Tina Turner Biography

Anna Mae Bullock (born November 26, 1939), known by her stage name Tina Turner, is a singer, dancer, actress, and author, whose career has spanned more than half a century, earning her widespread recognition and numerous awards. Born and raised in the American South, she now resides in Switzerland and is a Swiss citizen.

She began her musical career in the mid-1950s as a featured singer with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm, first recording in 1958 under the name "Little Ann". Her introduction to the public as Tina Turner began in 1960 as a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Success followed with a string of notable hits credited to the duo, including "River Deep " Mountain High" (1966), "Proud Mary" (1971) and "Nutbush City Limits" (1973), a song which she wrote. In her autobiography, I, Tina, she revealed several instances of severe domestic abuse against her by Ike Turner prior to their 1976 split and subsequent 1978 divorce. Raised as a Baptist, she melded her faith with Buddhism in 1974, crediting the religion and its spiritual chant of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo for helping her to endure during difficult times.

After her divorce from Ike Turner, she rebuilt her career through performances, though she initially struggled to make an impact on the music charts as a solo artist. In the early 1980s, she launched a comeback with another string of hits, starting in 1983 with the single "Let's Stay Together" followed by the 1984 release of her fifth solo album Private Dancer which became a worldwide success. "What's Love Got to Do with It", the most successful single from the album, was later used as the title of a biographical film adapted from her autobiography. In addition to her musical career, Turner has also experienced success in films, including a role in the 1975 rock musical Tommy and a starring role in the 1985 Mel Gibson blockbuster film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, as well as a cameo role in the 1993 film Last Action Hero.

One of the world's most popular entertainers, she is sometimes called "the queen of rock". Turner has been termed the most successful female rock artist, winning eight Grammys and selling more concert tickets than any other solo performer in history. She has also been named "one of the greatest singers of all time" by Rolling Stone. Her combined album and single sales total approximately 100 million copies worldwide. She is noted for her energetic stage presence, powerful vocals, and career longevity. In 2008, Turner returned from semi-retirement to embark on her Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour. Turner's tour became one of the highest selling ticketed shows of 2008"2009. Rolling Stone ranked her no. 63 on their 100 greatest artists of all time. In 1991, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Early life

Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in Nutbush, an unincorporated area in Haywood County, Tennessee. Her parents were Zelma Priscilla (née Currie) and Floyd Richard Bullock. Anna was born at Poindexter Farm, Hwy 180, where her father worked as an overseer of the sharecroppers. She is of African American, Native American and European American descent. Her mother had Cherokee and Navajo ancestry, as well as African American ancestry. When she appeared on the PBS documentary, African American Lives 2, results of blood tests, as revealed by host Henry Louis Gates, showed her to have 1% Native American blood.

She had an older sister, Ruby Aillene. As young children, Anna Mae and Aillene were separated when their parents relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee to do work at a defense facility during World War II. Anna went to stay with her strict, religious paternal grandparents, Alex and Roxanna Bullock, who were deacon and deaconess at the Woodlawn Missionary Baptist Church, which was located on Woodlawn Road off Highway 19. After the war, the sisters reunited with their parents and moved with them to Knoxville, Tennessee. Two years later, the family returned to Nutbush to live in the Flagg Grove community, where Anna attended Flagg Grove Elementary School from first through eighth grade. In 1889, her great-great uncle had sold the land on which the school was built to the school trustees.

As a youngster, Anna sang in the church choir at Nutbush's Spring Hill Baptist Church. When she was eleven, her mother ran off without warning, seeking freedom from the abusive relationship with Floyd Bullock. Zelma relocated to St. Louis to live with Anna Mae's great-aunt. When Anna was 13, her father married another woman, and moved to Detroit. She and her sister were sent to live with their grandmother Georgeanna in Brownsville. She later stated in her memoir I, Tina that she felt her mother had not loved her and that she "wasn't wanted", stating further that her mother had planned to leave her father when she was pregnant with her. "She was a very young woman who didn't want another kid", she said. As a pre-teen, Anna Mae worked as a domestic worker for the Henderson family.

