Tina Turner Dies At 83. A Full Story Of The ‘Queen of Rock ‘N’ Roll’

Tina Turner, the dynamic rock and soul singer who rose from humble beginnings and overcame a notoriously abusive marriage to become one of the most popular female artists of all time, has died, her family announced in a statement. She was 83.

Turner passed away on May 24 at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland, near Zurich.

“With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model,” her family said.

“With her music and her boundless passion for life, she enchanted millions of fans around the world and inspired the stars of tomorrow. Today we say goodbye to a dear friend who leaves us all her greatest work: her music. All our heartfelt compassion goes out to her family. Tina, we will miss you dearly,” a statement on her verified Facebook page read.

A mind boggling live performer, Turner had a line of R&B hits during the 1960s and mid ’70s with her oppressive and rough spouse Ike Turner before she left him – escaping their Dallas hotel room with 36 pennies.

Before she made a stunning comeback in 1984 with her multiplatinum album “Private Dancer” and its No. 1 position, her solo career floundered for years with a single “What’s Love Got to Do With It.”

Turner quickly became a household name all over the world, dominating MTV with her spiked wigs, short skirts, and well-known long legs while strutting across concert stages in three-inch heels.

Her talent procured her acclaim as the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” while her strength made her a legend to battered ladies all over the place. Every word rang true as she sang in her husky, full-throated voice of heartbreak and sorrow.

“For a long time I felt like I was stuck, with no way out of the unhealthy situation I was in,” she told Harvard Business Review in 2021. “But then I had a series of encounters with different people who encouraged me … And once I could see myself clearly, I began to change, opening the way to confidence and courage. It took a few years, but finally I was able to stand up for my life and start anew.”

Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock in 1939 to poor sharecroppers near Nutbush, Tennessee. She later became famous in her autobiographical song, “Nutbush City Limits,” which was about the rural community north of Memphis. She went through her initial years living with her grandma after her parents split.

“We weren’t in poverty. We had food on the table. We just didn’t have fancy things, like bicycles,” Turner said in a 2005 interview with Oprah Winfrey.

“We were church people, so on Easter, we got all done up. I was very innocent and didn’t know much else. I knew the radio—B.B. King, country and western,” Turner said. “That’s about it. I didn’t know anything about being a star until the white people allowed us to come down and watch their television once a week.”

Following the demise of their grandma during the 1950s, Turner and her sister Ruby moved to St. Louis, Missouri, to live with their mom.

She started going to some of the local clubs in St. Louis, where she met musician Ike Turner, whose band Kings of Rhythm was popular in the area. When she was 17 years old, he got her to join his band as a singer.

“Ike had to come to the house and ask Ma if it was OK for me to sing with him. He knew I had the potential to be a star. We were close, like brother and sister,” Turner told Winfrey. “On his off nights, we’d drive around town, and he would tell me about his life, his dreams. He told me that when he was young, people found him unattractive. That really hurt him. I felt bad for him. I thought, ‘I’ll never hurt you, Ike.’ I meant it. He was so nice to me then, but I did see the other side of him.”

In 1960, she began performing under the name Tina Turner, and the Ike & Tina Turner Revue was formed. Their relationship developed, and that same year, their son Ronnie was born. They got married in 1962 and had four kids together. Ike had two kids from previous relationships, and Tina had a son named Craig from another relationship.

As Turner has expressed in her life account and in interviews, the actual maltreatment started nearly all along.

She claimed that Ike Turner, who was thin-skinned and erratic, would explode into rage at the slightest provocation. She also stated that he would hit her with anything he had at his disposal, including coat hangers, telephones, a wooden shoe stretcher, and his fists.

Tina further added that, he frequently beat her before they entered the stage.

He would repeatedly attempt to give me a black eye after hitting me in the ribs. He maintained that his maltreatment should be seen. That was the despicable part,” Turner told Winfrey.

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While her husband remained in the background, typically playing guitar, Tina performed lead vocals on the majority of their songs with the assistance of female backup singers. Their collaboration as musicians resulted in a number of R&B hits, including “A Fool in Love,” “Nutbush City Limits,” and “Proud Mary,” a No. 1 hit from their 1971 cover of a Creedence Clearwater Revival song. 4 on the pop charts, resulting in a Grammy nomination.

