Tina Turner

Early life

Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939 in Brownsville, Tennessee. Her parents were Floyd Bullock and Zelma Currie. Bullock was African American. Bullock's family lived in the rural unincorporated community of Nutbush, Tennessee, where her father worked as an overseer of the sharecroppers at Poindexter Farm on Highway 180. She later recalled picking cotton with her family at an early age.

Bullock had an older half-sister, Evelyn Juanita Currie, and an older sister, Alline Bullock. She was the first cousin once removed of bluesman Eugene Bridges. As young children, the three sisters were separated when their parents relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee, to work at a defense facility during World War II. Bullock went to stay with her strict, religious paternal grandparents, Alex and Roxanna Bullock, who were deacon and deaconess at the Woodlawn Missionary Baptist Church.

After the war, the sisters reunited with their parents and moved with them to Knoxville. Two years later, the family returned to Nutbush to live in the Flagg Grove community, where Bullock attended Flagg Grove School from first through eighth grade. As a young girl, Bullock enjoyed singing and acting. She often performed in the streets for change so she could go to the movies. She sang in the church choir at Nutbush's Spring Hill Baptist Church.

In 1950, when Bullock was 11, her mother Zelma left the family without warning, seeking freedom from her abusive relationship with Floyd by relocating to St. Louis. Two years after her mother left the family, her father married another woman and moved to Detroit. Bullock and her sisters were sent to live with their maternal grandmother, Georgeanna Currie, in Brownsville, Tennessee. She stated in her autobiography I, Tina that she felt her parents did not love her and that she was not wanted. Zelma had planned to leave Floyd, but stayed with him once she became pregnant with Bullock. Bullock recalled, "She was a very young woman who didn't want another kid."

As a teenager, Bullock worked as a domestic worker for the Henderson family in Ripley, Tennessee. She was at the Henderson house when she was notified that her half-sister Evelyn had died in a car crash alongside her cousin Margaret Currie; another cousin, Vela Evans, survived the car crash with injuries. A self-professed tomboy, Bullock joined both the cheerleading squad and the female basketball team at Carver High School in Brownsville, and "socialized every chance she got".

Career

Ike & Tina Turner

Bullock's older sister, Alline, frequently attended performances by Ike Turner and his band the Kings of Rhythm in St. Louis and East St. Louis. One Saturday night, Bullock's mother allowed her to accompany Alline to see the group perform at the Club Manhattan in East St. Louis. Bullock was deeply impressed by Turner's talent, later recalling that she "almost went into a trance" watching him play. By the age of 17, she was regularly attending performances by the Kings of Rhythm at Club D'Lisa and Club Manhattan, and her sister Alline began dating drummer Eugene "Gene" Washington. Determined to join the band, Bullock asked Alline to tell Washington to speak to Turner about letting her sing; Turner agreed but never followed through. She later recalled feeling overlooked due to her skinny frame, as Turner was generally attracted to curvier women.

One night, Bullock took the initiative during an intermission, grabbed a microphone, and sang the B.B. King blues ballad "You Know I Love You." Her performance impressed Turner, who invited her to continue singing that night and soon made her a featured vocalist with the group. He also began mentoring her in vocal control and stage performance. In 1958, she made her recording debut under the name Little Ann on the single "Boxtop," alongside Ike Turner and vocalist Carlson Oliver.

In 1960, Ike Turner wrote "A Fool in Love" for singer Art Lassiter. Bullock was to sing background with Lassiter's backing vocalists, the Artettes. Lassiter failed to show up for the recording session at Technisonic Studios. Since Turner had already paid for the studio time, Bullock suggested that she sing the lead. He decided to use Bullock to record a demo with the intention of erasing her vocals and adding Lassiter's at a later date. Local St. Louis disc jockey Dave Dixon convinced Turner to send the tape to Juggy Murray, president of R&B label Sue Records. Upon hearing the song, Murray was impressed with Bullock's vocals, later stating that "Tina sounded like screaming dirt. It was a funky sound". Murray bought the track and paid Turner a $25,000 advance for the recording and publishing rights.