A self-professed tomboy, she joined both the cheerleading squad and the female basketball team at Carver High School in Brownsville, and "socialized every chance she got". When she was 16, her grandmother died suddenly. After the funeral, Anna went to live with her mother in St. Louis, Missouri, where she was reunited with her sister. There, she graduated from Sumner High School in 1958. After her graduation, she worked as a nurse's aide at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and dreamed of becoming a nurse.

Ike & Tina Turner

Origins

Anna and her sister began to frequent nightclubs in the St. Louis and East St. Louis areas around this time. At Club Manhattan, a nightclub in the East St. Louis area, she first saw Ike Turner and his band, the Kings of Rhythm, perform. Though not taken by his looks, she later said she was impressed by the music and Ike's talent, claiming the bandleader's music put her "into a trance". Noticing that women volunteered to sing with Ike, she felt the urge to get on stage, despite the fact that Ike was not serious about allowing female singers in his band. One night in 1957, the Kings of Rhythm drummer Gene Washington pulled out a microphone from his drum set to the table Anna and her sister Aillene shared. After Aillene rejected the microphone, Anna took it and began singing while the rest of the band was in intermission. Stunned by her voice, Ike left his piano and asked her if she knew other songs. By the end of the night, she was singing lead for the band's performance. Soon afterwards, Ike invited her to join the band full-time. He taught her the points of voice control and performance. Her first studio recording was in 1958, singing background, under the name "Little Ann", on the Ike Turner song, "Box Top", alongside singer Carlson Oliver.

In 1959, Ike wrote a song for male vocalist Art Lassiter. When Lassiter failed to show up for the recording session for the song, Ike, who had booked expensive studio time, asked Anna to sing a "dummy vocal", with the intention of erasing her vocals and adding Lassiter's at a later date. Although some felt that the demo with Anna's voice was "high pitched" and "screechy", the song received decent air-time in St. Louis. Local St. Louis deejay Dave Dixon convinced Ike to send the tape to Juggy Murray, president of R&B label, Sue Records. Murray was impressed with Anna's vocals, later stating that her vocals "sounded like screaming dirt... it was a funky sound." Murray bought the track and paid Ike a $25,000 advance for recording and publishing rights. Murray also convinced Turner to make Tina "the star of the show". It was at this point that Ike Turner renamed Anna Mae Bullock "Tina", because the name rhymed with his favorite television character, Sheena. It has also been said that the renaming of Anna Mae Bullock was intended to keep her from running off and making a name for herself. Ike Turner felt that, if Anna Mae Bullock left him, he could replace her with another singer and have her perform as Tina. Ike later admitted that another reason for the name change was to discourage one of Tina's former lovers from returning to her.

Early success

"A Fool in Love" became an immediate hit after its release reaching #2 on the Hot R&B Sides chart by August 1960, and #27 on the Billboard Hot 100 by that October. It was described by Kurt Loder years later as "the blackest record to ever creep into the white pop charts since Ray Charles' gospel-styled 'What'd I Say' that previous summer". Their second pop hit, "It's Gonna Work Out Fine", was released a year later, where it peaked at #14 on the Hot 100 and later won the duo their first Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock and Roll Performance. Other hit singles the duo scored during this early period included the top ten R&B singles, "I Idolize You", "Poor Fool" and "Tra-La-La-La". After a few more recordings failed to generate success, the Turners left Sue in 1964 and signed with Kent Records for a brief spell, releasing the song, "I Can't Believe What You Say", which failed to chart. They then signed with the Bob Krasnow-run label, Loma Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records, in 1965. Krasnow replaced Juggy Murray as the group's manager. In a five-year span, Ike & Tina signed with more than ten labels between 1964 and 1969.

The duo's early success was mainly built around live performances across the United States, which the duo gigged 90 days straight in dates around the country. During the days of the chitlin' circuit, the Ike and Tina Turner Revue built a reputation that a writer for the History of Rock site cited as "one of the most hottest, most durable and potentially most explosive of all R&B ensembles" with its show rivaling that of the James Brown Show in terms of musical spectacle. The shows, organized by Ike Turner, provided them with financial earnings. Due to their successful performances, the couple were able to perform in front of diverse crowds in the American South due to the money they made from performing in Southern clubs. Between 1963 and 1966, the band toured constantly without the presence of a hit single. Tina's own profile was raised after several solo appearances on shows such as American Bandstand and Shindig!, while the entire Revue appeared on shows such as Hollywood A Go-Go, The Andy Williams Show and, in late 1965, in the concert film The Big T.N.T. Show.

