ike and tina turner tour history

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Ike & Tina Turner

Discography

Ike and Tina Turner

Ike Turner was born November 5, 1931 in Clarksdale, MS.  Starting to play the piano at five, Ike Turner began his musical career at eleven as a piano accompanist to Sonny Boy Williamson and Robert Nighthawk. By 1945 as a teenager he was a disc jockey on radio station WROX in Clarksdale, Mississippi. In 1951, he joined a R&B group The Kings of Rhythm and in that year he made a lasting contribution to the music by playing piano on Jackie Brenston's "Rocket 88," which is often cited as one of the very first rock and roll records. Turner learned guitar shortly afterwards, and backed up other R&B artists at Sun Records in the early '50s. Throughout the decade, the guitarist and piano player was a prolific session player contributing to records by blues legends Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, and Otis Rush.

Ike also backed a host of obscure R&B artists in his early years, occasionally issuing discs under his name. Not much of a singer, both his own records and the ones he contributed to and/or produced often showcased his stinging, bluesy licks, and the best of his solo outings tended to be his instrumentals

Then Ike became a talent scout and producer for Modern Records, ostensibly "discovering" B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf. Around 1954, he moved to East St. Louis, Missouri where he became a rhythm and blues star with The Rhythm Kings.  In 1959 in East St. Louis, he met Anna Mae Bullock. Anna was just eighteen and still in high school when she joined the group as a singer. Later she changed her name to Tina Turner. Ike added Tina to their group's horn section and also added some backup singers in 1957.  They recorded a demo of "A Fool in Love" in late 1959; by the autumn of 1960 the record was a number two R&B hit on Sue Records. "I Idolize You," "It's Gonna Work Out Fine," "Poor Fool," and "Tra La La La La" all quickly followed, giving the Turner's five Top Ten R&B hits in two and a half years. Tina was the star and the group was  renamed The Ike and Tina Turner Revue

Tina became pregnant by Ike's saxophone player (her first son, Raymond), moved into Ike's house, began a relationship with Ike, and eventually gave birth to Ike's baby. They were married in a quickie Tijuana ceremony, which turned out to be illegal, since Ike never bothered to divorce his first wife.

In 1961 Ike and Tina released many singles including "It's Gonna Work Out Fine," which made them major stars in England. Soon the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, dominated by Tina's gyrating, prancing, and her thrilling voice, had crossed over from R&B to become a top pop-rock act with hit singles like "River Deep Mountain High," "Want To Take You Higher," "Nutbush City Limits," and "The Midnight Special." Ike and Tina reached worldwide popularity when they opened for the Rolling Stones in 1969. All expectations were filled in 1971 with "Proud Mary," a number four hit which became the capstone of Ike & Tina's Revue.

Ike Turner had many problems when he was off the stage. A drug addict, he abused  his wife and children both mentally and physically. Ike's complete dominance over her life had become too much for Tina, and after an unsuccessful suicide attempt, she walked out on him in 1975, with nothing more than thirty-six cents and a gas station credit card.

Billy Rogers and Ike Turner Photo courtesy AMFB Records

Later he would be arrested for drugs and battery. During this time he recorded two solo albums in his own studio, and he wrote a book called Taking Back My Life . He also remade "I'm Blue (The Gong Song)" with Billy Rogers. Today he is sixty-eight and plays at the House of Blues and Hustling. Many thought Tina would disappear without Ike's musical muscle. Tina relinquished almost all claims for compensation, deciding her complete freedom from Ike was more important than the money. In debt, she briefly lived on food stamps before climbing her way back up by working in small-time nightclub six days a week.

I, Tina, the entertainer's best-selling autobiography, became the basis of the 1993 hit movie What's Love Got to Do With It.

Two years later, Turner is once again ready to prove her stage prowess. On April 13, she'll join Whitney Houston, Cher, and Brandy on the stage of New York City's Beacon Theater as one of VH1's second wave of Divas Live. Other events on Turner's 1999 calendar include an upcoming "greatest hits" album as well as a fall tour with 1998's top concert draw, Elton John. In addition to taking place around Tina's 60th birthday, the tour will include a pre-millennial concert stop on Dec. 30 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Ike Turner died December 12, 2007 in his home in San Marcos, California at the age of 76 of cocaine overdose. Tina Turner died at her home in Switzerland 5/24/2023 after a long illnesss.

Ike and Tina Turner were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 Tina Turner was inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021

Tina Turner was in great shape and remained a size 10 for nearly four decades. Many women search for weight control answers and try Reverse Health diets as they get older. Finding the right meal plan and Reverse Health reviews can help any woman maintain their weight and stay in shape like Tina Turner.

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Tina Turner  

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Tina Turner (born November 26, 1939) is the stage and recording name of Anna Mae Bullock, a critically acclaimed, world renowned R&B and soul singer-songwriter, actress and dancer, hailing from Nutbush, Tennessee, U.S.

Tina Turner’s earliest musical excursion came when she began singing in her teens under the name Little Ann, and later became a backing singer for Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm. It wasn’t long however before Anna Bullock’s soaring vocals stole the show and in 1960 the group transitioned into the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. Alongside Ike, Tina earned critical acclaim and commercial success with the singles “A Fool in Love”, “River Deep – Mountain High”, “Proud Mary”, and “Nutbush City Limits”. The singles earned the duo both national and international esteem, and resulted in a slot opening for the Rolling Stones. In 1974 plagued by Ike’s drug habits and tumultuous behaviour Tina Turner left the group to pursue a solo career.

A year later in 1975 Turner was offered the role of the Acid Queen in The Who’s film version of “Tommy”. Despite providing an unforgettable performance, the film was all too forgettable, and soon passed from public’s consciousness. Turner’s first few solo releases “Acid Queen”, “Rough” and “Love Explosion” all charted poorly and could all too well have deterred a singer of a lesser disposition. However with backing from the likes of Rod Stewart, The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry and David Bowie, Tina Turner bounced back and released the Al Green Cover “Let’s Stay Together” in 1983. The single catapulted Turner into U.S. and a number of European charts, and resulted in the singer inking a three-album deal with Capitol Records.

The album “Private Dance” was subsequently released in June 1984 charting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. Selling over 11 million copies, the album spawned the Grammy-winning, No. 1 single “What’s Love Got to Do with It”, along with “Better Be Good to Me”, and “Private Dancer”. Following the release Turner played the role of Aunty Entity in the film “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” for which she later won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress. In 1986 the singer released the single “Typical Male” after which Turner’s music moved away from the upper echelons of the chart. The albums “Foreign Affair” in 1989, “Wildest Dreams” in 1986 and “Twenty Four Seven” in 2000 earned strong reviews from critics and all saw respectable chart placing. The best-of compilation “All the Best” arrived in 2004, followed by a performance alongside Beyoncé at the 2008 Grammy Awards.

Live reviews

Tiny Turner is arguable the best female performers ever! The power and tone of her voice, the energy of her performance and her sheer love for the stage. Very few have got gigs rocking the way Tiny Turner could! She has sold more concert tickets than any other live performer EVER! She has enjoyed success as a singer, dancer, writer and as an actress. She has received an enormous amount of respect from peers, many honours and awards, including 8 grammy awards and record sales of over 100 million! After breaking into the music scene in 1960 whilst part of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue she soon became known worldwide as an unbelievable live act! With amazing songs such as “Proud Mary”, “River Deep- Mountain High”, “A Fool in Love” and “Nutbush City Limits” there was no doubting they’re ability to get a crowd going. She certainly had something quite special, an ability to bring a room alive! To get the room dancing! Even, at the age of my nan, she would be rocking a stage at a stadium sized gig! Considered by many as the great female rock singer ever, the ‘queen of rock and roll’ and a performer who is still performing at the highest level after over 50 years!

Still need convincing? Ok! Once again! Tiny Turner has sold more concert tickets than any other live performer EVER!!!!!

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There are few vocalists who are completely incomparable due to the uniqueness of their tones, 80s soul/pop siren Tina Turner is very much one of those. She has a whole plethora of hits and is an icon within her own right and despite the hair not being quite outrageous these days, the stage show very much is. She is an impassioned performer even in her later years and really knows how to work the stage, her accompanying musicians and of course the adoring crowds.

The amount of legendary tracks included tonight could make your head spin 'River Deep, Mountain High' 'Private Dancer' and 'We Don't Need Another Hero' all feature along with covers of iconic rock musicians proving Tina very much lives and breathes the genre. A highlight was a downtempo rendition of 'Addicted To Love' by Robert Palmer which allows that sultry, raspy vocal to really shine. It is of course the finale of 'The Best' and 'Proud Mary' that gets the whole crowd singing, dancing and cheering as the fabulous songstress struts from side to side of shade proving she cannot be considered to be past it.

I wld love to see Tina Turner in concert..I grew up listening to all her songs with my parents when I was a kid..love all her songs all the way bk to Ike and Tina Turner..they really new how to put on a show for sure..!..and nothing like proud Mary..!..she is “simply the best”..!

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Tales of Ike and Tina Turner

By Ben Fong-Torres

Ben Fong-Torres

W alk into what, from the outside, looks to be another well-paid, well-kept home in suburban Inglewood, California, and you’re hit: a huge, imperial oil painting of Ike and Tina Turner , dressed as if for a simple, private wedding, circa 1960, modest pompadour and formal mink. A thriller? The killer, honey …

Also in the foyer, under the portrait, a small white bust of John F. Kennedy. Next to him, the Bible, opened to Isaiah 42­ – A New Song to the Lord. The smell is eucalyptus leaves and wet rocks; the sound is water, bubbling in one of several fish tanks and, over in the family room, splashing, programmed, is a waterfall.

(Tina, later, will say: “Ike did the house. It was Ike’s idea to have the TV in the whale shape. I thought, ‘Oh wow!’ I felt it was gonna look like the typical entertainer’s house, with the stuff not looking professional. But everything turned out great. I’m very proud of it.”)

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Atop a white upright piano complete with gooseneck mike, there’s the gold record – not “A Fool in Love,” or “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine,” or “I Idolize You,” but, rather, “Come Together,” the single on Liberty, their seventh or eighth label in ten years. And next to that, some trophies—a couple that the kids have earned, and a couple that Tina has earned. To the sweetest wife and mother, Tina Turnaer. Love’s Yea . Ike Turner and Your Four Sons . Another, larger one, Olympiad, with a small gold-plated angel holding a torch above her, hara-kiri: To Tina Turner . The World’s Greatest Heartbreaker 1966. Love Ike Turner.

Tina’s not back – half an hour late­ – and now I’m down to the sunlit bookshelf in the corner. A neat junior edition of encyclopedias. A couple of novels – Crichton’s Andromeda Strain ; Cheever’s Bullet Park . But the main line appears to be how-to’s, from Kahlil Gibran and astrology to a series of sharkskin suit-pocket hardbounds: How to Make a Killing in Real Estate , How to Legally Avoid Paying Taxes , and How to Scheme Your Way to Fortune . Atop the pile, a one-volume senior encyclopedia: The Sex Book .

Philip Agee, who was 17 when he first saw them in 1960 in St. Louis, became such a fan that he has put out a book on them – for a seminar course in printing at Yale. Tina Pie is a collection of the colorations of Ike and Tina’s romance and career, tawny browns and flashy reds and moanful yellows and hurtful blues. Silkscreening the act through the dark years and into the fast ones, with even remembrances from Tina’s mother, or various of Phil Agee’s friends and fellow-worshippers.

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A private school promised to help troubled kids. instead, some say, it was a nightmare.

B y 1966, there was more practiced flash. You learn what works . The Ikettes came storming out of the wings in a train formation, in mini-skirted sequins, haughty foxes thrusting their butts at you and then waving you off with a toss of their long whippy hair. Tina came out, eyes flashing until she became a fire on the stage. And across Broadway, there’s your Motown act, the Marvellettes in their matching long evening gowns or the Tops in pink velvet, doing soul-hula, singing through choreographed smiles. Tina spits sex out to you. And Mick Jagger:

“I remember I wasn’t mingling too much – Ike and I were having problems at the time, and we stayed mad at each other – but I’d always see Mick in the wings. I thought, ‘Wow, he must really be a fan.’ I’d come out and watch him occasionally; they’d play music, and Mick’d beat the tambourine. He wasn’t dancing. And lo and behold, when he came to America, he was doing everything! So then I knew what he was doing in the wings. He learned a lot of steps and I tried to teach him like the Popcorn and other steps we were doing, but he can’t do ’em like that.He has to do it his way.”

“River Deep Mountain High.” To hear that song for the first time, in 1967, in the first year of acid-rock and Memphis soul, to hear that wall falling toward you, with Tina teasing it along, was to understand all the power of rock and roll. It had been released in England in 1966 and made Number Two. In America, nothing. “It was just like my farewell,” Phil Spector says. “I was just sayin’ goodbye, and I just wanted to go crazy for a few minutes – four minutes on wax.”

Bob Krasnow, president of Blue Thumb, knew Ike and Tina from their association with Warner Brothers’ R&B label, Loma, in 1964. He was an A&R man there. “Spector had just lost the Righteous Brothers,” he recalls, “and at the same time, Ike was unhappy,” having switched to Kent Records.

“Spector’s attorney Joey Cooper called and said Phil wanted to produce Tina—and that he was willing to pay $20,000 in front to do it! So Mike Maitland [then president at Warners] gave them their release, and they signed with Philles.

“Watching Phil work was one of my greatest experiences,” says Krasnow. It was indeed a special occasion. Only “River Deep” was cut at Gold Star; the other three Spector productions were at United. (There was only one Philles LP ever made with Ike and Tina, which was finally re-released last year by A&M.) And Ike didn’t attend.

