Ike Turner was born Izear Luster Turner on November 5, 1931, in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Turner got his first job in the music industry at the young age of eight, when he was put in charge of watching the turntables and carrying amplifiers at a local radio station. Turner soon became a young protégé to piano player Pinetop Perkins, and would become a musician in his own right.
At age twenty, Turner recorded Rocket 88, considered to be a pioneer effort in the rock-and-roll genre. The distinct guitar distortion on the tracks was courtesy of the amp used to record it, which was dropped in a parking prior to the recording session. Turner released the record under the name of Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, although the session was actually recorded by Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm.
In addition to performing with his own band, Turner was also a talent scout for various independent record companies. After meeting a young singer named Anna Mae Bullock from Tennessee, Turner was persuaded to work with the teen. Their professional relationship turned personal in 1960 when the couple married, and Turner gave Anna Mae the stage name Tina Turner. After Tina proved her vocal chops, Turner changed the named of his band to The Ike and Tina Turner Revue, which rose to fame in the 60s and 70s along with their backup singers, The Ikettes.
The Ike and Tina Turner Revue became known for their frenetic live performances, and opening for The Rolling Stones. Turner exerted intense control over his group, managing every aspect of their act and often causing members of the group to leave with his violent outbursts. As Turner’s drug abuse escalated, he saw the success of his band decline. Tina Turner would later recount in her autobiography I, Tina, that she was the victim of daily physical and emotional abuse at the hands of Ike.
In 1993, Tina Turner’s autobiography was adapted into the film What's Love Got to Do with It? starring Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne. Although Turner had denied his ex-wife’s allegations of spousal abuse for years, he admitted in his 2001 autobiography, Taking Back My Name, "Sure, I've slapped Tina... There have been times when I punched her to the ground without thinking. But I never beat her."
Prior to his highly-publicized and volatile marriage to Tina Turner, Ike Turner was first married to Lorraine Taylor, with whom he had two sons, Ike Turner Jr. and Michael Turner. He also has another son, Ronald Turner, from a previous marriage, as well as a daughter, musician Twana Melby.
The new millennium saw Turner returning to his jazz roots with the release of his Grammy-nominated album, Here and Now in 2001. That same year, he also performed at the Montreal Jazz Festival and North Sea Jazz Festival, and has also been featured on Martin Scorsese's documentary, The Blues.
In 2004, Turner received a Heroes Award from the Memphis chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS). In 2007, he took home the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album for his release, Risin' with the Blues.
R & B legend and former husband of Tina Turner died on Wednesday December 12th 2007.
The wife he married in 1995, Jeanette Bazzell Turner only went as far as to comment that Ike had been suffering from emphysema.
Ike and Tina Turner were married in a ceremony in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1962 although in his book Turner stated that they were never actually married. They had a son, Ronald, who survives him, along with Jeanette and four other children: Mia, Twanna, Michael and Ike Jr.
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