Murray also convinced Turner to make Bullock "the star of the show". Turner responded by renaming Bullock "Tina" because it rhymed with Sheena. He was inspired by Sheena, Queen of the Jungle and Nyoka the Jungle Girl to create her stage persona. Turner added his last name and trademarked the name "Tina Turner" as a form of protection; his idea was that if Bullock left him as his previous singers had, he could replace her with another "Tina Turner". However, family and friends still called her Ann.

Solo career

Following the Turners' separation, lawsuits mounted for canceled Ike & Tina Turner gigs. Tina Turner earned income by appearing on TV shows such as Hollywood Squares, Donny & Marie, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, and The Brady Bunch Hour. After receiving funding from Mike Stewart, an executive at United Artists Records, Turner returned to performing in order to pay off her debts. In 1977, she formed a new band and re-emerged with new costumes designed by Bob Mackie. She took her act to smaller venues and headlined a series of cabaret shows at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Later that year, she embarked on her first solo concert tour in Australia.

Tina Turner and Tom Jones starred in an HBO TV special that was shot at the Warner Theatre in Washington, DC, in September 1978. Around that time, her third solo album, Rough, was released on United Artists with distribution in North America and Europe on EMI Records. That album, along with its 1979 follow-up, Love Explosion, which included a brief diversion to disco music, failed to chart, so United Artists and Turner parted ways. Without the premise of a hit record, she continued performing and headlined her second tour.

In 1979, Australian manager Roger Davies agreed to manage Turner after seeing her perform at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. In early 1979, Turner worked in Italy as a regular performer on the Rete 1 TV series Luna Park, hosted by Pippo Baudo and Heather Parisi. Later that year, she embarked on a controversial five-week tour of South Africa during the apartheid regime. She later admitted that she was "naive about the politics in South Africa" at the time.

In October 1981, Rod Stewart attended Turner's show at the Ritz in New York City and invited her to perform "Hot Legs" with him on Saturday Night Live. In November, Turner opened three shows for the Rolling Stones during their 1981 American Tour. Turner performed in March 1982 in the Willem Ruis show (Netherlands), which resulted in the hit "Shame, Shame, Shame" reaching number 47 in the Netherlands. In 1982, Turner recorded the Temptations' "Ball of Confusion" with the UK production team B.E.F. (a side project of the band Heaven 17) which featured on their album Music of Quality and Distinction - Volume 1 and became a hit in European dance clubs. She filmed a music video for "Ball of Confusion" that aired on the fledgling music video channel MTV, becoming one of the first black American artists to gain airtime on the channel. Also in 1982, Turner appeared as a special guest on Chuck Berry's television special performed at The Roxy in West Hollywood.

Personal life and death

Family and relationships

While still in Brownsville, Turner fell in love for the first time with Harry Taylor. They met at a high school basketball game. Taylor initially attended a different school, but he relocated to be near her. In 1986, she told Rolling Stone: "Harry was real popular and had tons of girlfriends, but eventually I got him, and we went steady for a year." Their relationship ended after she discovered that Taylor had married another woman who was expecting his child.

After moving to St. Louis, Turner and her sister Alline met Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm in 1956. Alline soon began dating the band's drummer, Eugene "Gene" Washington, and Turner later dated the band's saxophonist, Raymond Hill. Midway through her senior year of high school, Turner learned she was pregnant by Raymond Hill and moved into Ike Turner's home, where Hill lived along with other members of the Kings of Rhythm. She later recalled, "I didn't love him as much as I'd loved Harry. But he was good-looking. I thought, 'My baby's going to be beautiful.'" Their relationship ended after Hill left the band, following a broken ankle sustained during a wrestling match with Kings of Rhythm vocalist Carlson Oliver. He returned to his hometown of Clarksdale before their son, Craig, was born in August 1958, leaving Turner to raise Craig as a single parent.

Turner likened her early relationship with Ike Turner to that of a "brother and sister from another lifetime." They were initially platonic friends, and she eventually moved into his house. They became intimate one night in January 1960 after Ike had broken up with his girlfriend Lorraine Taylor. Turner later recalled that she had gone to sleep in his bed after another musician threatened to enter her room. She became pregnant, and Ike soon reconciled with Taylor.