On stage, there may be reason to compare Tina Turner to Mick Jagger; Tina, in fact, is more aggressive, more animalistic. But it is, indeed, a stage:

“I don’t sound pretty, or good. I sound, arreghh ! Naggy. I can sound pretty, but nobody likes it. Like I read some article in the paper that Tina Turner had never been captured on records. She purrs like a kitten on record, but she’s wild on stage. And they don’t like a record like ‘Working Together.’ I love that record. I love that River Deep Mountain High album, but nobody likes me like that. They want me sounding all raspy…I have to do what Ike says. “My whole thing,” she once said, “is the fact that I am to Ike – I’m going to use the term ‘doll’ – that you sort of mold… In other words, he put me through a lot of changes. My whole thing is Ike’s ideas. I’ll come up with a few of them, but I’m not half as creative as Ike.”

The world’s greatest heartbreaker drives up in her Mercedes sedan and strides in, all fresh and breezy in a red knit hot pants outfit, third button unbottoned, supple legs still very trim at age 32,charging onto 33. (“Everyone thinks I’m in my forties, but I was only around 20 when I started. Born November 26, 1939,” she says, very certain.)

Tina’s hair is in ponytails, tied in brown ribbons; she is wearing brown nail polish and red ballet-type slippers. Here in the living room, of her $100,000 house, she is trying to paint a portrait of the offstage, in-home Tina Turner. There are four bedrooms, she says, four baths, and, let’s see now…13 telephones.

But later. Tina Turner is trying to paint a picture here. “I just got rid of the housekeeper. I get housekeepers and they sort of do just things like vacuuming and dusting, and nothing else is done—like the mirrors—and I’m a perfectionist, and that would never be. People think I’m probably one of those that lounge around, but I’m always on my knees—I do my own floors ’cause no one can please me. When I was in the eighth grade I started working for a lady in Tennessee keeping her house; she more or less taught me what I know about housework.”

Tina also tries to do most of the cooking, even if she usually does report to the studios around 4 PM to do vocals. She also likes to do gardening. “Every now and then I get out and turn the dirt…but now I’ve started writing, and Ike, every time I turn around, he says, ‘Write me this song.’ So I went out and bought some plants and when I was in the hospital I got a lot of plants that I really love, and I sort of take care of them like babies.”

“Ike is a very hard worker,” a friend is saying. “He’s such a driver. Last winter Tina was sick with bronchial pneumonia, 104 temperature, in the hospital with her body icepacked to bring the temperature down. And Ike was visiting, and he was going, ‘You get out and sing , or you get out of the house!'”

“Dope?” Bob Krasnow repeats the question, only in a softer voice. “Let me close the door a minute.” (A few weeks before, I asked an ex-Ikette about Ike Turner and sex. “Sex? Oh, my god, that’s another volume,” she’d said. “I’ll have to get a cigarette on that one!”)

Krasnow: “Tina is so anti-dope I can’t tell you. She’s the greatest woman I’ve ever known, outside of my wife. She has more love inside her body than 100 chicks wrapped up together. And she’s so straight, it’s ridiculous. “As for Ike…Ike was not into dope at all until three, four years ago. One night in Vegas we were sitting around and got started talking about coke. He didn’t care about it, and I said – and Ike, you know, is like 40 or so – and I said, ‘One thing that’s great about coke is you can stay hard – you can fuck for years behind that stuff.’ That’s the first time Ike did coke.”

Krasnow can’t help but continue. “That night he made his first deal – bought $3,000 of cocaine from King Curtis, and he bought it and showed me, and I laughed and said, ‘That’s no coke; that’s fucking Drano!’ Since then, he’s learned.”

What – to lighten up on drugs?

“No – to tell what good coke is and what bad coke is.”

Krasnow worked with James Brown at King for years before he joined Warners and signed Ike and Tina to Loma. His evaluation: “Ike is 10 times a bigger character than James Brown. And they’re both fucking animals. How can I put this? Say, whatever you can do…they can do 10 times as much. And Ike – he’s always putting you to the test.

“What I like best about Ike is also what I hate: He’s always on top of you.”

“I find him one of the most fascinating people I’ve met,” says Jeff Trager, who did promotion work at Blue Thumb. “If he knows you he can be real warm, and do whatever he can for you. There’s just no limit to Ike Turner. He’d carry around $25,000 in cash in a cigar box – with a gun. He’d drive around town, man, sometimes to Watts, sometimes Laurel Canyon, in his new Rolls Royce to pick up coke. And he is real sinister-looking.”

“Krasnow and Ike are both crazy,” says Trager. “Ike would storm into the office with a troop of people, six-foot chicks, a bag of cocaine. Really, really crazy. He always came in. He loved Blue Thumb, and he was always saying he’d come back. Krasnow says he couldn’t afford him now.”

Krasnow produced both their Blue Thumb albums and brought “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” to Turner.

“He hated Otis Redding,” Krasnow says. “He just didn’t think Otis had it.” The Ike and Tina version sold some half million copies. Blue Thumb was also a good showcase of Ike Turner’s fluidity as a blues guitarist, and of the flexibility of the Ike and Tina sound – from “Dust My Broom” and “I Am a Motherless Child” to the stark raving “Bold Soul Sister.”

Ike Turner, who places “River Deep” up next to “Good Vibrations” as his two favorite records, says the Spector production didn’t get airplay because the soul stations said “too pop” and the white stations said “too R&B.”

“See, what’s wrong with America,” he told Pete Senoff, “is that rather than accept something for its value…America mixes race in it. Like, you can take Tina and cut a pop record on her – like ‘River Deep, Mountain High.’ You can’t call that record R&B. But because it’s Tina… But I can play you stuff like Dinah Washington on Tina. I can play you jazz on Tina. I can play you pop on Tina. I can play you gutbucket R&B on Tina like we have on our Blue Thumb record…really blues. I can play you that stuff, then I could play you the Motown stuff.”

Ike and Tina had a showcase at Blue Thumb, but no cross-market success. “Bold Soul Sister” went to number one at KGFJ, the black station in L.A., but Jeff Trager remembers, the program director at light, white KRLA refused to play it. “No matter what. I asked him, ‘What if it went to number one?’ and he said ‘I don’t care; I’ll never play it.'” Whether too R&B or what, the program director at KFRC, the Bill Drake station in San Francisco, wouldn’t play “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” which Krasnow, its producer, called a “pop record.” KFRC had to be forced – by its sales – to put the song on the playlist.

“My mother – her radio was usually blues, B.B. King and all. But rock and roll was more me , and when that sort of music came on, I never could sit down. I’ve always wanted to move.” Tina gave a slightly – shall we say – different account to Changes magazine: Tina: I guess ‘way before the Stones asked us to tour with them, Ike started to get into the hard rock thing, dragging me out of bed to listen to this or that, and at 4 o’clock in the morning. Ike: She didn’t like rock. Tina: Finally, he said ‘You going to have to sing it, so you may as well like it.’ So I started to listen to rock.

“They are really making it now,” says Krasnow. “Really. Everytime he plays a place – like last week, Carnegie Hall – it’s sold out a week before. And everybody’s raving about the show.”

But there was a time…”I got pissed at him ’cause we worked our asses off to get him on the Andy Williams Love show. We had dinner afterwards, and I said, ‘This is it! You’ve made it, man!’ He was back playing the bowling alley the next night. I kept saying, ‘Why play for $1,000 a night when you can get $20,000 now?’ I mean, he was just touring himself out.” Ike himself says, “It doesn’t matter to me; we’ve got a living to make.” Recently, he has relaxed the road pace, from six nights a week all year to two or three nights a week. Ike and Tina are now regularly on TV – on variety shows, talk shows, and specials; they were in Milos Forman’s Taking Off and Gimme Shelter , and they helped celebrate Independence Day this year in Ghana. Soul to Soul . And what is now apparent is that in Africa or in Hollywood, in bowling alleys or in the Casino Lounge of the Hotel International, the Ike and Tina Turner Revue , with the Ikettes and the Kings of Rhythm (nine pieces plus Ike) is pretty much the same show: The band member doing the introductions and shameless album plugs; the Kings warming up with a couple of Motown-type power tunes, followed by the Ikettes singing “Piece of My Heart” or “Sweet Inspiration,” then Tina running on, churning through “Shake Your Tail Feather,” then saying a hearty hello and promising “soul music with the grease.”

Tina’s recitations and spoken paeans – and Ike’s wise-ass, not-quite-inaudible cracks, are all pre-greased… Mama don’t cook no dinner tonight, ’cause Daddy’s comin’ home with the crabs…

When Tina sings, “ I been lovin’ you…too long…and I can’t stop now ,” bossman Ike invariably croons, “‘ Cause you ain’t ready to die…”

The Otis Redding song is the show-stopper. Back in ’67, Tina was simply breathing heavily over the instrumental passage; by ’69, she was touching the tip of the microphone with both sets of fingers oh, so gently. Now, of course, it’s a programmed gross-out, with Ike slurping and slushing and Tina rigid over the mike doing an unimpressive impression of an orgasm while Ike slams the song to a close, saying “Well, I got mine, I hope you got yours.”

In 1969 it was a solid salute to sex as a base for communication. Now, the subtleties gone, it’s just another request number to keep the crowd happy. “We cut the song,” says Tina, “and Ike kept playing the tune over and over and I had to ad lib, so I just did that – just what comes into your head. So we started doing it on stage. How could I stand on stage, I felt, and say ‘Oh baby, oh baby, uhh’—I’m just going to stand there, like an actress reading the script without any emotion? So I had to act.

“What I did on the Rolling Stones tour was only what had matured from the beginning. I don’t think it can go any further, because it’s, as they say in New York, it’s getting pornographic. I agree, because like now Ike has changed words, which makes it obvious what that meant when we first started doing it. I was thinking it meant sensually but not sexually.

Sometimes he shocks me, but I have to be cool. Sometimes I want to go, ‘Ike, please.’ I start caressing the mike and he goes, ‘Wait ’til I get you home,’ and I feel like going, ‘Oh, I wish you wouldn’t say that.’ Everything else I feel like I can put up with, but not that. But like I can’t question Ike because everything that Ike has ever gotten me to do that I didn’t like, was successful.

From Tina Pie , this strange crossfire: “… It could be nice but it would probably turn out awful – especially with that dirty ol’ Ike hounding me. I sat through the first half of the second show with him and he kept telling me he want to give me a fit and just ’cause he had Tina didn’t mean he couldn’t want me, too. He’s got the greatest skin going but that’s about it. -Melinda, New York City

Melinda Who? -Ike Turner, New York City

Tina is giving me a tour of Ike’s new main studios – the master control room with the $90,000 board featuring the IBM mix-memorizer (a computer card gives an electronic readout on the mix at whichever point the tape is stopped), a second studio marked STUDIO A (Ike Turner’s, can you guess, is STUDIO AA), a writers’ room, business offices for his various managers and aides, a playroom furnished with a pool table, Ike’s own office, and, inevitably, Ike’s private apartment suite.

Again, it is disgusting, flowers chasing each other up the wall, a Cinerama mural of a couple in embrace next to the breakfast table and refrigerator. Again, sofas, of Ike’s own design, with hard-on arms. White early American drapings and chairs, and a draped, canopied bed so garish that Tina turns to Ike and says, “Can I tell ’em what we call this room? We call it ‘the Whorehouse.'”

There’s a double-door air closet at the entrance to Ike’s private quarters, where he spends so many nights, “because of all the work to be done.” This is the Trap. You bust into Bolic Sound, and all the doors are automatically locked, leading you down the hall, into the stairwell in front of the apartment. The only way to open the door there is by dialing a secret telephone number. And the only word that can get to you will come from above you. Ike’s got a TV camera there, too.

1963 to 1966 was a dark period for the Revue – they made what they could on the road, and they had no hit records – and Loma records were hard to find. Ike then took his act to Kent, a label he’d worked for in earlier days when he traveled the South scouting and recording, on a cheap Ampex tape recorder, bluesmen like B.B. King and Howlin’ Wolf. This time around, he managed a hit for the Ikettes, “Peaches and Cream.” But, he said, “They tried to steal the Ikettes. They sneaked around and tried to buy the girls from under me.”

Then it was Spector, won over by Ike and Tina’s work as a substitute act in the rock and roll film, T’N’T Show . But after “River Deep” bombed, said Ike, “he got discouraged and went down in Mexico making movies.” Phil recommended Bob Crewe as a producer, a single didn’t hit, and they moved to an Atlantic subsidiary, Pompeii Records. “We were lost among all of Atlantic’s own R&B stuff,” Ike said, and that’s when he ran into Krasnow. With no contract ever signed with Blue Thumb, Ike actually made a deal with United Artists/Liberty in mid-1969, before the Stones tour, through their New York-based R&B label, Minit.

“Spector gave Ike an absolute guarantee of hits forever,” says Bud Dain, then general manager at Liberty. What Minit promised was a $50,000 a year guarantee “plus certain clauses – a trade ad on every release, sensitive timing of releases – but Minit was a mistake. They defaulted on the contract, and Ike was free to break the contract.” Then Ike and Tina toured with the Stones, and the next time Ike talked with Liberty, Liberty was talking about $150,000 a year guarantee, for two albums a year. Ike signed in January, 1970. “The first LP was Come Together , in May,” said Dain. “Now Ike wanted to build his own studios. The option came up again in January, 1971. The album sold well, but we couldn’t exercise the option unless he’d sold 300,000. And he only had one album out that year. But he needed $150,000, and Al Bennett [president at Liberty] believed in him. We gave him the money.”

And that’s why United Artists may yet be Ike and Tina’s final home. Ike Turner must produce those two albums a year, and UA has no choice but to promote its ass off.

Ike’s head is on one woman’s lap, his knee-socked feet on another’s. His thin frame is blanketed by a trench coat, a sleeping bridge across the sofa in the dressing room. Tina has her back to them. She’s working her hair into shape for the second show this Friday night, and Ike’s getting the only rest he’s gotten all day. And after the second show, he’ll jump off the revolving stage of the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, then back to the nearby San Francisco Airport to return to his studios to cut instrumental tracks the rest of the night and into the day, then back up to San Francisco and to the Circle Star mid-Saturday evening. In the hallway, after the second show Friday, he stops long enough to give you a solid shoulder grab – a football coach’s kind of friendly gesture – and a warm hello. He turns to the zaftig lady photographer nearby, glancing right through her tangle of cameras and giving her the onceover. He asks if maybe she wouldn’t fly down with him. “What? You got a boyfriend?”

