The singer died in Switzerland at the age of 83. She had a torturous marriage that she preferred not to remember. She endured the suicide of her son. They sudden fame of her came when it seemed that everything was finished. She spent the last days of her secluded in a castle in Switzerland with her husband, 16 years younger.
When her career seemed buried by mistreatment, wrong decisions, and new times, Tina Turner managed to rebuild herself when no one believed it anymore. She became a hugely popular artist around the age of 45 when she became one of the great rock and pop figures of the 80s. However, towards the end of her days, she retired in Kuschnat, Switzerland, in a castle next to her husband, the German Erwin Bach, when they consulted her about her life, she did not speak of the millions of records sold, nor of the full stadiums. She neither of her fortune. She remembered the pain of a life crossed by mistreatment and loneliness.
Tina Turner knew exactly the day that she began to change her life.
She was in a car going to a hotel in Dallas. Her husband Ike Turner did what she had done so many times. He sneered at her, hit her, and then hit her again. She answered. Screams, insults, scratches, black eyes, blood. As usual. When they got to the hotel, she massaged his neck until he fell asleep. At night they had a function. For the first time, she didn't care. She took her carry-on bag and left. Like a zombie, she crossed the highway on foot without listening to the thick horns of the trucks that dodged her as best they could. She hid in another hotel and asked for help. A lawyer friend of hers got her a ticket and a house for her to hide in Los Angeles so as not to be found by Ike and her fury. She wasn't going back to him. She had to start over.
When it was time to file a divorce, Ike demanded to keep everything. He claimed that she had abandoned the home. Tina gave her what she wanted. Houses, cars, and copyrights. She only asked to keep something: her name.
She began to sing where she could. There was no stage or small audience for her. She appeared on every television show that was offered to her. From games, as a guest singer, and interviews. Anything. She served the bowling silver and she also helped people know that she still existed, that she was still active. In Las Vegas, she frequently sang completing billboards for bigger names.
Her shows got rockier. Live she maintained the usual energy. But at that time, in the world of music, the difference for her was made by albums and record contracts. No one offered her one. What record label would risk hiring a woman over forty with no solo success behind her? More than a decade had passed since her last hit with Ike. The respect of her peers, the power of her life, or her prodigious voice did not matter.
She suddenly took two steps that changed her life forever. She hired Roger Davies as a manager and gave a note to People magazine in which she recounted her life. It was the end of December 1981. There she, for the first time, she told the details of her marriage to Ike.
Harassment and daily, psychological and physical abuse. She said that he caused burns by throwing hot coffee at her face, that he broke her jaw with a punch, that he opened her eyebrows, that he pushed her down the stairs, and that he penetrated her with metal hangers. Most of her attacks ended with him on top of her, forcing her, violating her.
The note was advertised in a small line on a cover occupied by Johnny Carson, TV's greatest personality, and the advance made no reference to marital affairs. But the magazine had at that time close to 30 million readers.
From that moment Tina was looked at differently. She was encouraged to talk to the journalist pushed by her psychic, who told her that she saw multitudes of her in her future but that for that she had to let go of the past. “I lived 16 years with Ike. I lived with a man she knew she couldn't be happy with. Torture, ”she recounted Tina. The journalist quickly asked: "Did you call it torture?" Yes, real torture. Life death. But I survived,” Tina said.
Davies persisted until he got her a contract with Capitol. But when they were about to enter the studio, the company changed managers. The newcomers, seeing the list of their artists, crossed out Tina, it seemed to them an unnecessary expense. Roger Davies fought for her artist and got her let in to record. But the conditions were clear. Only fifteen days, the minimum budget, and after the album came out they had to deal with the promotion. The record company was not going to spend a dollar more on an artist who had already been a soloist for seven years and had failed to stand out, someone considered “old” by new audiences.
They hired solid session players and began to develop the repertoire. It wasn't bad but there was nothing that made a difference. Until Terry Britten arrived with What's Love Got To Do With It. A song that had been recorded by the pop group Buck Fizz and that had deservedly gone unnoticed. It was a bland subject, somewhat goofy, lacking energy. Tina, I hate him as soon as she heard it. They had to convince her to try it. After a few minor modifications, Tina voiced herself. After a few takes they realized it had a potential hit after a long time. But anyway, no one could imagine the dimension of what would happen.
The bet was highly unlikely. However, Tina Turner was a great hit of the eighties. You can't even talk back. She had hardly known the top. Private Dancer, her solo album, sold nearly 20 million copies. What's Love Got to Do It went to No. 1 and took home multiple Grammys.
Her live shows sold out. The experience of watching her sing and dance was worth it. She danced like a female James Brown but with more intensity (People Note began by saying that she had taught Mick Jagger to dance). Her stage movements were frantic but graceful. There was energy, sensuality, fascination, rhythm, and S- atmosphere. In Brazil, she achieved the record for the most tickets sold for a solo artist in a single recital. She was seen by 186,000 people. Her dream of filling stadiums came true even though a few months before it had sounded impossible.
Her look was unmistakable: wild, spiky hair, red lips, short, low-cut dresses, and marble legs. The band was forceful, and effective without too many frills. The musicians dressed in black karate attire.
She was asked about Ike at every interview. She said that she wanted to look forward, that the pain of the past needed to be left behind, and that she wanted her ex-husband to make a record and be successful. But Ike was a long way from being able to do it.
While Tina had become the Queen of Rock, Ike was nowhere to be seen. A reporter from Spin magazine tracked him down. It was a great note. The other side of the event. But she had a hard time reaching him; some even told him that he was dead. An overdose, or a confrontation with the police, due to a settling of scores with a dealer, or after a fight with a pimp. They were all plausible. He had recently been released from jail and remained untraceable. But after a series of false leads, the journalist found him. He had lost everything—he was consumed by his addictions—except his arrogance. He talked about his past with Tina without too much fuss, apportioning blame and not much else.
In 1951 Ike composed Rocket 88, which many hold to be the first rock song. Listening to her today makes it difficult to deny such an assertion. At that time he played the piano, although he later switched to the guitar (Rolling Stone chose him as one of the best in history). He was the promoter, among others, of B.B. King. With the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, he created a group that showed a new path. In addition to domestic violence, his addictions dominated him for decades.
His problems with justice were frequent. He was imprisoned seven times. He incurred half a penal code. Injuries, firing a firearm, attempted homicide, robbery, drug trafficking. When Tina reached Number 1, he was in prison. In 1991 when Ike and Tina were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (she later also entered as a solo artist), he couldn't attend the ceremony because he was serving another sentence. In his later years, he returned to blues and won two Grammys with his records of the genre. He died in 2007.