Mainstream success

In 1965, Phil Spector sought to work with Tina after catching an Ike & Tina show in Los Angeles. Upon working out the deal, Spector gave Ike a $20,000 advance to keep out of the studio, to which Ike agreed. With Spector, Turner produced the song "River Deep - Mountain High", which was released in 1966 on Spector's Philles record label. Though the record didn't do well in the United States, the song became successful overseas, finding its peak in the United Kingdom, where it reached #3 on the singles chart. The success of the record led to them opening for The Rolling Stones on their UK tour later that fall, which the Revue later extended by performing all over Europe and Australia. The Turners' 1968 Blue Thumb release, Outta Season, produced a charted cover of Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long". Their 1969 Blue Thumb follow-up, The Hunter, included the original composition, "Bold Soul Sister", and a cover of the title track of the same name, originally recorded by Albert King. Tina Turner won a Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in 1970 for "The Hunter". The success of the albums led to the Revue headlining at Las Vegas where their shows were attended by a variety of celebrities including David Bowie, Sly Stone, Janis Joplin, Cher, James Brown, Ray Charles, Elton John and Elvis Presley. In 1969, the Revue's profile in their home country was raised after opening for the Rolling Stones on their US tour. Tina became the first woman to grace the cover of the rock magazine, Rolling Stone during this time.

The success of the tour led to the Turners signing with, first Minit Records, and then, Liberty Records, where they released two recordings, Come Together and Workin' Together, released in 1970 and 1971. In 1970, they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and had their first top 40 pop song in nearly ten years with their remake of Sly and the Family Stone's "I Want to Take You Higher". Their cover of The Beatles' "Come Together" also charted beginning the period of the act covering rock songs rather than the usual blues and R&B in their repertoire. In early 1971, the duo's cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" became their biggest hit, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and selling over a million copies. The song later won the duo a Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group. The duo's live album, What You Hear Is What You Get, culled from a gig at Carnegie Hall, became the band's first gold-selling album. The success of their 1971 recordings led to Ike Turner creating Bolic Sound Studios near their home in Inglewood, California. Reassigning to the United Artists label, the duo released ten albums between 1971 and 1974, with little success. The duo's final hit single, "Nutbush City Limits", which included lyrics from Tina, was released in 1973, peaking at #22 on the Hot 100, while reaching #4 in the UK. A year later, Turner, with help from outside producers in Bolic, released her first solo album Tina Turns the Country On! Turner was critically raved for her vocal performances on the album, leading to another solo Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in 1975. Her and Ike's work on their gospel album, The Gospel According to Ike & Tina, led to a nomination for Best Soul Gospel Performance. One of the Turners' last albums together, Sweet Island Rhode Red, produced the funk hit "Sexy Ida, Pt. 1".

In 1974, Tina traveled to London to participate in the filming of the rock musical, Tommy, in which she played The Acid Queen, and sang the song of the same name. Turner's performance was critically acclaimed. Shortly after filming wrapped, Turner appeared with Ann-Margret on her TV special in London. Returning to the United States, Turner continued her career with the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Following the release of Tommy, another Turner solo album, Acid Queen, was released in 1975. Though it included a variety of producers, Ike Turner contributed on a few of the songs, including the raunchy duet "Baby Get It On", which became Ike & Tina's final charted single.

Decline

By 1975, the Ike & Tina Turner Revue's success had tapered off. Ike Turner's alcoholism and troubling cocaine habit had hampered his ability to produce music and some gigs were canceled, leading to a drop in ticket sales in their concerts. Throughout that year, Tina appeared solo without Ike in several shows including The Cher Show. Tina, around this time, had begun chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo after having converted to Nichiren Buddhism in 1974, as a means to get through rough times, which mainly included Ike's own rough treatment of her.

On July 2, 1976, Turner and her husband had a violent fight on their way from Los Angeles to Dallas where the Revue had a gig at the Dallas Statler Hilton. Following their arrival to the hotel, Turner left Ike, fleeing with nothing more than thirty-six cents ("a quarter, a dime and a penny", Tina said) and a Mobil gas station credit card in her possession. She spent the next few months hiding from Ike while staying with various friends until Ike finally agreed to a divorce. Following this, Tina filed for divorce on July 27 after 14 years of marriage, ending the Ike & Tina Turner Revue for good.