“This is the critical point of our career; I can’t lighten up now,” he says, and is off to the airport. At 2:30 in the morning, Tina – who doesn’t return to L.A. with him – shows up at a banquet room in her hotel for a photo session. The photographer’s assistant asks, “What’s your advice for people getting into the business?”

Tina, at 3 a.m., is serious: “Have some kind of business knowledge.”

In the dressing room between shows, she had said, “I’m glad I got Ike, ’cause I would’ve quit years ago. I probably would’ve worked for promoters and not get paid. Our policy is to have our money before we go on stage. Even if it’s for the President.”

R oad manager Rhonda Graham, a stern, curt white woman, is seated nearby, in front of a rack full of Tina’s costumes and shoes. “In the early Sixties we went through that. If you don’t know these people, some of them just take the gate and leave.”

“Three, four years ago, they were playing a club,” Trager recalls, “and Rhonda had a cigar box at the door. And one dollar would go into the box, one dollar to the club. At Basin Street West he got cash all the time.” But if you are black and in the music business, you get burned until you either quit or learn. Turner learned, through all the different labels and beginning in the late Forties.

In junior high, he says, he’d decided to devote himself to “giving people music sounds that they could really dig, and pat their feet to. I’m not a very good speaker, so I try to express myself when I play.” Turner told Pete Senoff: “I started professionally when I was 11. The first group I played with was Robert Nighthawk, then Sonny Boy Williams. This was like back in 1948-1949. I went to Memphis in about 1952. That’s where I met Junior Parker, Willy Nix, Howlin’ Wolf. I was just playing with different groups all around – playing piano. From Junior Parker, I left Memphis and went to Mississippi, where I met the people from Kent and Modern Record Company. That’s when I started scouting for talent for them. That’s when I started recording B.B. King, Roscoe Gordon, Johnny Ace, Howlin’ Wolf. We were just going through the South and giving people there $5 to $10 or a fifth of whiskey while we recorded over a piano in their living rooms.

“I wrote 32 hits for that firm, but I didn’t know what a songwriter’s royalties were. I didn’t know nothing, man. They were sending me $150 a week, which was enough to keep me very happy in Mississippi, but not enough for me to get away to find out what was really going on.”

She became a regular, singing on weekends, until she cut “A Fool in Love” in 1960, and the demo became a hit. By that time, they’d been married – “in 1958,” says Tina, “one of those house things, little preacher things, sort of quiet, saying, ‘Okay, let’s do it.'” – and Ike changed Annie Mae’s name to Tina. “He’s always looking for something different in a name,” she said.

Bolic Sound, the name of the studios, is taken from her maiden name. Tine was born in Brownsville, Tennessee, and grew up in Knoxville. They way she stretches her limbs on stage, she looks tall, and her high cheekbones give her a proud Indian appearance. But she’s only 5’4″, and as for Indian blood: “It’s in the family, but I don’t know where or from what tribe. My grandmother really looked like an Indian, though. She was maybe one-fourth Cherokee.”

Tina never studied music. Of course, she learned some from church – in Knoxville, she went to Baptist church and sang in the choir and, in high school, she sang some opera. But mostly she remembers a baby-sitter taking her to “sanctified church, a religion, they call it holiness – it’s where they play tambourines and dance, but not just dancing – dancing like godly to the fast music, sort of like today. I remembered the excitement of the music; it inspired you to dance.”

“Before Ike,” says Tina, gingerly feeling hotpants, “I didn’t – I never owned a record player. I listened to songs on the radio, but I never knew the artists went out and performed. I never connected the two. It’s like you’re dumb, you don’t know how they make movies. I never knew…I just thought I’d be singing in a church the rest of my life and marry.”

“I knew nothing about NY-kruma …is that how you say…Nkruma – none of that. I never did much reading. Everything I could have learned in America in two years, I learned in a week’s time. But I went out and toured, going like 100 miles out of the main town. I got a chance to see how the real people live. Huts, no electric lights, no windows. They lived down in the fields.

“But I never go out a lot. Never saw the Statue of Liberty, which I’d really want to – especially since I’ve seen the Eiffel Tower. But I never feel like it; you get in the habit of sleeping all day. But there isn’t a whole lot to see in America. We tore all our historical things down. Like there’s no Indians, no real Indians for you to go out and see.

“Every now and then I read. Like for instance I took time to read what I wanted to about astrology, and I took time to read up on the health food thing.”

Tina is trying to move away from meat, and her kids “are doing vitamin pills, wheat germs, and sunflower seed flour. But I like a good steak now and then…

“I read the Jacqueline Kennedy, the Ethel Kennedy book. From the very beginning I never paid any attention to the political end of America. So then when President Kennedy became president, I became interested, because for some reason I liked him. Every time they said the President’s going to speak, I watched. Something about that family – they’re real people. I don’t know what it is – lively, life-like.”

Ike is playing his new sides in his office, and everybody’s moving, just so, head nodding, lower lip out a little, legs maybe churning a bit, and this photographer is sitting there, tapping both feet lightly on the floor, and Ike strikes an accusatory pose: “See? See? You white people – You have to move from inside! Man, white people put black people off beat clapping so long…” Which is not the way the Turners usually talk about their audiences. “Okay,” says Tina. “In the beginning we worked the chitlin’ circuit, and now we go back, and it’s really terrible. They really don’t listen now, because they feel like, ‘Well, we knew you first.’ Black people seem to be like ‘We know what Ike and Tina can do’…like at one of our gigs, a guy right down front kept passing a cigarette the whole time, anything to distract from what’s going on stage. Instead, with a white audience, they sit and listen, and you have their attention. Or they leave. But they never start walking around or start a fight.

“Like I’m not shameful of my people or anything, and I’ve had a lot of people come and say, ‘Mama, when you gonna grow out the hair?’ ‘Where’s the natural?’ I told them, ‘I’m black, you can see it.’ I don’t have to wear a big wooly head of hair. I like straight hair, I wear it, I feel myself, you don’t see me walking around trying to be white…

“Ike could do this better than myself, but have you ever noticed that when black people go to a dance, they dress the complete thing, the high-heeled shoes, the purse. But the whites, they just wear something they’ll be comfortable in. All right, so I think that the black person a lot of times doesn’t go to see what is there, he goes to be seen. And like you find in the middle of a number where you’re really trying to climax your show, someone gets up and walks straight across right in front of you – a woman most likely, or a man dressed with a hat that’s tilted and all the colors, and the flaps on his shoes, and you know, they don’t think a lot about being entertained. They want to do the entertaining.”

“They changed minds; they said, ‘Well, why?’ and everybody else said, ‘Yeah, why?’ And that’s who accepted us. They felt like ‘why dress up, for the acts.’ ‘Why is it that a woman can’t wear short dresses or whatever?’ You understand what I’m saying? And here I was that they could say, ‘Here is Tina Turner, here is the Supremes. Why is it that Tina Turner isn’t as good as the Supremes? Because you’re of this – would it be – ‘culture’? No – you would say that the Supremes could play for a more sophisticated audience, but Tina Turner couldn’t. And the hippies would say ‘Why?’ So everybody got into the ‘why’ bag and I sit right down in the middle. And sayin’ that this girl and their act is just as good as these other people; it’s class. Really, they just got polished down, and for the other set of people.

“I never did like James Brown. I always did like Ray Charles. He was my only influence, because I always liked to sing more or less like men sing, and sound like they sound. Like he and Sam Cooke were my influences.” What Tina likes, and what she aims for when she choreographs the Ikettes – is action. “I let an Ikette wear an Afro once,” she says – “Esther, the little short one, because it fit her personality and she wanted to. But I’ve found that long hair adds to the action of our show. Esther was on television with a natural, and she said, ‘Why is this, I don’t look like I’m doing anything.’ The difference was the difference in the action. We went on stage once, and I wore a fur dress and the Ikettes wore leopard furry dresses – but you gotta work harder, because there’s no swing. Every time I wear a chiffon dress, everyone says ‘What’s wrong with you tonight, Tina? You weren’t moving.’ The chiffon hides the action.”

Friday night at the Circle Star, the Ikettes were by themselves, each packaged in silver micro-minis, combing out their hair and laughing insults at each other, like dormitory girls. The Kings of Rhythm were into the first of their usual two-number set, and the Ikettes, right on time, were adjusting their sequin chokers and ready to put on their medium-heels. As one, they laughed about the bad old days.

Various ex-Ikettes had said how difficult Ike and Tina were, how selfish they were, how stingy (one ex said Ikettes got $30 a night if they were within 50 miles of L.A.; an extra $5 outside – this in ’68 and ’69 – “and we paid our own rent; they just paid transportation”).

Another girl spoke about a fine system – $10 for a run in an Ikettes’ stockings; $25 for “laughing too loud” – even if it happened off-stage, in a hotel room. She also spoke of Ike putting down their singing and hiring local session singers for his albums. When they were called in for a session, she said, they weren’t paid – except for “Bold Soul Sister.” The Ikettes, she said, wrote the song, but didn’t get credit – “only $15 each for that session.”

And the turnover. “They give excuses like, ‘Lots of girls have to get married.’ But most of them just can’t take their baloney. Of course when you leave you have a bad attitude. I was so naïve – Ike’d holler on stage, and it was hard to concentrate on what you were doing.” But, she admitted, it was good training – not unlike boot camp. And there’ve been plenty who’ve served – including Bonnie Bramlett, in 1965 – and another soulful white singer, Kathy MacDonald. Ike found her at the Fillmore West and wanted to sign her as a solo artist, and she sang on “Come Together,” but she stayed with her job in the chorus behind Joe Cocker. “It was very common to get approached by Ike,” said one former Ikette. “He’ll just approach anything in a skirt. He’d be shrewd about it, buy you things and make you think twice about it. Tina may know all this, but she tries to act like she doesn’t. They’re not as happy as they put out front.”

Driving from her house to the studios, Tina talks about interviews. Her least favorite question is about the different Ikettes. “Lord knows how many there’ve been,” she says, evading another question by adding, “They leave for one reason or another.” Bonnie Bramlett, she says, “would have lasted, but we went to the South, and we had trouble down in Louisiana, guess she looked too white. We put a scarf on her and we felt she’d pass as ‘a yellow nigger,’ but they just sort of knew, and they blocked us and everything…But whenever I run into anyone like with a good voice that could be an asset to the group – if they can dance – I hire. I don’t worry about color.

“Yeah, I work with the Ikettes on their records because a lot of times they can’t always do Ike’s ideas – control the voice and all. Sometimes we have to use other outside voices for certain sounds…”

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In the dressing room, while Tina talked, Ike slept. In the hallway, while Ike chatted, Tina was in seclusion.

Ike Turner spends most nights in his private apartment – “the Whorehouse,” – a mile away at his new studio, Bolic Sound, but Tina says she stays there whenever she can. And yet she’s upset now because Ike was talking to the telephone man the other day about buying cable lines, so he can hook up another remote camera from his office and watch what’s going on at home.

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Ike & Tina Turner

Live / concert tours.

Ike & Tina Turner are not so much known about their records, but because of their live shows. They were the hottest and most unusual R&B performers of their time, constantly on the road.

With the success of River Deep, Mountain High in 1966, they developed their show more into rock’n roll and toured for the first time Europe and Australia. From The Rolling Stones , they were invited in 1966 to open their UK tour and once again in 1969 for their North American tour. With this wider audience profile in their home country, The lke and Tina Turner Revue was guest on many variety shows and picked up the opportunity to perform in the casinos of Las Vegas

In the seventies, with hits like Proud Mary , Nutbush City Limits and I Want To Take You Higher , Ike & Tina toured all over the world in big arenas and at festivals. They were also the first show act who outsold the Olympiahalle in Munich, Germany. 

The setlist from their concerts changed constantly, so it’s impossible to list all songs they performed live. To get an idea of their shows, you can listen to such fantastic live albums like  What You Hear Is What You Get  or  The World of Ike & Tina  or you can watch the home video  Live in ’71 .

Back to:  Live

Next:  The Tina Turner Show  (1977)

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TINA’S HISTORY

Discover Tina’s History: From humble beginnings in Nutbush, Tennessee – to her meteoric rise to undisputed Queen of Rock and Roll.

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Tina Turner

Grammy-winner Tina Turner rose to fame in the 1960s by performing with then-husband Ike Turner. The singer later enjoyed an international solo career with hits like “What’s Love Got to Do With It.”

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Quick Facts

Making the charts: "a fool in love", marriage to ike turner, famed interpretation of "proud mary", divorcing ike, solo comeback: "private dancer" and "what’s love got to do with it", late ’80s: "mad max" movie, autobiography, and more albums, "wildest dreams" and final tour, second marriage to erwin bach, later years, who was tina turner.

Tina Turner began performing with musician Ike Turner in the 1950s. They became known as the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, achieving popular acclaim for their live performances and recordings like the top 5 hit “Proud Mary,” until Tina left in the 1970s after years of domestic abuse. Following a slow start to her solo career, Turner achieved massive success with her 1984 album Private Dancer . She went on to deliver more chart-topping albums and hit singles and was twice elected into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The revered singer with eight Grammys to her name later became involved in the spiritual Beyond project. Turner died May 24, 2023, at age 83.

FULL NAME: Tina Turner (nee Anna Mae Bullock) BORN: November 26, 1939 DIED: May 24, 2023 BIRTHPLACE: Nutbush, Tennessee SPOUSES: Ike Turner (1962-1978) and Erwin Bach (2013-2023) CHILDREN: Craig, Ronnie, Ike Jr., and Michael ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Sagittarius

Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in Nutbush, Tennessee. Her parents, Floyd and Zelma Bullock, were poor sharecroppers, who split up and left Anna Mae and her sister to be raised by their grandmother. When her grandmother died in the early 1950s, Anna Mae moved to St. Louis, to be with her mother.