After recording "A Fool in Love" in 1960, Turner told Ike she did not want to continue the relationship. She stated that he responded by striking her in the head with a wooden shoe stretcher. Turner said the incident was the first time he instilled fear in her, but she chose to stay because she "really did care about him." Following the birth of their son Ronnie in October 1960, they moved to Los Angeles in 1962 and married in Tijuana. In 1963, Ike purchased a house in the View Park area. Shortly thereafter, they brought their son Ronnie, Turner's son Craig, and Ike's two sons with Taylor (Ike Jr. and Michael) from St. Louis to live with them.

Legal issues

In November 1976, after Turner was stopped in Beverly Hills, California, for a traffic violation, a police officer found a .38-caliber revolver in her purse. She was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor. Her attorney said she was carrying the gun for safety reasons due to threats on her life.

In 1978, Diners Club Corp. sued Turner and her company, Tina's Operation Oops, claiming she owed over $26,000 for purchases made using her credit card.

Religion

Turner sometimes referred to herself as a "Buddhist–Baptist", alluding to her upbringing in the Baptist church where her father was a deacon and her later conversion to Buddhism as an adult. In a 2016 interview with Lion's Roar magazine, she declared, "I consider myself a Buddhist." The February 15, 1979, issue of Jet magazine featured Turner with her Buddhist altar on the cover. Turner credited the Liturgy of Nichiren Daishonin for her introduction to spiritual knowledge.

Turner stated in her 1986 autobiography that she was introduced to Nichiren Buddhism by Valerie Bishop, who Ike hired to work at their studio, Bolic Sound, in 1973. Turner later stated in her 2020 spiritual memoir Happiness Becomes You that her son, Ronnie Turner, first suggested she might benefit from chanting. Turner practiced Buddhism with her neighborhood Soka Gakkai International chanting group. After chanting nam-myōhō-renge-kyō, Turner noticed positive changes in her life, which she attributed to her newfound spiritual practice. She said: "I realized that I had within me everything I needed to change my life for the better." During the hardest times of her life, Turner chanted four hours per day, and although in later life she no longer chanted as much, she still maintained a daily practice.

Turner likened Buddhist chanting to singing. She told Lion's Roar: "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is a song. In the Soka Gakkai tradition we are taught how to sing it. It is a sound and a rhythm and it touches a place inside you. That place we try to reach is the subconscious mind. I believe that it is the highest place and, if you communicate with it, that is when you receive information on what to do." Dramatizations of Turner chanting were included both in the 1993 film What's Love Got to Do with It and in the 2021 documentary film Tina.

Turner met with the 14th Dalai Lama, in Einsiedeln, Switzerland, on August 2, 2005. She also met with Swiss-Tibetan Buddhist singer Dechen Shak-Dagsay and in 2009 co-created a spiritual music project with Shak-Dagsay and Swiss singer Regula Curti called Beyond.

Turner began living at Château Algonquin in Küsnacht on the shore of Lake Zurich in 1994. She had previously owned property in Cologne, London, and Los Angeles, and a villa on the French Riviera named Anna Fleur.

Illness and death

Turner revealed in her 2018 memoir My Love Story that she had multiple life-threatening illnesses. She had high blood pressure since 1978, which remained mostly untreated and resulted in damage to her kidneys and eventual kidney failure. In 2013, three weeks after her wedding to Erwin Bach, she had a stroke and needed to learn to walk again. In 2016, she was diagnosed with intestinal cancer. She attempted to treat her health problems with homeopathy, which worsened her condition.

Her chances of receiving a kidney transplant were considered low and she was urged to start dialysis. She signed up with an organization that facilitates assisted suicide (a procedure which is legal in Switzerland), becoming a member of Exit International. However, her husband offered to donate a kidney for transplant. She accepted his donation and had kidney transplantation surgery on April 7, 2017.

On May 24, 2023, Turner died at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland, aged 83, following years of illness. Turner's body was cremated after a private funeral.

Tributes

Following news of her death, her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was covered with flowers from fans. Fans around the world paid respect with flowers and candles lit outside her home in Switzerland and outside London's Aldwych Theatre – the home of the musical Tina. On May 25, 2023, theatres across the West End of London, dimmed their lights for two minutes to mark Turner's death.