Tina later credited the Nichiren Buddhist faith and chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo with giving her the courage to strike out on her own. However, by walking out on Ike in the middle of a tour, she learned she was legally responsible to tour promoters for the canceled shows. After a year in court, their divorce was made final on March 29, 1978. In the divorce, she completely parted ways with him, retaining only her stage name and assuming responsibility for the debts incurred by the canceled tour as well as a significant Internal Revenue Service lien.

First solo performances

After Ike & Tina's divorce was finalized in March 1978, Tina set on reviving her flagging career. With the help of United Artists Records executive Richard Stewart, Turner was given the finances to produce her own show. Inspired by the cabaret-styled Las Vegas shows she had witnessed during her Ike & Tina years, Tina produced a similar show and began performing in venues in Las Vegas and in small clubs in the United States. To earn further income due to issues with the IRS, Turner began appearing in shows such as The Hollywood Squares, Donny and Marie, The Sonny & Cher Show and The Brady Bunch Hour. Later in 1978, United Artists released Turner's third solo album Rough, with distribution both in North America and Europe with EMI. The record failed to chart as well as her follow-up album Love Explosion, which included a brief diversion to disco rhythms. The albums completed Turner's contract with United Artists/EMI and Turner left the label without renewing the contract. Continuing to perform in small clubs with her cabaret styled act, Turner spent most of 1978 and 1979 on the road promoting her Wild Lady of Rock 'n' Roll tour, where she continued to be a successful live act even without a hit record.

Following an appearance on Olivia Newton-John's musical variety show in Australia, she sought contact with her management team, which included Roger Davies. Davies saw her perform in San Francisco in 1980 and agreed to work with her, becoming Turner's manager and booking agent for her shows. Through Davies' insistence and from her desire to fill in arenas, Turner cut most of her entourage including longtime associate Rhonda Gramm, and her band, and revived her show from cabaret styled shows to a gritty rock'n'roll showcase, debuting Turner's new show in venues both in and outside the United States. In 1981, Davies set up a showcase for Tina at The Ritz in New York City, which led to Rod Stewart having Tina perform with him, first on Saturday Night Live and then on several dates of his U.S. tour. Following this, Turner opened three shows for The Rolling Stones. In both tours, Turner gained recognition for her success as a live performer. In 1982, she recorded a cover of The Temptations' "Ball of Confusion" for the UK production team B.E.F., which became a hit in European dance clubs. Throughout 1982, Turner performed in both bigger and smaller venues, including another showcase at the Ritz in December of that year, which led to a singles deal with Capitol Records under the insistence of David Bowie.

Mainstream success

In November 1983, Tina released her cover of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together", with Capitol. The record became a hit, first in Europe where it reached the top forty and top ten in some countries including the UK and then in the Americas, peaking at #26 on the US pop chart in February 1984, becoming Turner's first solo single to chart putting an end to the singer's eight-year absence from the charts, also peaking at the top 5 of the US R&B and dance charts as well. The success of the single led Capitol to rethink its contract with Turner and offered the singer a three-album deal, demanding an album on short notice, which had Turner staging what Ebony magazine later called an "amazing comeback". Done in two months, the album Private Dancer, was released in June 1984. That same month, Turner issued the album's second single "What's Love Got to Do with It". It quickly climbed to the Top 10 within a month and in September had reached #1 on the Hot 100 in the U.S., making it the first time in Turner's career that she had reached that position. Private Dancer peaked at the Top 5 of the Billboard album charts later selling five million copies in the U.S. and a total of eleven million copies worldwide, though some sources stated the album has sold over twenty million making it her most successful album. Private Dancer also featured two more Top 10 singles, the rock-oriented "Better Be Good to Me" and the seductive title track "Private Dancer" while another U.S. single, "Show Some Respect", became a modest Top 40 hit. Turner's comeback was culminated in early 1985 when she won four Grammy Awards including Record of the Year for "What's Love Got to Do with It". In February of that year, she embarked on her second world tour supporting the Private Dancer album, where she toured to huge crowds. One show, filmed at Birmingham, England's NEC Arena, was later released on home video. During this time, she also contributed on vocals to the USA for Africa benefit song "We Are the World".