Barely in her teens, Anna Mae, who sang in her church’s choir, quickly immersed herself in St. Louis’s R&B scene, spending much of her time at Club Manhattan. It was there, in 1956, that she met rock ’n’ roll pioneer Ike Turner , who often played at the club with the Kings of Rhythm. Soon, she was performing with the group as “Little Ann,” and she quickly became the highlight of their show.

In 1960, when another singer failed to show up for a Kings of Rhythm recording session, Anna Mae sang the lead on a track titled “A Fool in Love.” The record was then sent to a radio station in New York and was released under the moniker Ike and Tina Turner. ( In a 2013 interview with Oprah Winfrey , Tina said Ike patented her name as a form of control.)

The song became a huge R&B success and soon crossed over to the pop charts. Before long, the group was touring as the Ike and Tina Turner Revue and earning renown for their electrifying stage performances. The group also capitalized on the success of “A Fool in Love” by releasing a string of successful follow-up singles, including “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine,” “Poor Fool,” and “Tra La La La La.”

With their popularity growing, Ike and Tina were married in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1962. They had a son, Ronnie, prior to their wedding in 1960. They shared four sons in all: Craig; Ike Jr.; Michael; and Ronnie, who was their only biological child together.

Tina had Craig with Kings of Rhythm saxophonist Raymond Hill when she was 18. Ike adopted Craig, and Tina adopted two of Ike’s sons, Ike Jr. and Michael, from his previous marriage.

In 1966, Tina and Ike’s success reached new heights when they recorded the album River Deep, Mountain High with superstar record producer Phil Spector . The title track was unsuccessful in the United States but became a massive, top 5 hit in England and brought the duo new fame. Still, they became more known for their electrifying live performances without accumulating a ton of corresponding hits.

In 1969, they toured as the opening act for the Rolling Stones , winning themselves still more fans. Their popularity was rekindled in 1971 with the release of the album Workin’ Together , which featured a renowned slow-to-fast remake of the Creedence Clearwater Revival track “Proud Mary” that reached the top 5 of the U.S. charts and won the two their first Grammy.

“Proud Mary” became a cornerstone of the couple’s shows, renowned for Tina’s vocal delivery along with the swirling, hand-rolling dance moves from accompanying vocalists, the Ikettes.

The duo later had a top 5 U.K. hit with 1973’s “Nutbush City Limits,” a rock-country-soul jam penned by Tina that included autobiographical elements. Then in 1975, Tina also appeared in her first film, playing the Acid Queen in The Who’s Tommy.

Despite their success as a musical duo, Tina and Ike’s marriage was in shambles. Tina would later reveal that Ike was often physically abusive, and she even attempted suicide because of his abuse.

In 1976, the couple separated both personally and professionally after an altercation in Dallas in which Tina fought back, according to her later book. In 1978, they were officially divorced, with Tina citing Ike’s frequent infidelities and increasing drug and alcohol use in addition to the abuse.

In the years following her divorce, Tina’s solo career got off to a slow start. According to Tina, when she left Ike, she had “36 cents and a gas station credit card.” To make ends meet and to care for her children, she used food stamps and even cleaned houses. But she also continued to perform in lower-profile venues and made guest appearances on other artists’ records, though not achieving any notable success initially.

In 1983, however, Turner’s solo career finally gained steam when she recorded a remake of Al Green ’s “Let’s Stay Together.” Noted for a related video in which she appeared in a rag dress between two dancers, Turner took her remake to the top 5 on the domestic R&B charts and the top 10 among U.K. pop songs.

The following year, she exploded back into the record industry when her much-anticipated solo album Private Dancer was released to overwhelming critical and popular success. It went on to win four Grammy Awards and eventually sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.

Private Dancer was a formidable entity in terms of its individual singles, with the empowerment anthem “What’s Love Got to Do With It” reaching No. 1 on the U.S. pop charts and earning the Grammy for Record of the Year. The smooth-jazz title track “Private Dancer” and “Better Be Good to Me” both reached the top 10 as well.

By this time, Turner was a woman in her mid-40s who was becoming even more renowned for her uniquely energetic performances and raspy singing technique along with her signature look—typically performing in short skirts that exposed her famous legs, with voluminous, punk-styled hair.

In 1985, Turner returned to the screen, starring opposite Mel Gibson in the film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, to which she contributed the No. 2 pop song “We Don’t Need Another Hero.”

I, Tina: My Life Story

One year later, she published her autobiography, I, Tina , which would later be adapted as the 1993 film What’s Love Got to Do with It , starring Angela Bassett as Tina and Laurence Fishburne as Ike. ( Turner’s soundtrack for the film, in which she redid classic tracks and offered up the new top 10 hit “I Don’t Wanna Fight” would go double-platinum, and both Bassett and Fishburne earned Oscar nominations for their performances.)

The year 1986 also saw the release of Turner’s second solo album, Break Every Rule , featuring the fun “Typical Male.” Chronicling unfulfilled desire with a too-brainy romantic interest, the track was yet another hit for Turner, reaching No. 2 on the pop charts.

Tina Live in Europe followed in 1988 and won the Grammy for Female Rock Vocal Performance. Foreign Affair (1989), which included the top 20 hit single “The Best,” outdid Private Dancer in worldwide sales.

The following decade, Turner released Wildest Dreams (1996), featuring her cover of John Waite’s “Missing You,” and Twenty Four Seven (1999). She also made several recordings for film soundtracks, including the James Bond title song “Goldeneye,” a U.K. top 10 hit, and “He Lives in You” for The Lion King 2 .

In 1991, Ike and Tina Turner were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Ike was unable to attend the ceremony, however, as he was serving time for drug possession. (He eventually died of an overdose in 2007.)

In 2008, the iconic entertainer embarked on her Tina! 50th Anniversary Tour, which became one of the highest-selling ticketed shows of 2008 and 2009. She announced that it would be her final tour and essentially retired from the music business save for occasional appearances and recordings.

Turner nonetheless continued to be a luminary of the musical world, appearing on the cover of a 2013 Dutch Vogue that was widely shared.

Turner collaborated with spiritual musicians Regula Curti and Dechen Shak-Dagsay for the release of Beyond: Buddhist and Christian Prayers in 2010, as well as for the follow-up albums Children Beyond (2011) and Love Within (2014). “The experience of singing prayers together allows us to deeply connect on an emotional level,” Turner explained to Billboard in 2010, “a place of love and respect where worldly differences fade.”

Previously, in the 1970s, a friend had introduced Turner to Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism, from which she found peace in the rituals of chanting. She adhered to the teachings of The Soka Gakkai International, the largest Buddhist organization consisting of about 12 million Nichiren Buddhist practitioners.

In 2013, news broke that 73-year-old Turner was engaged to her longtime partner, German record executive Erwin Bach. That July, they were married in Zurich, Switzerland, only months after Turner had gained her Swiss citizenship. She lived with Bach in Küsnacht near Zurich.

In her 70s, Turner experienced several major health issues. Three months after her marriage to Bach in 2013, Turner suffered a stroke. In 2016, she was diagnosed with intestinal cancer. The next year, she had a kidney transplant, and Bach was the donor.

Returning to the spotlight in 2018, Turner was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (alongside other industry legends like Neil Diamond and Emmylou Harris ) to open the year—an eventful one for the 78-year-old.

That March, Turner revealed that she had forgiven her ex-husband for his abusive behavior years ago. “As an old person, I have forgiven him, but it would not work with him,” she said in an interview with The Times of London . “He asked for one more tour with me, and I said, ‘No, absolutely not.’ Ike wasn’t someone you could forgive and allow him back in.”

Then in April, fans were treated to a showcase of her greatest hits with the opening of TINA: The Tina Turner Musical at the Aldwych Theatre in London. It opened on Broadway in New York City the next fall.

Over the summer of 2018, Turner learned that her oldest son, Craig, had been found dead at his home in Studio City, California, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The real estate agent was 59. She wrote about his death, among other things, in her second memoir My Love Story that published in October.

Three years later, in October 2021, Turner was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame again and this time as an individual. Early in the year, HBO released a biographical documentary called Tina that featured archival footage and interviews with Turner, Angela Bassett , Oprah Winfrey , and others. Another honor that year came in the form of the Tina Turner Barbie doll.

In 2022, Turner’s son Ronnie died from colon cancer and cardiovascular disease at age 62. In an Instagram post , Turner wrote: “Ronnie, you left the world far too early. In sorrow I close my eyes and think of you, my beloved son.”

At age 83, Turner died on May 24, 2023, in her home Küsnacht, Switzerland, near Zurich. A representative said she died peacefully after a long illness. In the 2010s, she had a stroke, was diagnosed with cancer, and had a kidney transplant.

• I always had long legs. When I was young, I used to think, “Why do I look like a little pony?”
• Why did I fall so deeply in love? I think when you haven’t had that much love at home, and then you find someone you love, everything comes out.
• I came into this lifetime with a job to finish. I finished it well. I’ve been told many reasons for why I lived through what I did. But I have never felt that I deserved it.
• For anyone who’s in an abusive relationship, I say this: Go. Nothing can be worse than where you are now. You have to take care of yourself first—and then you take care of your children. They will understand later.
• I believe all religion is about touching something inside of yourself. It’s all one thing. If we would realize this, we could make a change in this millennium.
• Material things make me happy, but I am already happy before I acquire these things.
• I’m very happy in Switzerland, and I feel at home here. I cannot imagine a better place to live.
• I will never give in to old age until I become old. And I’m not old yet!
• There comes a point where it is just undignified to be a rock ’n’ roll star.
• I believe that if you’ll just stand up and go, life will open up for you.
• There is no strict regimen that says when you are in your late 40s you cannot wear a minidress.
• I don’t like to dwell on the past.
• I need that on stage. I need a burst of life. That’s entertainment for me.
• Rock songs inspire you to release whatever the frustrations and help you to go on in life. Spiritual songs do it on another level... A lot of people left my last show with the same sense of spirituality. My show gave people the drive to go and to do in their lives what they want to do and make their lives the best, do the best they can in this world... That is the mail I receive. My rock shows did the same as what my spiritual music does now.

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I n 1966, the Evergreen Ballroom out on Old Highway 99 in Lacey was ripe for the visit it got from Ike and Tina Turner . Already a hot spot for bands headed to and from Seattle, it received high traffic from hundreds of weekend dancers. Of course the ballroom was ready to welcome yet another performer that would go on to a long, successful career. Tina Turner graced the stage at The Green, as it was familiarly known, at a significant rise in her growing fame. Her performance surely left many Thurston County residents saying, “I was there!”

Born Anna Mae Bullock, Turner was a small-town person playing a big gig in small-town Lacey. Still small today, her hometown of Nutbush, Tennessee, had a population of about 1,100 even in 2020. She later moved to St. Louis with her sister and mother and finished high school. The story goes, according to the International Tina Turner Fan Club biography, that one night her sister convinced her to go to the Club Manhattan, the city’s most famous night club. One of the bands that played there was Ike Turner’s The Kings of Rhythm. By chance, Anna filled in one evening as a singer in the band. She stepped in another time for a no-show singer when the band needed to record “A Fool in Love.” The single became a hit and proved to be a game changer. Ike Turner’s band changed its name and became The Ike and Tina Turner Revue with the Ikettes as back-up singers.

While Anna, now performing under the name Tina Turner, was just beginning to make an impression in 1960 St. Louis, the Evergreen Ballroom had already been rockin’ the rafters of its barn style dance hall for nearly 30 years. The first music playing there came from the in-house Sholund band in 1931, the same year Ike Turner was born. In the 1940s, orchestra and big band music was popular, some even battling before the crowd for popularity. Patrons came from all around the county, even from McCord Airforce Base and Tacoma. The dancehall was out on the edge of Lacey, but the Sholund family owners made arrangements for bus rides. When teenage dances gained momentum in the 1950s, young people crammed in to see the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, James Brown and the Fabulous Wailers. While Ike and Tina Turner were crisscrossing the country and starting to travel the globe, Lacey and its surrounding residents were perfecting their dance moves right into the mid-1960s.

The Ike and Tina Turner Revue racked up hit after hit, and to keep making money, they worked 300 days a year. The two headliners Ike and Tina married in 1962 and continued touring the United States. Florida, Ohio, California, St. Louis and New York were just a few of the many stops. In 1965, they were on American Bandstand. In 1966, their newest song “ River Deep Mountain High ” was a top three hit in the United Kingdom. In the fall of the same year, just before arriving in the Pacific Northwest, they had spent September and October as the opening act for the Rolling Stones on a UK tour. One month later, for their very next show, on November 27, 1966, they took the stage at The Green. It was the day after Tina’s birthday.

Ike and Tina Turner were following in the footsteps of big names like those with whom they had worked and toured. Together, they recorded for seven different record labels in five years by 1969. Their name and notoriety had gone transcontinental. Locally though, advertisements ran regularly in The Daily Chronicle, inviting people to the ballroom. Seeing an ad for the band’s appearance would have drawn in the teenage dance crowd, soldiers from the nearby military base and even previous generations of patrons who had been to The Green in their own youth. The 1,670 square feet of dance floor was used to being stomped and tapped by feet until 2 a.m. Doors were open until after midnight, and a ticket was just a few dollars.

Ike and Tina Turner toured again with the Rolling Stones in 1969, and they continued to zig zag across the nation to perform. In the 1971, they won a Grammy Award for the Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group, and they had three other nominations surround that win. Ultimately, they would go on to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.

The Evergreen Ballroom hosted countless performers, orchestras, quintets of teen heartthrob bands and hosted battles between bands. Social media posts and reflections shared are evidence of the long, historical importance of the dancehall. Unfortunately, the building burned in 2000. It was never rebuilt, but the memories last. The Thurston County Historical Commission and the City of Lacey have discussed a monument to be erected near the Regional Athletic Complex , not far from the original location.