However, their marriage continued to be fraught offstage, which was exacerbated in part by Ike Turner’s cocaine addiction.

“Another night we had a fight in the dressing room, and when I went onstage, my face was swollen,” she told Winfrey. “I think my nose was broken because blood was gushing into my mouth when I sang. Before, I’d been able to hide under makeup. But you can’t hide swelling.”

Fearful of his temper and determined not to abandon him like others, she stayed with Ike Turner for more than a decade.

However, in July 1976, when they flew to Dallas for a performance, things came to a head. In her book, Turner said that her husband started hitting her in the car on their way to their hotel after a flight. While he rested, she got out of their room, carrying just a Mobil Mastercard and 36 pennies – “a quarter, a dime and a penny.”

She escaped across a bustling interstate to an inn, where a thoughtful representative saw her bloodied face and gave her a room. After that, she contacted a familiar lawyer, who arranged for a friend to pick her up and fly her back to Los Angeles.

“After my plane landed in California, my heart was in my ears. I was afraid Ike would be there because when I’d left once before, he tracked me down on a bus…” she told Oprah. “So when I got off that plane, I ran like mad. I said to myself, ‘If he’s here, I’m going to scream for the police. And I had one chant in my head: ‘I will die before I go back.’”

Turner credited a friend’s introduction to Buddhism and its chanting practice with giving her the courage to divorce her husband. Turner, who was raised a Baptist, said that the teachings of Buddhism changed her life when she was middle age.

“I came to understand that any achievement stems from inner change,” she told Harvard Business Review. “The more I studied Buddhist principles, the deeper I dug within myself and cleaned up whatever attitudes or habits were standing in my way.”

After a prolonged legal battle, she and Ike were granted a divorce in 1978. She stated in her book that she cared for their four sons while he kept the majority of their assets and earnings as a couple. Turner struggled to rebuild her career for the next few years, performing on TV specials and in Las Vegas, despite the fact that the divorce almost cost her her financial future.

When she hired Roger Davies, an Australian manager, in 1979, her comeback took off. Bar Stewart welcomed her to perform “Hot Legs” with him on “Saturday Night Live” after two years, and in 1983, her front of Al Green’s “We should Remain Together” turned into a hit in Britain.

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After that, she released “Private Dancer,” which resulted in three hits that reached the Top 10, won her three Grammys, and ultimately sold more than 10 million copies. “What’s Love Got to Do With It” made her the oldest female artist to reach the No. 1 spot, even though she initially didn’t like the song and had to be convinced to record it. 1 hit.

She co-starred in Mel Gibson’s post-apocalyptic film “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” scoring another hit with the movie’s song “We Don’t Need Another Hero,” and sang on the all-star charity single “We Are the World” in 1985, when she was at her peak of talent. She also performed with Mick Jagger at the historic Live Aid concerts and sang on the song “We Are the World.”

In her best-selling memoir “I, Tina,” which was adapted into the successful 1993 film “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” starring Angela Bassett, Turner wrote about her early career and abusive marriage.

Turner continued to have hit albums, singles, and sold-out concerts in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and he was a popular live performer well into the new millennium, particularly in England.

Turner and her German boyfriend, record company executive Erwin Bach, moved to Switzerland in the 1990s. He was 16 years older than I. After being together for 27 years, the couple got married in 2013 and bought a $76 million lakeside estate in 2022.

“I pay taxes in the United States. She stated to CNN’s Larry King in 1997, “My family is here.” I left the United States because my boyfriend and (my) greatest success were in another country. My music has received a lot of support in Europe.

In addition to Ike and Tina Turner, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2021. Tina,” a melodic in light of her biography, opened on Broadway in 2018.

Turner is preceded in death by her two sons, Craig, who died in 2018, and Ronnie, in 2022.

“Some of the happiest moments in my life were the birth of my beautiful baby boys, Craig and Ronnie, and marrying my partner and soul mate, Erwin Bach,” she told NBC’s Today Show in 2021.

Professionally, she said, her happiest moments were performing live.

“One of my early career goals was to become the first Black woman to fill stadiums around the world,” she told NBC. “At the time, it seemed impossible. But I never gave up, and I’m so happy I made that dream come true.