Turner's success continued in 1985 when she appeared in the film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, playing Aunty Entity, the ruler of Bartertown " her first acting role in 10 years. Upon its release, the film grossed $36 million. Turner later received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress for her role in the film. She also contributed songs to the film's soundtrack, two of which, "We Don't Need Another Hero" and "One of the Living", became hits, with "One of the Living" later winning Turner a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. In July, Turner performed at Live Aid alongside Mick Jagger. Encouraged by a performance together during Tina's filmed solo concert in England, singer Bryan Adams released their duet single together, "It's Only Love", later resulting in a Grammy nod for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

Subsequent releases

In 1986, Turner returned with her next solo album Break Every Rule. The album quickly became platinum launching several hit singles including "Typical Male", "Two People" and "What You Get Is What You See" going on to sell two million copies in the United States and four million altogether worldwide. That same year, Turner published her autobiography I, Tina, in which she talked about her early life and volatile marriage to Ike Turner. She later received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that summer. Turner's European Break Every Rule Tour, which culminated in March 1987 in Munich, Germany, contributed to record breaking sales and concert attendances. In January 1988, Turner made history alongside Paul McCartney when she performed in front of the largest paying audience (approximately 184,000) to see a solo performer in Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, earning her a Guinness World Record. The success of Turner's two live tours led to the recording of Tina Live in Europe which was released that April. Turner lay low following the end of her Break Every Rule Tour, emerging once again with Foreign Affair which included one of Turner's signature songs, "The Best". She later embarked on a Europe-only tour to promote the album. While Foreign Affair went gold in the United States, with its singles "The Best" and "Steamy Windows" becoming Top 40 hits there, it wasn't as successful as Turner's previous offerings, though it was hugely successful in Europe, where Turner had personally relocated.

In 1991, Ike & Tina Turner were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Phil Spector later accepted on their behalf. That same year, the ex-couple signed away their rights to have their lives dramatized in the semi-autobiographical film What's Love Got to Do with It, later released in 1993 and starring Angela Bassett as Tina and Laurence Fishburne as Ike, with the actors winning Best Actress and Best Actor Academy Award nominations for their portrayals of the former husband-and-wife team. Turner contributed to the soundtrack for What's Love Got to Do with It, re-recording songs from her Ike & Tina days and recording several newer songs including what turned out to be her last Top 10 U.S. hit, "I Don't Wanna Fight". Other than helping Bassett with her wardrobe and teaching her dance steps as well as providing songs for the soundtrack, she refused to be involved fully in the film, telling an interviewer, "Why would I want to see Ike Turner beat me up again? I haven't dwelled on it; it's all in the past where it belongs." Following the film's and soundtrack's release, Turner embarked on her first US tour in seven years. Following the tour's end, Turner moved to Switzerland and took a year off from the road at the end of the tour.

Turner returned in 1995 with the U2 composition, "GoldenEye" for the James Bond film of the same name. Its huge success in Europe and modest success in her native United States led Turner to record a new album, releasing the Wildest Dreams album in 1996. Though the album itself was not as hugely successful in the United States, thanks to a world tour and a much played Hanes hosiery commercial, the album went gold in the United States. The album reached platinum success in Europe where Turner had hits with "Whatever You Want", "Missing You", which briefly charted in the U.S., "Something Beautiful Remains", and the sensual Barry White duet "In Your Wildest Dreams". Following the tour's end in 1997, Turner took another break before re-emerging again in 1999 appearing on the VH-1 special Divas Live '99. In 1998 the duet with Italian superstar Eros Ramazzotti in "Cose della vita" that became a European hit. Before celebrating her 60th birthday, Turner released the dance-infused song, "When the Heartache Is Over" and its parent album, Twenty Four Seven the following month in Europe, releasing both the song and the album in North America in early 2000. The success of "When the Heartache is Over" and Turner's tour supporting the album once again helped in the album going gold in the U.S. The Twenty Four Seven Tour became her most successful concert tour to date and became the highest-grossing tour of 2000 according to Pollstar grossing over $100 million. Later, Guinness World Records announced that Turner had sold more concert tickets than any other solo concert performer in music history. Afterwards Turner announced a semi-retirement.