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#50GreatestConcerts: Ike & Tina Turner, 1969

Ike and Tina won over American audiences with wild, sweat drenched covers of the new rock & roll canon

Ike and Tina Turner in 1969. Photo: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

The Rolling Stones ‘ return to America in 1969, after three years away ”“ a period that included Beggars Banquet and the death of guitarist Brian Jones ”“ was what critic Robert Christgau described as “history’s first mythic rock & roll tour.” But on the 17-date spin through the States, time and again they were upstaged by their handpicked opening act, old friends Ike and Tina Turner and their combustible R&B revue.

The Stones met Ike and Tina among Phil Spector’s orbit in England. “I’d always see Mick in the wings,” Tina remembered of performances in the mid-Sixties. “I’d come out and watch him occasionally; they’d play music and Mick would beat the tambourine. He wasn’t dancing. And lo and behold, when he came to America, he was doing everything!” Jagger later admitted he “learned a lot of things from Tina.”

In the U.S., Ike and Tina won over a new audience with wild, sweat drenched covers of the new rock & roll canon, including a brassy burst through the Beatles’ “Come Together” (“I said to Ike,” recalled Tina, “ ”˜Please, please let me do that song onstage’ ”). They spun through Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart” and a high-octane version of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary” that, by 1971, would become their biggest hit. Their take on Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” garnered its share of attention too, thanks to an orgasmic bridge that eventually got even raunchier. “I don’t think it can go any further,” Tina said in 1971, “because, as they say in New York, it’s getting pornographic.”

At Madison Square Garden, Joplin herself stopped by to assist on “Land of 1,000 Dances.” By the tour’s end, writers couldn’t control their enthusiasm. “Vogue said it best,” said Tina. ”˜They came to see Mick Jagger, but they saw Ike and Tina, and they’ve been comin’ ever since.’”

Click here to check out the entire story in the digital edition of Rolling Stone India. 

Watch Ike and Tina Turner perform during their appearance on ‘Playboy After Dark’ in 1969:

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By 1958, Ike Turner and his band, the Kings of Rhythm was one of the most popular live performing attractions to the St. Louis and neighboring East St. Louis club scene. Ike had moved there from Memphis in 1954 after work as a talent scout for the Modern and RPM labels. Around this time, a young nurse's assistant named Anna Mae Bullock began frequenting the nightclubs in both St. Louis and East St. Louis with her sister Alline and several friends. One night, Bullock saw Ike and the Kings of Rhythm performing at the East St. Louis club, Club Manhattan. She later stated that the band's performance put her "in a trance".

While there, Anna began dating a member of Ike's band, saxophonist Raymond Hill. During a band intermission in Club Manhattan, Anna was given a microphone from the band's drummer Gene Washington. Bullock eventually sang along with Ike's band for several songs that night. Going by the stage name "Little Ann", Bullock made her recording debut as a background vocalist to Ike's song "Box Top", which became a regional single on Tune Town Records. During this period, Ike trained Ann on voice control and performance. In March 1960, singer Art Lassiter was chosen to front the Kings of Rhythm. Ike had written a song for Lassiter he called "A Fool in Love". Lassiter failed to show up to record. Having already booked expensive studio time, Ike allowed "Little Ann" to sing the song as a "dummy track" for Lassiter. The song impressed one radio disk jockey so much that he told Ike to send the record to Sue Records president Juggy Murray.

"A Fool in Love" became a hit after its release in the late spring of 1960, reaching #2 R&B and #27 on the Billboard Hot 100, selling over a million copies. It was described by Kurt Loder years later in Tina's autobiography I, Tina as "the blackest record to ever creep the white pop charts since Ray Charles' 'What'd I Say' a year before". In 1961, the duo reached the top 20 on the pop charts with "It's Gonna Work Out Fine", which became the duo's second million-selling single and also garnered them their first Grammy Award nomination. The duo would score several R&B charted singles including "I Idolize You" and "Poor Fool". In between, the personal friendship between Ike and Tina had turned sexual. Ike later described that his first sexual encounter with Tina "felt like I had screwed my sister or somethin'. I mean I had hoped to die... we really were like brother and sister. It wasn't just her voice... Anyway me and Ann were tight."

1960 1 April 1960 - Washington Arena, Washington, DC - USA 6 November 1960 - Filmmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA – USA 13 November 1960 - Hollywood Palladium, Hollywood, CA – USA

The entire Revue relocated from East St. Louis to Los Angeles in 1960. Gigging for 300 days a year touring the chitlin' circuit to make up for a lack of hit records put a strain on Tina.

1961 17-23 February 1961 - Howard Theatre, Washington, DC - USA 24 December 1961 - The Auditorium, Klamath Falls, OR - USA

Their relationship often was combative. Tina claimed in her autobiography that Ike hit her with a shoe stretcher after she complained about monetary issues and her own misgivings about continuing their offstage partnership. According to Tina, they would eventually marry in 1962 in Tijuana, though Ike later disputed the account.

1962 28-30 June 1962 - Fountain Blue Hotel, Miami Beach, FL - USA 1 September 1962 - Mambo Club, Wichita, KS – USA 7 October 1962 - Castle Farms Club, Cincinatti, OH - USA 30 December 1962 - Coconut Grove - Sacramento, CA - USA

1963 19-20 November 1963 - Club Emperial, St. Louis, MO - USA

In 1964, after months of tense business relations, Ike Turner ended his contract with Juggy Murray and Sue Records. He signed with the Kent label and a year later signed with Warner Bros. Records and its subsidiary Loma Records, where they met Bob Krasnow. Krasnow would begin managing them in 1965.

1964 22-23 March 1964 - Club Handy, Memphis, TN - USA 21 May 1964 - Club Imperial, St. Louis, MO- USA 8 June 1964 - The 49er, El Monte, CA - USA 29 June 1964 - The 49er, El Monte, CA - USA 1 July 1964 - Masonic Temple, Port Angeles, WA - USA 27 July 1964 - The 49er, El Monte, CA - USA 7 October 1964 - Rockland Palace, New York City, NY – USA 16 November 1964 - The 49er, El Monte, CA - USA 27 November 1964 - Old Olympia, Tacoma Highway, WA - USA 7 December 1964 - The 49er, El Monte, CA - USA 9 December 1964 - Ciro’s Le Disc, Hollywood, CA - USA 13 December 1964 - Continental Club, Oakland, CA - USA

Throughout 1965, the Revue promoted their music on rock and roll-themed musical variety series such as American Bandstand, Hollywood A Go-Go and Shindig! as well as the concert film The Big T.N.T. Show. In addition to deals with Kent, Warner and Loma, the Revue would record for seven other labels in a five-year period, through 1969. The Turners' lack of a hit single was sometimes blamed on Ike Turner's limited facility in the studio. With Krasnow, however, that changed. Hit producer Phil Spector soon called Krasnow asking him if he could produce for Ike and Tina, to which Krasnow agreed. Spector forked over $25,000 for the right to record with them, with the intent on creating his "biggest hit".

Tina recorded the Ellie Greenwich/Jeff Barry composition "River Deep – Mountain High" in late 1965. Released in 1966, the song failed to become a hit in the United States. However, in Europe, the song became a hit, reaching the top three in the United Kingdom. Its UK success prompted Spector to state in interviews, "Benedict Arnold was quite a guy", in regards to the United States' indifferent reaction to the song. Later that year, The Rolling Stones offered Ike and Tina a chance to be one of their opening acts on their fall tour in the United Kingdom, which they accepted. The duo took the opportunity afterwards to book themselves tours all over Europe and Australia where they attracted audiences. The audiences' appreciation of the band's sound stunned Ike Turner, who noted that "there wasn't anything like my show." Following this, the band returned to the United States in demand despite not having a big hit.

1965 18 Jan. 1965 - The 49er, El Monte, CA - USA 15 February 1965 - The 49er, El Monte, CA - USA 16-20 February 1965 - Skol’s Lounge, Tarzana, CA - USA 21 February 1965 - Filmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA - USA 25 February 1965 - Los Angeles Valley College, Van Nuys,CA - USA 5-13 March 1965 - Ciro’s Le Disc, Hollywood, CA - USA 22 March 1965 - The 49er, El Monte, CA - USA 20 May 1965 - Club Imperial, St. Louis, MO - USA 6 June 1965 - Carr’s Beach Ballroom, Anapolis, MD - USA 18 Augustus 1965 - Cinnamons Cinder, Long Beach, CA - USA 24-30 September 1965 - Howard Theatre, Washington, DC - USA 2 October 1965 - Convention Hall, New Jersey, NY - USA 9 October 1965 - St. Louis Armory, St. Louis, TN – USA 13 December 1965 - The 49er, El Monte, CA - USA

1966 2 February 1966 - Filmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA - USA 14 March 1966 - The 49er, El Monte, CA - USA 2 July 1966 - The Coliseum, EL Paso, TX - USA 28 July 1966 - The Limit, Long Beach, CA - USA 31 August 1966 - The Limit, Long Beach, CA - USA 23 September 1966 - Royal Albert Hall, London - UK* 24 September 1966 - Odeon Theatre, Leeds - UK* 25 September 1966 - Empire Theatre, Liverpool - UK* 28 September 1966 - ABC Theatre Ardwick, Manchester UK* 29 September 1966 - ABC Theatre, Stockton - UK* 30 September 1966 - Odeon Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland* 1 October 1966 - City Hall, Newcastle Upon Tyne - UK* 2 October 1966 - Gaumont Theatre, Ipswich - UK* 6 October 1966 - Odeon Theatre, Birmingham - UK* 7 October 1966 - Colston Hall, Bristol - UK* 8 October 1966 - Capitol Theatre, Cardiff - UK* 9 October 1966 - Gaumont Theatre, South Hampton - UK* 14 October 1966 - Tile’s - London - UK 15 October 1966 - Mojo Club - Sheffield - UK 16 October 1966 - Ricky Tick Club, Hounslow , Middlesex - UK 22 October 1966 - California Ballroom, Dunstable - UK 27 November 1966 - Olympia, Washington, DC - USA 8 December 1966 - Civic Playhouse, Wichita, KS – USA

*Opening Act for the Rolling Stones

1967 7 January 1967 - Blue Bunny, Long Beach, CA - USA 17 January 1967 - California Hall - San Francisco, CA - USA 18 January 1967 - The Limit, Long Beach, CA - USA 3 February 1967 -Lazy X Night Club, San Francisco, CA -USA 26 April 1967 - The Limit, Long Beach, CA - USA 1 May 1967 - The 49er, El Monte, CA - USA 9 June 1967 – Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA – USA* 22-23 June 1967 - Pink Carousel, Downey, CA - USA 6 July 1967 - Calderon Ballroom, Phoenix, AZ - USA 15 July 1967 - Coliseum Ballroom, BENLD, IL - USA 22-24 September 1967 - Phelps Lounge, Detroit, MI - USA 30 September 1967 - Coliseum, BENLD, IL - USA 13 November 1967 - The 49er, El Monte, CA - USA 13 December 1967 - The Limit, Long Beach, CA - USA 24 December 1967 - Civic Center, Oklahoma City, OK - USA 27 December 1967 - Civic Center - Oklahoma City, OK - USA

*  Opening Act for the Monkees

By 1968, they were performing and headlining in Las Vegas. That year, they signed with Blue Thumb Records and released the first of two albums with them, the first of which, Outta Season, included their modest hit cover of "I've Been Loving You Too Long" (a song originally sung and written by Otis Redding). The second Blue Thumb release, The Hunter, followed in 1969, and included their modest hit cover of the Albert King hit as well as an original composition titled "Bold Soul Sister". Tina's rendition of "The Hunter" led to the singer receiving her first solo Grammy nomination in 1970. Prior to the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, Ike had lived a teetotal, drug and alcohol free life. Following the success of the Revue, however, Ike began smoking marijuana and, later, cocaine, after being introduced the drug by, he says, "two famous Las Vegas headliners". In 1968, after another violent confrontation with Ike, Tina bought 50 Valiums and swallowed them all in an attempt to end her life before a show in Los Angeles; Tina eventually recovered.

1968 13 January 1968 - Oakland Auditorium - Oakland, CA - USA 14 January 1968 - California Hall - San Francisco, CA - USA 14 January 1968 - Lazy X Night Club, San Francisco, CA - USA 26-28 January 1968 - Both/and Club - San Francisco, CA - USA 5 Febr. 1968 - The 49er, El Monte, CA - USA 23-24 February 1968 - Cheetah Club, Venice, CA - USA 7 March 1968 - The Limit, Long Beach, CA - USA 20 March 1968 - H.O.T Fair, Waco, TX - USA 28 March – 3 April 1968 - Phelps Lounge, Detroit, MI - USA 19 April 1968 - California Ballroom, Dunstable - UK 20 April 1968 - Middle Earth - London - UK 20 April 1968 - Starlight Ballroom, Boston - UK 20 April 1968 - Gliderdrome - Boston - UK 24 April 1968 - Locarno - London - UK 26 April 1968 - Royal Theatre - Tottenham - UK 27 April 1968 - Twisted Wheel Club, Manchester - UK 1 May 1968 - Mistrale Club - Kent - UK 5 May 1968 - Concertgebouw, Amsterdam - The Netherlands 5 May 1968 - De Doelen, Rotterdam - Netherlands 14 May 1968 - Club Imperial, St. Louis, MO - USA 7 June 1968 - Muncie Armory, Indianapolis, IN - USA 8 June 1968 - Benld Coliseum, Benld, IL - USA 25-29 June 1968 - The Golden Bear, Huntington Beach, CA - USA 12-14 July 1968 - Filmore West, San Francisco, CA - USA 19-20 July 1968 - Cheetah Club - Venice, CA - USA 27 July 1968 - Shelby County Fairgrounds, Shelbina, MO - USA 27 July 1968 - Convention Hall, San Diego, CA - USA 2-4 August 1968 - Shrine Hall, Los Angeles, CA - USA 11 August 1968 - Coatham Hotel, Redcar - UK 13 August 1968 - Victoria Ballroom, Chesterfield - UK 17 August 1968 - Imperial Ballroom, Nelson - UK 27-29 September 1968 - The Showcase Theater, Oakland, CA - USA 17-19 October 1968 - The Limit, Long Beach, CA - USA 9 November 1968 - Coliseum Ballroom, Benld, IL - USA 15 November 1968 - Phelps Lounge, Detroit, MI – USA

A second opening spot on The Rolling Stones' American tour in November 1969 made Ike and Tina a hot item. During that period, the group was reassigned to Liberty Records after Minit Records was shut down.

