Tina Turner, legendary ‘Queen of Rock,’ dead at 83
Tina Turner, the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll” died Wednesday. She was 83.
The singer’s rep confirmed that she passed away after a long illness in her home near Zurich, Switzerland.
The legendary performer first found fame in the 1960s as part of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue until she left him after years of domestic abuse.
Ike held tight control over Tina.
She had just “36 cents and a gas station credit card.”
Having survived the horrifying relationship, Turner later made one of the most dramatic comebacks in music history, achieving international superstardom as a solo artist in the 80s
She has won 8 Grammy awards (12 total) sold more than 100 million albums, acted in several movies and wrote three bestselling memoirs, including one that was adapted into the biopic “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” starring Angela Bassett as Turner. Tina became the first black woman to cover Rolling Stone magazine.
Born Anna Mae Bullock in 1939 in rural Tennessee, Turner began her career as a blues singer in nightclubs at the age of 16.
When she was 11, her mother ran off. Turner stated she felt like she “wasn’t wanted” by her mom, whose funeral she skipped.
But Tina made a dramatic comeback in 1982 with the multiplatinum album “Private Dancer.”
The album went on to win four Grammy Awards and sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.
She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Ike in 1991. He died of an accidental drug overdose in 2007, at which point she said the two hadn’t spoken in 30 years.
Turner finally found love and happiness with German music producer Erwin Bach, who she met in 1986.
She officially retired from the stage in 2009 and lived as a Buddhist.
She lost her son Craig to suicide in 2018, which she said was her “saddest moment as a mother.”
Turner and Bach married after a 27-year relationship, and Turner renounced her US citizenship and moved to Switzerland to live in a castle there with him.
Their nuptials were “the first time that I got married, as far as I was concerned,” Turner once said.
Bach, who is 16 years her junior, saved her life by giving her a kidney.
While promoting her 2018 book, Turner said that she was “glad” her time on stage was over, to which the anchor said, “People miss you, though, Tina.”
“That’s OK,” Turner had replied with a laugh. “They can go watch the videos… enjoy those. But I’m finished with it.”