Many fellow artists mourned her loss. Those artists included Beyoncé, Dolly Parton, Debbie Harry, Jimmy Barnes, Bette Midler, Peter Andre, Bryan Adams, Lionel Richie, Elton John, Madonna, Rod Stewart, Lizzo, Brittany Howard, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Cher.

Turner also received tributes by British model Naomi Campbell, as well as film and television figures such as Oprah Winfrey, Angela Bassett, Jenifer Lewis, Forest Whitaker, and theater producer Joop van den Ende. US president Joe Biden, as well as former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and Swiss president Alain Berset also paid tribute to Turner through public statements. King Charles III paid tribute by allowing "The Best" to be performed during the changing of the guard.

Patti LaBelle paid tribute to Turner with a rendition of "The Best" at the 2023 BET Awards in June 2023. In February 2024, Fantasia paid tribute to Turner with a performance of "Proud Mary" at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards.

Legacy and awards

Often referred to as "The Queen of Rock and Roll", Turner is considered one of the greatest singers of all time. An article in The Guardian in 2018 noted her "swagger, sensuality, gravelly vocals and unstoppable energy", while The New York Times in 1996 noted that she was known for the appearance of her legs. Journalist Kurt Loder asserted that Turner's voice combined "the emotional force of the great blues singers with a sheer, wallpaper-peeling power that seemed made to order for the age of amplification". Daphne A. Brooks, a scholar of African-American studies, wrote for The Guardian:

Turner merged sound and movement at a critical turning point in rock history, navigating and reflecting back the technological innovations of a new pop-music era in the 60s and 70s. She catapulted herself to the forefront of a musical revolution that had long marginalized and overlooked the pioneering contributions of African American women and then remade herself again at an age when most pop musicians were hitting the oldies circuit. Turner's musical character has always been a charged combination of mystery as well as light, melancholy mixed with a ferocious vitality that often flirted with danger.

Awards, honors and achievements

At one time, Turner held a Guinness World Record for the largest paying audience for a solo performer (180,000 in 1988). In the UK, Turner was the first artist to have a Top 40 hit in seven consecutive decades; she has a total of thirty-five UK Top 40 hits. Turner was ranked as one of the most successful female singles artist in German chart history. She sold over 100 million records worldwide, including certified RIAA album sales of 10 million.

Turner won a total of 12 Grammy Awards. These awards include eight competitive Grammy Awards; she shares the record (with Pat Benatar, and with Sheryl Crow) for most awards (four) given for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Three of her recordings--"River Deep – Mountain High" (1999), "Proud Mary" (2003), and "What's Love Got to Do with It" (2012)--appear in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Turner is the only female artist to have won a Grammy in the pop, rock, and R&B fields. Turner received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. Turner also won Grammys as a member of USA for Africa and as a performer at the 1986 Prince's trust concert.

Turner received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1986 and a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 1991. She and Ike Turner were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a duo in 1991.

In 2005, Turner received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors. President George W. Bush commented on her "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 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"). Oprah 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."

In 2021, Turner was inducted by Angela Bassett into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. Keith Urban and H.E.R. performed "It's Only Love", Mickey Guyton performed "What's Love Got to Do with It", and Christina Aguilera performed "River Deep – Mountain High".

In September 2025, Turner was selected for induction into the National Rhythm and Blues Hall 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)

Wildest Dreams (1996)

Twenty Four Seven (1999)

Tours

1977: Australian Tour

1978: Tina Turner Revue

1979: Tina Turner Show

1981–1983: Tina Turner: Live in Concert

1984: 1984 World Tour

1985: Private Dancer Tour

1987–1988: Break Every Rule World Tour

1990: Foreign Affair: The Farewell Tour

1993: What's Love? Tour

1996–1997: Wildest Dreams Tour

2000: Twenty Four Seven Tour

2008–2009: Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour

As opening act

1981: American Tour 1981 (for the Rolling Stones)

1981: Worth Leavin' Home For Tour (for Rod Stewart)

1984: Can't Slow Down Tour (for Lionel Richie)

Books

Tina! (1985).

I, Tina: My Life Story (1986)

My Love Story: A Memoir (2018)

Happiness Becomes You: A Guide to Changing Your Life for Good (2020)

Tina Turner: That's My Life (2020)