1969 23-25 January 1969 - The Limit, Long Beach, CA - USA 22 February 1969 - USIU California Western University - San Diego, CA - USA 27 February 1969 - Classic Cat 90’s, Northridge, CA - USA 2 April 1969 - Angel Stadium, Palm Springs, CA - USA 15 May 1969 - California State University, Hayward, CA - USA 20 May 1969 - Club Imperial, St. Louis, TN - USA 13 June 1969 - Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, IL - USA 20 June 1969 - Filmore West, San Francisco, CA - USA 20 June 1969 - Cal State Northridge, Northridge, CA - USA 20 June 1969 - Newport Pop Festival, Devonshire downs, CA - USA 21 June 1969 - Performing at the “It's your thing" Soul Concert - Yankee Stadium - New York, NY - USA 21-22 June 1969 - Filmore West, San Francisco, CA - USA 4-5 July 1969 - Rose Palace, Raymond, IL - USA 10 July 1969 - El Paso Coliseum, El Paso, TX - USA 22-24 July 1969 - Filmore West, San Francisco, CA - USA 25-27 July 1969 - Seattle Pop Festival - Goldcreek, Woodinville, WA - USA 4 October 1969 - Gold Rush Festival - Lake Amador, Ione, CA - USA 24 October 1969 - Winterland - San Francisco, CA - USA 30 October - 2 November 1969 - Filmore West, San Francisco, CA - USA 31 October 1969 - Filmore West, San Francisco, CA - USA 1-2 November 1969 - Filmore West, San Francisco, CA - USA 6 November 1969 - Filmore West, San Francisco, CA - USA 7 November 1969 - Moby Arena, Fort Collina, CO - USA 8 November 1969 - The Forum, Inglewood, CA - USA 9 November 1969 - Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, CA - USA* 10 November 1969 - Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, phoenix, AZ - USA* 10 November 1969 - Valley View Casino Center, San Diego, CA - USA* 13 November 1969 - Moody Coliseum, University Park, TX - USA* 14 November 1969 - Memorial Coliseum, Auburn, AL - USA* 15 November 1969 - Assembly Hall, Champaign, IL - USA* 16 November 1969 - international Amphitheatre, Chicago, IL - USA* 21-22 November 1969 - Felt Forum, New York, NY - USA 24 November 1969 - Olympia Stadium, Detroit, MI - USA* 25 November 1969 - Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA - USA* 26 November 1969 - Electric Circus, New York, NY - USA 26 November 1969 - Civic Center, Baltimore, MD - USA 27 November 1969 - Madison Square Garden, New York, NY - USA 28 November 1969 - Electric Circus, New York, NY - USA 29 November 1969 - Madison Square Garden, New York, NY - USA 29 November 1969 - Electric Circus, New York, NY - USA 29 November 1969 - Boston Garden, Boston, MA - USA 30 November 1969 - Palm Beach International Raceway, Palm Beach, FL - USA 10-12 December 1969 - Thelma Theatre, Los Angeles, CA - USA 19 December 1969 - Fillmore East - New York, NY - USA

In 1970, the Revue released the album "Come Together". The title track, a cover of the famed Beatles song, charted, as did their cover of Sly and the Family Stone's "I Want to Take You Higher", which became their first top 40 pop song in eight years, peaking at #25, placing several spots higher than Sly's original had done months earlier. The album would sell a quarter of a million copies. That same year, Ike and Tina appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Their successful records and increasing popularity with mainstream audiences increased their nightly fee, going from $1,000 a night to $5,000 a night.

1970 1-2 January 1970 - Newport Resort Motel, Miami, FL - USA 9-10 January 1970 - Filmore East, New York, NY - USA 25 February 1970 - Pine Aerodome, Auburn, KY - USA 22 March 1970 - University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL - USA 29 March 1970 - Madison Square Garden, New York, NY - USA 29 March 1970 - Bithlo, Orlando, FL - USA 9 April 1970 Centenary College, Shreveport, LA - USA 24 April 1970 - Anaheim convention Center, Anaheim, CA - USA 25 April 1970 - Selland Arena, Fresno, CA - USA 26 April 1970 - UCLA, Los Angeles, CA - USA 29 April 1970 Chico State College, Chico, CA - USA 30 April 1970 University of Nevada, Reno, NV - USA 2 May 1970 - Swing Auditorium, San Bernadino, CA - USA 3 May 1970 - Berkley Community Theatre, Berkley, CA - USA 6 May 1970 - Western Washington State College, Bellingham, WA - USA 7 May 1970 - Pacific Lutheran College, Tacoma, WA - USA 8 May 1970 - Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA - USA 9 May 1970 - Agradome, Vancouver, BC - Canada 13 May 1970 - Central Washington State College, Ellensburg, WA - USA 14 May 1970 - ASISU Mini-Dome, Pocatello, ID - USA 15 May 1970 - Cal State Hayward, San Francisco, CA - USA 16 May 1970 - Spartan Stadium, San Jose, CA - USA 23 May 1970 - Denver Coliseum, Denver, CO - USA 26-27 May 1970 - Mill Run Theatre, Niles, IL - USA 28 May 1970 - Bush Stadium, Indianapolis, IN - USA 13 June 1970 - Waikiki Shell, Honolulu, HI - USA 13 June 1970 - Atlanta Braves Stadium - Georgia - USA 19 June 1970 - Cow Palace, Daly City, CA - USA 22 June 1970 - Harvard Stadium, Cambridge, MA - USA 27 June 1970 - Euphoria Ballroom, San Rafael, CA - USA 1-5 July 1970 – King’s Castle Hotel – North Lake Tahoe, CA - USA 8 July 1970 - Honka Monka Club, New York City, NY - USA 10 July 1970 - Music Circus, Lambertville, NJ - USA 11 July 1970 - Newport Jazz, Newport, RI - USA 12 July 1970 - Music Inn, Lenox, MA - USA 13 July 1970 - Wollman Skating Rink, New York, NY - USA 13 July 1970 - Central Park, New York, NY - USA 15 July 1970 - Harvard Stadium, Cambridge, MA - USA 16-22 July 1970 - The Raquet Club, Hyannis, MA - USA 7-9 Aug. 1970 - The An Arbor Blues Festival - Ann Arbor, MI - USA. With lots of other artists. 23 August 1970 - Club Handy, Memphis, TN - USA 5-7 September 1970 - 1st Annual Central Texas Music Festival - Highway 95 between Elgin and Bastrop, TX - USA 25 September 1970 - Santa Clara Fairground Hall, San Jose, CA - USA 26 September 1970 - Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR - USA 27 September 1970 - Berkley Community Theathre, Berkley, CA - USA 2 October 1970 - Boston Arena, Boston, MA - USA 3 October 1970 - Worcester Auditorium, Worcester, MA - USA 4 October 1970 - University of Hartford, Hartford, CT - USA 9 October 1970 - Clemson University, Clemson, SC - USA 10 October 1970 - Carmichael Auditorium, Chapel Hill, NC - USA 11 October 1970 - The Mosque, Richmond, VA - USA 17 October 1970 - Indianapolis Coliseum, Indianapolis, IN,USA 18 October 1970 - Music Hall, Cincinnati, OH - USA 21 October 1970 - Howard University, Washington, DC - USA 22 October 1970 - Atlanta Auditorium, Atlanta, GA - USA 23 October 1970 - Mid-south Coliseum, Memphis, TN - USA 24 October 1970 - Sugar Bowl Stadium, New Orleans, LA - USA 25 October 1970 - Kiel Opera House, St. Louis, MO - USA 30-31 October 1970 - Columbus Ave Townsquire, San Francisco, CA - USA 7 November 1970 - HIC Arena, Honolulu, HI - USA 15 November 1970 - Basin Street West, San Francisco, CA - USA 5 December 1970 - Basin Street West, San Francisco, CA - USA 11-16 December 1970 - Club Mugen, Tokyo - Japan 19 December 1970 - Princess Theater, Hong Kong - China 31 December 1970 - Coral Ballroom Hilton, Honolulu, HI – USA

Late in 1970, the band recorded their cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary". The song was released the following January and became the duo's best-selling single to date, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and selling well over a million copies, later winning them a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. The song's parent album, Workin' Together, became their most successful studio release, peaking at #25 on the Billboard 200. Later in 1971, a live album "Live at Carnegie Hall: What You Hear Is What You Get" was released, later being certified gold in the U.S. That year, they were reassigned to Liberty's parent label, United Artists Records, after Liberty folded, releasing their later albums on United Artists.

1971 2–9 January 1971 - Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, HI - USA 16 January 1971 - Jenison Field House,East Lansing, MI - USA 22 January 1971 - Midem, Cannes - France 23-24 January 1971 - Le Palais D’Hiver, Lyon - France 25 January 1971 - Baroombar, Brest - France 28 January 1971 - Valbonne Club, Provence, France 30-31 January 1971 - L’Olympia, Paris, France 1 February 1971 - Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt - Germany 5 February 1971 - Liederhalle, Stuttgart - Germany 6 February 1971 - Mercury Club, Zelzate - Belgium 10 February 1971 - Olympiahalle, Munich , Germany 11 February 1971 - Kurhaus Scheveningen, Den Hague - The Netherlands 13 February 1971 - Hammersmith Odean, London - UK 14 February 1971 - Colston Hall, Bristol - UK 6 March 1971 - Accra - Ghana- Africa 12 March 1971 - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI - USA 13 March 1971 - U-D Memorial Building, Detroit, MI - USA 18 March 1971 - Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX - USA 19 March 1971 - University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK - USA 20 March 1971 - Tulane University, New Orleans, LA - USA 26-27 March 1971 - Basin Street West, San Francisco, CA - USA 1 April 1971 - Carnegie Hall, New York City, NY - USA 30 April 1971 - Salem Civic Center, Salem, VA - USA 9 May 1971 - San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego, CA - USA 15 May 1971 - Civic Auditorium,Santa Cruz, CA - USA 6 June1971 - Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, RI - USA 11 June 1971 - Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA - USA 17-18 June 1971 - Merriwheater Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD - USA 21 June 1971 - Baton Rouge, Los Angeles, CA - USA 26 June 1971 - Dane County Coliseum, Madison, WI - USA 4 July 1971 - International Youth Expo, Kingsbridge Armory, Bronx, NY - USA 8 July 1971 - Monroe Civic Center - Monroe, LA - USA 16-17 July 1971 - Pirates World, Dania, FL - USA 23 July 1971 - Aquarius Theater, Boston, MA - USA 24 July 1971 - War Memorial, Rochester, NY - USA 25 July 1971 The Park, North Baltimore, OH - USA 30 July 1971 - Southers Illinois University, Edwardsville, IL - USA 31 July 1971 - Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, TX - USA 1 August 1971 - Memorial Auditorium, Dallas, TX - USA 19 August 1971 - Denver Coliseum, Denver, CO - USA 21 August 1971 - International Amphi Theater, Chicago, IL - USA 27-28 August 1971 - Circle Star Theater, San Carlos, CA - USA 11 September 1971 - Memorial Coliseum at University of Kentucky,Lexington, KY - USA 12 September 1971 - Lake Spivey Park, Jonesboro, GA - USA 17 September 1971 - Lamar University, Dallas, TX - USA 23 September 1971 - University of Dayton Arena, Dayton, OH - USA 24 September 1971 - University of Detroit Memorial Building, Detroit, MI - USA 25 September 1971 - Western Michigan University - Kalamazoo, MI - USA 27 September - 2 October 1971 – The Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA - USA 8 October 1971 - Doak Campbell Stadium, Tallahassee, FL - USA 9 October 1971 - Curtis Hixon Hall. Tampa, FL - USA 15 October 1971 - Diddle Arena Western Kentucky University, KY - USA 16 October 1971 - IU auditorium - Evansville,TN - USA 17 October 1971 GVSC fFeldhouse, Allendale, MI - USA 22 October 1971 - Memorial Coliseum, Auburn, AL - USA 29 October 1971 - Armory Fieldhouse, Cincinnati, OH - USA 30 October 1971 - WVU Coliseum, Morgantown, WV - USA 6 November 1971 - Barton Hall, Ithaca, NY - USA 12 November 1971 - DePauw University, Greencastle, IN - USA 13 November 1971 - ISU Arena, Terre Haute, IN - USA 15 November 1971 - Tucson Community Center Arena, Tucson, AZ - USA 19 November 1971 - Crisler Arena,Ann Arbor, MI - USA 21 November 1971 - Hampton Roads Coliseum, Hampton, VA - USA 26 November 1971 - The Beacon Theater, New York, NY - USA 27-28 November 1971 - The Beacon Theater, New York, NY - USA 3 December 1971 - Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto - Canada 9 December 1971 - Pan American Center, Las Cruses, NM - USA 11 December 1971 - San Jose Civic Auditorium, San Jose, CA – USA

Ike Turner later bought his own studio, naming it Bolic Sound, in 1972, where they would record the rest of their material.

