-sprinting-legend-shelly-ann-fraser-pryce-retires-after-winning-a-silver-medal-in-her-final-race-in-japan\/","url_meta":{"origin":9098,"position":5},"title":"Jamaican Sprinting Legend Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce Retires After Winning A Silver Medal in Her Final Race In Japan","author":"UgandaUpdate","date":"September 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce ended her World Athletics Championship career with a silver medal in Tokyo, Japan on Sunday (21 September 2025). 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The 38-year-old certainly held her own, handing over to\u00a0Tia Clayton\u00a0in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "National News"","block_context":{"text":"National News","link":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/category\/national-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/download-3-1.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0aOV-2mK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9101,"href":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9098\/revisions\/9101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/5WSON7Q6XBGVJGKNRLUQYZZF5Y.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
But by the end of the 1970s, Turner\u2019s career seemed finished. She was 40 years old, her first solo album had flopped and her live shows were mostly confined to the cabaret circuit. Desperate for work, and money, she even agreed to tour in South Africa when the country was widely boycotted because of its racist apartheid regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Tina](\"https:\/\/tvnz-1-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/QzIm7My_zBTD3A6ydcnH7Wq13V8=\/400x225\/cloudfront-ap-southeast-2.images.arcpublishing.com\/tvnz\/KEXTH22KANHHDNZDFQSQ6LIYRE.jpg\")