Recent years

In 2002, Tennessee State Route 19 between Brownsville and Nutbush was named "Tina Turner Highway". The following year, she recorded the duet "Great Spirits" with Phil Collins for the Disney film, Brother Bear. In 2004, Tina made her first professional appearances following her semi-retirement, releasing the compilation album, All the Best, which produced the single "Open Arms", and sold more than a million copies in the US.

In December of the following year, Turner was recognized by the Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and was elected to join an elite group of entertainers. President George W. Bush commented on Turner's "natural skill, the energy and sensuality", and referred to her legs as "the most famous in show business". Several artists paid tribute to her that night including Oprah Winfrey, Melissa Etheridge (performing "River Deep - Mountain High"), Queen Latifah (performing "What's Love Got to Do with It"), Beyoncé (performing "Proud Mary"), and Al Green (performing "Let's Stay Together"). Winfrey stated, "We don't need another hero. We need more heroines like you, Tina. You make me proud to spell my name w-o-m-a-n," and "Tina Turner didn't just survive, she triumphed." In November, Turner released All the Best " Live Collection and it was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Turner participated in the soundtrack to All the Invisible Children, providing duet vocals to the song, "Teach Me Again", with singer Elisa, finding success in Italy where it peaked at the top spot. Turner gave her first live performance in seven years, in 2007, headlining a benefit concert for the Cauldwell's Children Charity at London's Natural History Museum. That year, Turner performed a rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Edith and The Kingpin" on Herbie Hancock's Mitchell tribute album, River: The Joni Letters. Turner's original vocals for Carlos Santana's "The Game of Love" were included in a Santana greatest hits compilation. Label demands led to Turner's vocals being replaced at the last minute by Michelle Branch.

On December 12, 2007, Turner's ex-husband Ike Turner died from a cocaine overdose, brought on by emphysema and cardiovascular disease. Reached for comment, Turner issued a brief statement through her spokesperson stating: "Tina hasn't had any contact with Ike in more than 30 years. No further comment will be made." Turner made her public comeback in February 2008 at the Grammy Awards where she performed alongside Beyoncé. In addition, she picked up a Grammy as a featured artist on River: The Joni Letters. In October 2008, Turner embarked on her first tour in nearly ten years with the Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour. In support of the tour, Turner released another hits compilation. The tour became a huge success and culminated in the release of the live album/DVD, Tina Live. In 2009, Turner participated in the Beyond singing project with fellow musicians Regula Curti, Seda Bagcan and Dechen Shak Dagsay. This album combined Buddhist chants and Christian choral music along with a spiritual message read by Turner. The album was released only in Germany and a handful of other countries. It peaked at #7 in Switzerland. In 2011, Children Beyond followed and charted again in Switzerland. Turner promoted the album by performing on TV shows in Germany and Switzerland in December that year. In April 2010, mainly due to an online campaign by fans of the Glasgow Rangers Football Club, Turner's 1989 hit, "The Best", returned to the UK singles chart, peaking at #9 on the chart. In May 2012, Turner was spotted attending a fashion show in Beijing to support Giorgio Armani. Turner appeared on the cover of the German issue of Vogue magazine in April 2013. At age 73, she is the oldest person worldwide to appear on the cover of Vogue.

Personal life

Family

In 1958, eighteen-year-old Tina became a mother for the first time, giving birth to her son Raymond Craig in August of that year. Craig was the child of Kings of Rhythm saxophonist Raymond Hill. The news of her out-of-wedlock pregnancy and her performances with the Kings of Rhythm caused her mother Zelma to kick her out of her house. After marrying Ike Turner, Tina became stepmother of two of Ike's eldest sons, Ike Jr. (b. 1958) and Michael (b. 1959). In October 1960, Tina gave birth to Ronald, her only child by Ike. During Ike and Tina's divorce trial, Ike sent all four sons to live with Tina at her home. After Tina rose to solo stardom, Ike accused her of being a bad mother, even alleging that she had sent Michael to a mental hospital after he had entered Tina's home allegedly to reunite her with his father. Tina denied the allegations, telling Australian magazine TV Week, "he gave me those children and not a penny to look after them with." Tina had an estranged relationship with her mother throughout Zelma Bullock's lifetime. In 1985, after moving to England, she leased her Los Angeles home to her. Zelma died in 1999. Tina's elder sister, Aillene died after a long bout with illness in 2010.