1972 15 January 1972 - McGraw Hall - Seattle, WA - USA 16 January 1972 - Jenison Fieldhouse, East Lansing, MI - USA 3 February 1972 - Finch Fieldhouse - Mount Pleasant, MI - USA 11 February 1972 - IMA Auditorium, Flint, MI - USA 12 Febr. 1972 - Barton Coliseum - Little Rock, AR - USA 19 February 1972 - Muncipal Auditorium - Atlanta, GA - USA 26 February 1972 - Veterans Memorial Fieldhouse, Huntington, WV - USA 10 March 1972 - Mayser Center. Lancaster, PA - USA 11 March 1972 - Tarrant County Convention Center Arena - Forth Worth, TX - USA 19 March 1972 - Cole Field House - Maryland, MD - USA 20 March 1972 - The War Memorial, Syracuse, NY – USA 23 March 1972 - Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg - Canada 25 March 1972 - University of Virginia - Charlottesville, VA - USA 31 March 1972 - Circle Star Theatre, San Carlos, CA - USA 1-2 April 1972 - Circle Star Theatre, San Carlos, CA - USA 7 April 1972 - SUI Arena - Carbondale, IL - USA 8 April 1972 - Walter Cillers Coliseum - Cleveland, MS - USA 29 April 1972 - Meehan Auditorium, Providence, RI - USA 6 May 1972 - Colisee de Quebec, Quebec City, QB - Canada 7 May 1972 - Montreal Forum, Montreal, QC - Canada 26 May 1972 - Cobo Arena, Detroit, MI - USA 27 May 1972 - Oklahoma State Fairgrounds - Oklahoma City, OK - USA 28 May 1972 - Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR - USA 9 June 1972 - Oakland Coliseum - Oakland, CA - USA 19-20 June 1972 - Mugen Club, Tokyo - Japan 21 June 1972 - Koseinenkin Kaikan - Tokyo- Japan 23 June 1972 - Mugen Club - Tokyo - Japan 24 June 1972 -  Hibiya Hall, Tokyo - Japan 30 June 1972 - Atlanta Stadium, Atlanta, GA - USA 2 July 1972 - Bosse Park, Evansville, IN - USA 7 July 1972 - Astrodome - Houston, TX - USA 21 July 1972 - Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati, OH - USA 27 July 1972 - Blossom Music Centre, Cleveland, OH - USA 4 August 1972 - Swing Auditorium, San Bernadino, CA - USA 10-12 August 1972 - Empire room - Cambridge, MA - USA 13 August 1972 - Westbury, New York, NY - USA 31 August 1972 - Ohio State Fair, Columbus, OH - USA 2 September 1972 - Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY - USA 10 September 1972 - Physical Activities Complex, Waterloo, ON - Canada 21 September 1972 - Convocation Center, Athens, OH - USA 29-30 September 1972 - Valley Music Theatre - Woodland Hills, CA - USA 1-2 October 1972 - Valley Music Theatre - Woodland Hills, CA - USA 6 October 1972 - LSU Assembly Center, Baton Rouge, LA - USA 8-9 October 1972 - Felt Forum, New York, NY - USA 12 October 1972 - Halenbeck Hall - St. Cloud, MN - USA 14 October 1972 - Fort William Gardens, Thunder Bay, ON - Canada 15 October 1972 - Mcdonough Arena, Washington, DC - USA 27 October 1972 - Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY - USA 28 October 1972 - Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA - USA 3 November 1972 - Empire Pool, Wembley, London - UK 4 November 1972 - Brighton Dome, Brighton - UK 5 November 1972 - Barbarella’s, Birmingham - UK 6 November 1972 - Hardrock, Manchester - UK 10 November 1972 - Grugahalle, Essen - Germany 11 November 1972 - Forest National, Brussels - Belgium 12 November 1972 - De Doelen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 15 November 1972 - Phillipshalle, Düsseldorf - Germany 16 November 1972 – Jarhunderthalle, Frankfurt - Germany 17 November 1972 - Deutschlandhalle, Berlin - Germany 18 November 1972 - Circus Krone, Münich - Germany 22 November 1972 - Kongresshaus, Zürich - Switzerland 23 November 1972 - Musikhalle, Hamburg - Germany 24 November 1972 - Falconer Theater, Copenhagen - Denmark 27 November 1972 - Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen - Denmark 29 November 1972 - Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen - Denmark 28-29 December 1972 - Kinetic Playground, Chicago, IL - USA

In 1973, the duo released the hit "Nutbush City Limits", which reached #25 in the U.S. and #4 in the UK.

Between 1972 and 1975, Ike and Tina also released either solo or side projects, with Ike producing three albums of material with his band The Family Vibes (formerly the Kings of Rhythm). Tina relied on outside production on her first two albums " Tina Turns the Country On " and " Acid Queen ". The former album, consisting of country songs, resulted in Tina receiving her second Grammy solo nomination, while the latter album was released to build on the hype of Tina's well received performance in the musical film version of The Who's Tommy .

1973 5 January 1973 - Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, PA - USA 3 February 1973 - Bolic Sound Studio’s, Los Angeles, CA - USA 11 February 1973 - Hic Auditorium - Honolulu, HI - USA 25 February 1973 - PNE Agrodome - Vancouver, BC - Canada 8 April 1973 - Catawba College - Salisbury, NC - USA 11 April 1973 - Capitol Theater, Porchester, NY - USA 12 April 1973 - Bridgewater State College - Bridgewater, MA - USA 13 April 1973 - Civic Center - Springfield, MA - USA 14 April 1973 - New Brunswick State Theater - New Brunswick, NJ - USA 15 April 1973 - Nassau Community College - Hempstead, NY - USA 17-22 April 1973 - Marco Polo Motel, Miami Beach, FL - USA 26 May 1973 - Toronto - Canada 9 June 1973 - Long Beach Auditorium Arena - Long Beach, CA - USA 15 June 1973 - Mobile Muncipal Auditorium - Mobile, AL - USA 17 June 1973 - Masonic Auditorium - Detroit, MI - USA 2-8 July 1973 - Marco Polo Motel, Miami Beach, FL - USA 12 July 1973 - Muncipal Auditorium - Atlanta, GA - USA 13 July 1973 - Mid-South Coliseum - Memphis, TN - USA 14 July 1973 - Muncipal Auditorium - Huntsville, AL - USA 15 July 1973 - Memorial Auditorium - Greenville, SC - USA 16 July 1973 - Charlotte, NC - USA 27 July 1973 - Oakland Auditorium, Oakland, CA - USA 28 July 1973 - Dane County Coliseum - Madison, WI - USA 18 August 1973 - Capitol Theater - Portchester, NY - USA 19 August 1973 - Philharmonic Hall - New York, NY - USA 21 August 1973 - National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows - Belleville, IL - USA 22 August 1973 - Music Park - Cincinatti, OH - USA 26 August 1973 - Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA - USA 31 August 1973 - Monticello Raceway, Monticello, NY - USA 1 September 1973 - Monticello Raceway, Monticello, NY - USA 2-3 September 1973 - Arie Crown Theatre, Chicago, IL - USA 4 September 1973 - Knoxville, TN - USA 7 September 1973 - Macon, GA - USA 27 September 1973 - Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR - USA 28-29 September 1973 - Oil Can Harry’s, Vancouver - Canada 10 October 1973 - State Teachers College, Valdosta, GA - USA 12 October 1973 - University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD - USA 14 October 1973 - Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA - USA 26 October 1973 - Hearst Greek Theatre, Berkley, CA - USA 26 October 1973 - Murray State College, Murray, KY - USA 28 October 1973 - Union College, Schenectady, NY - USA 27 October 1973 - Sunny Brockport, Brockport, NY - USA 1 November 1973 - Jackson State University, Jacksonville, AL - USA 2 November 1973 - Jonesboro State College, Jonesboro, AR - USA 8 November 1973 - Philipshalle, Düsseldorf - Germany 10 November 1973 - Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt - Germany 12 November 1973 - Sporthalle, Cologne - Germany 13 November 1973 - Deutschlandhalle - Berlin- Germany 18 November 1973 Wembley Pool, London - UK 22 November 1973 - Schwarzwaldhalle - Karlsruhe - Germany 23 November 1973 - Odeon Theatre - London - UK 30 November 1973 Fresno College, Fresno, CA - USA 13-26 December 1973 - Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas, NV - USA

The duo's work on their 1974 album, The Gospel According to Ike & Tina, led to the duo receiving several Grammy nominations. One of the Turners' final R&B hits together was a funk oriented single titled "Sexy Ida (Pt. 1)".

1974 3 February 1974 - Mid South coliseum - Memphis, TN - USA 9 February 1974 - Municipal Auditorium, Atlanta, GA - USA 17-20 March 1974 - Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA - USA 24 March 1974 - University of Maine at Portland- Gorham, Gorham, ME - USA 28-30 March 1974 - The Cave, Vancouver - Canada 18 May 1974 - The Arie Crown Theatre, Chicago, IL - USA 21 April 1974 Michigan Palace, Detroit, MI - USA 24 May 1974 - Florida State Fairgrounds - Tampa, FL - USA 25 May 1974 - The Little Rock , Little Rock, AR - USA 18 June 1974 - Veterans Memorial Coliseum Phoenix , AZ - USA 26 June 1974 - Tommorow Theatre,Youngstown, OH - USA 3 July 1974 - Plant Field, Tampa, FL - USA 20 July 1974 - Memorial Arena,Victoria , BC - Canada 24-27 July 1974 - Baceda’s, Vancouver - Canada 20-21 September 1974 - Nakano Sun Plaza Hall, Tokyo - Japan 26 September 1974 - Festival Hall, Osaka - Japan 29 September 1974 - Shibuya Koikado Hall, Tokyo - Japan 17 October 1974 - Concord College, Athens, WV – USA 18 October 1974 - Palace Theatre, Manchester - UK 19 October 11974 - Hammersmith Odeon, London - UK 20 October 1974 - Jaap Edenhal, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 25 October 1974 - Forest National, Brussels - Belgium 27 October 1974 - Olympiahalle, Munich - Germany 1 November 1974 - Hala Pionir, Belgrade, Serbia 2 November 1974 - Hala Tivoli, Ljubljana, Slovenia 7 November 1974 - Liederhalle, Stuttgart - Germany 23 November 1974 - Rosengarten Mozartsaal, Manheimm - Germany 24 November 1974 - Schwarzwaldhalle, Karlsruhe - Germany 25 November 1974 - Kongresshaus,Zürich - Switzerland 26 November 1974 - Palais de Beaulieu, Lausanne - Switzerland 28 November 1974 - Olympiahalle, Munich - Germany 27 December 1974 - Curtis Nixon Hall, Tampa, FL - USA 31 December 1974 - Filmore East, New York City, NY – USA

1975 6 February 1975 - Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto - Canada 8 February 1975 - BCIT Gymnasium - Burnaby, BC - Canada 15 February 1975 - Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, CAlgary, AB - Canada 1 March 1975 - Apollo Stadium, Adelaide - Australia 5 March 1975 - Festival Hall, Melbourne - Australia 10 March 1975 - Hordern Pavillion, Sydney - Australia 11 March 1975 - Hordern Pavillion, Sydney - Australia 20 June 1975 - White Plains Music Hall, NY - USA 21 June 1975 - War Memorial, Rochester, NY - USA 22 June 1975 - Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA - USA 27 June 1975 - Tommorow Theatre, Youngstown, OH - USA 28-30 July 1975 - Lucifer’s NightClub, Calgary, AB - Canada 15 August 1975 - Jazz Bilzen Festival - Dell, Bilzen - Belgium 16 August 1975 - Stadiongerlande, Ludwigsburg - Germany 19 October 1975 - Muncipal Auditorium, San Antonio, TX - USA 24 October 1975 - Odeon Hammersmith, London - UK 25 October 1975 Forest National, Brussels - Belgium 26 October 1975 - Congresgebouw,The Hague, The Netherlands 27 October 1975 - Phillipshalle, Düsseldorf - Germany 28 October 1975 - Deutschlandhalle, Berlin - Germany 8 November 1975 - Eberthalle, Ludwigshafes - Germany 10 November 1975 - Forest National, Brussels - Belgium 15 November 1975 - Hala Tivoli, Ljubljana, - Yugoslavia 20 November 1975 - Hala Pionir, Belgrade - Serbia 24 November 1975 - Kongresshaus, Zürich - Switzerland 30 November 1975 - L'Olympia, Paris - France

1976 18 January 1976 - Hordern Pavillion, Sydney - Australia 24 January 1976 - Hordern Pavillion, Sydney - Australia 6 February 1976 - High Sierra Theater, Stateline, NV - USA 16-27 March 1976 - Waldorf Astoria, New York, NY - USA A 15 May 1976 - Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, CA - USA 23 May 1976 - Hawkeye Downs- Cedar Rapids, IO - USA 27 May 1976 - Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, CAlgary, AB - Canada 29 May 1976 - Edmonton Gardens, Edmonton, Alberta - Canada 18-19 June 1976 - Sportsmans Park - Cicero, IL - USA 29 June - 2 July 1976 - Magic Mountain - Valencia, CA - USA

By 1976, Ike Turner's addiction to cocaine was so strong that he had burned a hole in his nasal septum, leading to nosebleeds, from which he would relieve himself by using more cocaine. During this time, Ike was spending more time at Bolic Sound than he was with Tina and their children at their home in Inglewood. Tina Turner, meanwhile, had looked inward to alleviate her own problems and soon found solace after a friend introduced her to the teachings of Buddhism. In July 1976, Ike intended on signing a five-year contract with a new record company, Cream Records, for a reported yearly amount of $150,000. The contract had a key person clause, meaning Ike would have to sign the contract in four days, keeping Tina tied to Ike for five more years.

On the 2nd of July 1976 The Ike and Tina Turner Revue traveled by plane to Dallas where they were to perform at the Dallas Statler Hilton. While on the airplane, the two became embroiled in an altercation, which led to a physical fight in their limousine.The duo presented different accounts as to what went on that day. Ike accused Tina of being negligent to help him with a nose bleed due to constant cocaine. Tina claimed Ike was annoyed that Tina was eating chocolates while wearing an all-white outfit, causing Ike to slap her. The couple agreed, however, that Ike had been up for five days straight on a cocaine binge. Following Ike's slap, Tina recalled fighting him back, scratching him and kicking him. Ike Turner alleged to a musician associate friend that the two "went around like prizefighters for awhile". Both Ike and Tina were bleeding by the time they arrived at the hotel. After going up to their suite, Ike retired to a sofa. Once Ike had fallen asleep, Tina grabbed a few toiletries, covered herself and escaped from the back of the hotel, running across an active freeway before stopping at a local Ramada Inn hotel. She claimed that she later hid at several friends' homes for a time. On the 27th of July 1976, Tina Turner filed for divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences.