Relationship and marriage to Ike Turner

The relationship shared between Tina and Ike was at first friendly. In early years, they compared their relationship as being "more sibling like". In 1959, Tina moved to Ike's home in East St. Louis. During that period, Ike began training Tina with her voice. Neither Ike nor Tina felt much attraction for the other: Tina thought Ike was not the ideal-looking man while Ike dismissed Tina as being "too skinny". Tina later acknowledged that Ike favored curvaceous women. Ike was still married to Lorraine Taylor during this period. Late in 1959, Ike and Lorraine separated and shortly afterwards, Tina and Ike engaged in a sexual relationship, much to Tina's chagrin. Ike also felt guilt in the relationship, stating later that having sex with Tina "felt like I had screwed my sister or something". The couple married in Tijuana in 1962. Tina recalled the first time Ike physically abused her began after she told Ike of her thoughts of leaving Ike's group due to financial disputes. Tina said Ike grabbed a shoe stretcher and hit her in the head with it. Afterwards, Tina said, Ike asked her to have sex with him. Tina wrote in her memoirs, I, Tina, that the incident was the first time that Ike had "instilled fear" in her.

While Tina wrote and explained Ike's levels of abuse, Ike's own accounts differed. In a 1985 interview with Spin magazine, Ike admitted, "Yeah I hit her, but I didn't hit her more than the average guy beats his wife.... If she says I abused her, maybe I did." He worded this slightly differently in his 1999 memoirs, Taking Back My Name, writing: "Sure, I've slapped Tina.... There have been times when I punched her to the ground without thinking. But I have never beat her." Ike also claimed on more than one occasion that he and Tina weren't even legally married. In the 1985 Spin article, Ike said, "As God is my judge, of all my wives, Tina is the only one I was never legally married to." He explained in later years that Tina took his name in order to discourage a former lover from returning to her. Ike himself said he had married at least 14 times and five times before he allegedly married Tina. Tina herself admits she "never felt like [she] was married" to Ike.

Before a show in Los Angeles in 1969, Tina tried to commit suicide by swallowing 50 Valiums. In early July 1976, after years of abuse, Tina left Ike after a violent fight in Dallas. On July 27, 1976, she filed for divorce. In the final divorce decree, Tina took responsibility for missed concert dates as well as an IRS lien while also being allowed to retain use of her stage name as a means to find work as a performer. Following the divorce, Turner had corrective surgery on her nasal septum, injured due to Ike's frequent hitting. Later, Turner dismissed popular notions that she was a "victim" of Ike Turner's abuse stating she had argued with producers of her loosely-based biopic What's Love Got to Do with It over her depiction in the film. Friends and relatives of Ike Turner said he never fully got over their divorce. Their son Ronald once alleged that Ike used to come to his house occasionally and snoop through his address book to locate Tina.

Religion

Throughout her childhood and early adulthood, Turner was Baptist. Turner was introduced to Buddhism by a friend of hers and Ike's in 1972. Turner wrote in her autobiography that she first used Buddhist chants (mainly Nam My?h? Renge Ky?) before performing at a recording session at Ike's Bolic Sound studio. The result led to Ike, instead of berating her or hitting her for supposed wrong notes, sending her money to go shopping, something Tina took to her advantage later on. Two years later, she adopted the Nichiren Buddhism faith and later credited the religion for getting her through the rough times. Turner considers herself a "Buddhist-Baptist". Turner stated she still prays in the traditional Baptist sense while also meditating and chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

Other relationships and second marriage

Tina's first boyfriend, while living in Brownsville, was Harry Taylor, who originally came from a rival school apart from hers. Taylor relocated to Tina's school to be near her. The relationship ended after Tina learned that Harry had married another woman. After moving to St. Louis, she and her sister got acquainted by members of the Kings of Rhythm, with Tina dating the band's saxophonist Raymond Hill. After Tina gave birth to their son Craig, their relationship was strained. Allegedly, after a fight between the two broke out, Ike and other Kings of Rhythm members confronted Hill and beat him up, with one member tackling him to the ground, instantly breaking his leg. The injury was so severe that Hill had to return to his hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi. Ike Turner later adopted Tina's son adding his last name legally. After divorcing Ike Turner in 1978, Tina abstained from relationships as she set on bringing her career back on track.

While at a record label party in London in 1985, Tina met German music executive Erwin Bach. Initially starting out a friendship, Turner and Bach began dating the following year and have remained together since. In July 2013, after a 27-year romantic partnership, the couple married in a civil ceremony on the banks of Lake Zurich in Küsnacht, northern Switzerland.

Residences and citizenship

Turner has been living in a lake house, Château Algonquin in Küsnacht, next to Zurich, Switzerland, since moving there in 1994. She owns property in Los Angeles, and has residences in London, Cologne, and a villa on the French Riviera named Anna Fleur.

On January 25, 2013, it was announced that Turner had applied for Swiss citizenship, and that she would relinquish her U.S. citizenship. In April, she undertook a mandatory citizenship test which included advanced knowledge of the German language and of Swiss history; she passed without problems. On April 22, 2013, she was issued a Swiss passport and is now a citizen of Switzerland. Turner signed the paperwork to officially relinquish her American citizenship at the U.S. embassy in Bern on October 24, 2013.

Awards and accolades

Turner was listed at the 17th place on Rolling Stone's list "The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time". Turner is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and three of her recordings, "River Deep " Mountain High" (1999), "Proud Mary" (2003) and "What's Love Got to Do with It" (2012) are in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Turner has won eight Grammy Awards.

Bryan Adams, who performed with her on the Private Dancer Tour, praised Turner's live performances, saying, "I never saw Tina walk through a performance, she always put on a great show, and was gracious and grateful to her audience." Her legs were noted specifically as she was honored by President George W. Bush. At age 73, Turner is also the oldest person to be on the front cover of Vogue Magazine surpassing Meryl Streep who covered American Vogue in 2012 at age 62. Turner has her own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Discography

Studio albums

• Tina Turns the Country On! (1974)
• Acid Queen (1975)
• Rough (1978)
• Love Explosion (1979)
• Private Dancer (1984)
• Break Every Rule (1986)
• Foreign Affair (1989)
• What's Love Got to Do With It (1993)
• Wildest Dreams (1996)
• Twenty Four Seven (1999)

Other albums

Soundtrack participation

• Tommy (1975)
• Summer Lovers (1982)
• Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
• Days of Thunder (1990)
• Goldeneye (1995)
• Aida (1999)
• Brother Bear (2005)

Tribute albums

• Two Rooms (1991)

Live albums

• Tina Live in Europe (1988)
• VH1 Divas Live '99 (1999)
• Tina Live (2009)

Compilation albums

• Simply the Best (1991)
• The Collected Recordings (1994)
• All the Best (2004)
• Tina! (2008)
• The Platinum Collection (2009)

Tours

• 1977: Australian Tour
• 1978"79: The Wild Lady of Rock Tour
• 1982: European Tour
• 1984: 1984 World Tour
• 1985: Private Dancer Tour
• 1987"88: Break Every Rule World Tour
• 1990: Foreign Affair: The Farewell Tour
• 1993: What's Love? Tour
• 1996"97: Wildest Dreams Tour
• 2000: Twenty Four Seven Tour
• 2008"09: Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1970	Gimme Shelter	Herself	Documentary
1971	Taking Off	Herself
1975	Tommy	The Acid Queen
1976	All This and World War II	Herself	Documentary
1978	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band	Our Guests at Heartland
1979	John Denver and the Ladies	Herself	Variety Show
1985	Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome	Auntie Entity	Won (1986) " NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
1993	What's Love Got to Do with it	Herself	Singing voice for Angela Bassett, also archive footage
	Last Action Hero	The Mayor
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1966	The Big T.N.T. Show	Herself	Documentary
1970	It's Your Thing	Herself	Documentary
1971	Soul to Soul	Herself	Documentary
2000	Ally McBeal	Herself	cameo appearance one episode: "The Oddball Parade"