Ike and Tina fought for a year in divorce court arguing over money and property. By late 1977, Tina decided to stop her pursuit of any financial earnings including an apartment complex in Anaheim and another apartment, stating to her lawyer that her freedom "was more important". Tina also agreed to retain only the use of her stage name. The divorce proceedings ended in November 1977 and was finalized March 1978. She also agreed to pay a significant IRS lien.

Source: Wikipedia

Ike & Tina Turner Albums Ike & Tina Turner 7 Inch Singles Ike & Tina Turner DVD Ike & Tina Turner LP Ike & Tina Turner Tourdates Ike & Tina Turner

Tina Turner played dozens of concerts in Florida in storied rock career

Tina Turner, who died Wednesday at age 83 , played more than 1,700 shows during her storied career, but only a relative handful of them were in Florida. 

Setlist.fm , a website that keeps track of concerts and the songs that were played at them, shows that Turner played 1,483 concerts in her solo career, plus another 250 or so with her former husband, Ike Turner. The site is user-generated, so those numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. 

It shows that she played six concerts in Florida with Ike Turner between 1970-74, and 24 as a solo artist between 1979-2008. Her final Florida performance listed on the site was in 2008 in Orlando. 

Private Dancer: Tina Turner, queen of rock 'n' roll, dies after long illness

Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin and more: 25 songs by Black women that rocked the music world, from the 1920s to 2020

Ike and Tina Turner 

• Jan 1-2, 1970: Newport Resort Hotel in Sunny Isles Beach  
• March 22, 1970: University of Miami 
• Oct. 8, 1971: Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee 
• Oct. 9, 1971: Curtis Hixon Convention Hall in Tampa 
• May 25, 1974: Springtime Rock Jubilee 1974 at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa 

Tina Turner 

• Dec. 20, 1979: Sunrise Musical Theater in Sunrise 
• Nov. 7, 1985: Tallahassee-Leon City Civic Center in Tallahassee 
• Dec. 2, 1985: Hollywood Sportatorium in Pembroke Pines 
• Dec. 4, 1985: Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville 
• Dec. 5, 1985: Orange County Convention and Civic Center in Orlando 
• Dec. 6, 1985: USF Sundome in Tampa 
• Nov. 12, 1987: Ocean Center in Daytona Beach 
• Nov. 13, 1987: Hollywood Sportatorium in Pembroke Pines 
• Nov. 14, 1987: USF Sundome in Tampa 
• Nov. 15, 1987: Tallahassee-Leon City Civic Center in Tallahassee 
• Aug. 20, 1993: Orlando Arena in Orlando 
• Aug. 21, 1993: USF Sundome in Tampa 
• Aug. 22, 1993: Miami Arena in Miami 
• June 11, 1997: Coral Sky Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach 
• June 12, 1997: Orlando Arena in Orlando 
• June 13, 1997: Ice Palace in Tampa 
• April 14, 2000: Ice Palace in Tampa 
• April 15-16, 2000: National Car Rental Center in Sunrise 
• Oct. 15, 2000: TD Waterhouse Centre in Orlando 
• Oct. 18, 2000: National Car Rental Center in Sunrise 
• Oct. 30, 2008: American Airlines Arena in Miami 
• Nov. 2, 2008: BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise 
• Nov. 5, 2008: Amway Center in Orlando 

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On Tina Turner and what it meant to be the Queen of Rock & Roll

A fool in love. An acid queen. A private dancer. Tina Turner was all that, and so much more.

Lester Fabian Brathwaite is a staff writer at Entertainment Weekly , where he covers breaking news, all things Real Housewives , and a rich cornucopia of popular culture. Formerly a senior editor at Out magazine, his work has appeared on NewNowNext , Queerty , Rolling Stone , and The New Yorker . He was also the first author signed to Phoebe Robinson's Tiny Reparations imprint. He met Oprah once.

Tina Turner was a woman. She was a Black woman. She was a human being.

It's easy to forget that someone so monumental is also human. Because humans have to die — it's part of the deal. But when someone like Tina Turner dies … it doesn't feel quite fair.

She is a monument.

I say that in the present tense because when someone like Tina Turner dies, their memory lives on, eternally. As the Queen of Rock & Roll, she was the last living monument to the contributions and the sacrifices that Black people have made to rock & roll — until hip hop, the most potent U.S. export.

Turner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — first as part of the duo Ike & Tina Turner, with her ex-husband, in 1991, and then as a solo act in 2021. Ike and Tina released their first record, "A Fool in Love," in 1960. Turner was just 20, but she arrived sounding like a fully formed hurricane, growling, "What you say?! Hey, hey, hey, hey, heeeeeeeey !"

Her voice was a spiritual successor to that of Big Mama Thornton, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, LaVern Baker, and many other Black women who laid the foundations of rock & roll. On wax, Turner was explosive. In concert, she was out of this world.

Much has been made of Mick Jagger learning his moves from Turner. But with all due respect to Jagger, he could literally never. At 70, during her 50th Anniversary Tour, she was still a whirling dervish of miniskirts, fringe, sequins, and legs for days.

At a time when Black artists were more closely identified with soul and R&B, Ike and Tina were rockin' and rollin' down the river. Their most famous song, "Proud Mary," was an infinitely superior cover of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song.

Ike and Tina's output, from 1960-1976, featured some of the most dynamic, hip-shaking, earth-shattering music ever put to tape, climaxing with 1966's "River Deep, Mountain High" — if "epic" were a song.

Produced and cowritten by rock pioneer and noted abuser Phil Spector, "River Deep, Mountain High" was the like the horns of Jericho to Spector's Wall of Sound. Spector considered it the greatest record he ever produced, and everything crumbled in its wake.

Ike Turner's contributions to rock are often overshadowed by the nightmarish abuse he unleashed upon his wife, but what he and Turner did together changed the course of music. Similarly, Turner's contributions are often overshadowed by that abuse, her story reduced to that of a victim.

The period between her split from Ike and her massive 1984 comeback with her album Private Dancer rarely gets much attention, but this is my favorite Tina Turner era. This was Tina slumming it on Hollywood Squares , Tina popping into The Sonny and Cher Show to hang out in matching Bob Mackies with Cher. This was disco Tina, Tina struggling to find her way and forge a new path on her own terms. This was Tina the survivor.

Through it all, she kept a fire that always burned brighter and hotter than Ike could handle. When she did make her triumphant return at 45, at an age when fame — Hollywood, the music industry — has usually sucked a woman, particularly a Black woman, dry, she had already been the Queen of Rock & Roll. Private Dancer was the re -coronation, for anyone who had forgotten.

Record execs dismissed Turner for her age, her race, her gender — but you don't count out Tina Turner. Private Dancer smoothed out and glossed up her sound, giving it a mainstream-pop sheen, but songs like "Show Some Respect" and "Better Be Good to Me" proved she hadn't lost the ferocity she had let loose on "A Fool in Love."

The album went on to sell 12 million copies worldwide, win four Grammys, and establish Turner as one of the biggest live acts in the world for decades to come.

The singer's appeal transcended genre, but rock was always her domain, and she reigned over it benevolently. Some Black people may have never heard of CCR, but they knew "Proud Mary." Turner was an access point to music that had been created by Black artists and then co-opted by white artists and white businessmen.

That Tina Turner was the Queen — unrivaled, undisputed, unchallenged — of Rock & Roll meant that Black people could look to her to be reminded where this music came from, how it had developed, what it had given, what it had taken, and the possibilities it possessed.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, but for more than 60 years Tuna Turner wore it regally. Long live the Queen.

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“TINA – The Tina Turner Musical” is coming to Indianapolis.

Based on the life and legacy of the Queen of Rock & Roll, the Broadway National Tour of “TINA- The Tina Turner Musical” comes to Old National Centre in Indianapolis April 30-May 5 for eight performances.

“TINA — The Tina Turner Musical” first premiered on Broadway in November 2019 and was nominated for 12 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Set to a soundtrack of Turner’s most beloved hits, the show follows a young Anna Mae Bullock and her rise to fame as one of the world’s best-selling recording artists, including broken records and barriers, award wins and tumultuous moments in both her career and personal relationships.

“Playing this character has made me a better woman, and for that I am always grateful,” Zurin Villanueva told the Recorder. “She’s like a lot of us in terms of what we’ve had to endure and swallow and turn into gold, you know, regardless of what bad things or hard things may come our way, we turn into something good. I think that is what a woman does.”

Villanueva, a Brooklyn, New York native, is one of two actors playing Tina Turner in the show, and said the role is a “wonderful legacy to uphold” and a supreme honor she holds very dear to her heart.

Despite how challenging touring and traveling from city to city can be, Villanueva said the cast and crew are all very close and “TINA” has bonded them in a way that cannot be replicated.

Villanueva shares the role of Tina Turner with Ari Groover, a multidisciplinary artist originally from Georgia. Although Groover is no stranger to performing on Broadway, “TINA — The Tina Turner Musical,” is technically her first national tour and said playing such an iconic woman through her highs and lows is a wonderful experience.

“To play her is a reminder that if you do this, you can do anything,” Groover said. “It’s also just an honor to, especially now since she’s passed, it’s an honor to make sure that we are giving celebration to her life.”

READ MORE: Will Indiana pass the Crown Act?

Folks who are familiar with Turner’s life, or at the very least, the movie “What’s Love Got to Do With it” are still going to learn things about the artist they did not know, Groover said. This show reveals parts of Turner’s story that were not included in the film, such as her life after leaving her abusive husband Ike Turner, her success and how she created her first album, Groover said.

“We are taken through the full range of all the emotions,” Villanueva said. “You come for a party, you come to be angry, come to be sad, you come to triumph. So, come ready for all of it. Every single thing.”

Usually when roles are double cast in musicals, actors alternate between Act I and Act II or one plays a younger version. In “TINA — The Tina Turner Musical,” Villanueva and Groover alternate entire performances, and share the role equally. 

The role itself is incredibly demanding vocally and physically, and Groover said Turner’s character does not leave the stage and is essentially singing nonstop for two hours and 45 minutes. Being able to alternate allows each of the actors to have a day of rest, in addition to creating a special bond or sisterhood, Groover said.

Having someone to speak to who understands the role the way she does is special, and Villanueva said it is a gift to see Groover’s interpretation of Turner and see the role outside of herself from another perspective.

“We understand each other more because we know what it feels like to do this role. So, to share it, I think is a beautiful thing,” Groover said. “I know some people like to, unfortunately, make things about a competition, and I hate when they do that, especially with Black women or Black shows — that there can only be one — and there’s enough room for all of us.”

“TINA – The Tina Turner Musical” is onstage at Old National Centre April 30-May 5, 2024. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit BroadwayInIndianapolis.com or ticketmaster.com .

Contact Arts & Culture Reporter Chloe McGowan at 317-762-7848. Follow her on Twitter @chloe_mcgowanxx.

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In celebration of the life and legacy of the Queen of Rock & Roll – Tina Turner – SiriusXM is relaunching The Tina Turner Channel for one week!

The limited-run channel is taking over Soul Town (Ch. 49) for seven days. Listen to it on your radio or the SXM App now through Friday, June 2.

The Tina Turner Channel celebrates one of the greatest comeback stories in music history, exploring the rock and soul icon’s legendary career from her early days to her GRAMMY Award-winning solo hits. Known for her infectious stage presence, her channel also showcases some of her most memorable live performances. In addition, the channel goes beyond the music, sharing Turner’s exceptional story of perseverance, cementing her as a source of inspiration and strength for women everywhere.

Read More: Remembering Tina Turner

One of the most popular artists in rock and soul history, Turner passed away on May 24 at her home in Switzerland after a long illness, her rep Bernard Doherty confirmed. She was 83.

“With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model,” Doherty said in a statement.

Known as the Queen of Rock & Roll and for her explosive performances, Turner’s rock classics will live on forever.

Born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in Nutbush, Tennessee, Turner became famous in the late 1960s as the singer of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. After leaving husband Ike Turner following years of physical and emotional abuse, she staged what remains one of the greatest comebacks in pop music history, scoring massive hits in the 1980s such as “What’s Love Got To Do With it”, “Private Dancer” and “The Best”, with more than 180 million albums sold, 12 Grammy Awards won and sold-out stadium tours around the world.

A private funeral ceremony is expected for family and close friends.

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Shaggy handpicks reggae, dancehall, and afrobeats music on his siriusxm channel, music, sports, news and more.

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'Tina Turner Musical' depicts powerhouse singer finding new life after domestic abuse

“Tina - The Tina Turner Musical” combines a jukebox full of rousing songs with a harrowing story of surviving domestic abuse. At times that makes for a rough mix.

But fans of the dynamic singer, who died in 2023, will surely revel in this musical's high-energy re-creations of Turner's stage performances.

The national touring company of "Tina" began its Milwaukee run Tuesday night at the Marcus Performing Arts Center. The role of Tina Turner is so physically and vocally demanding that two performers rotate in it; Tuesday's performance featured the spirited Zurin Villanueva .

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An oversimplified summary: Born poor and from a broken family in Tennessee, the teenage Anna-Mae Bullock was plucked by early rock pioneer Ike Turner (Deon Releford-Lee) into his band and renamed Tina Turner. They married and toured constantly with a high-energy show; their memorable version of "Proud Mary" was a Top 5 hit in 1971.

But Ike was also an abusive husband, which this musical dramatizes with several scenes of his character slapping, grabbing, punching or choking Tina until the night she finally fights back, kicking him several times in a delicate place (and winning applause from the audience for doing so). The "Tina" fight direction was by Sordelet Inc.

The calmer second act depicts the solo Tina's incredible and entirely unpredicted rise to the top of the music world in 1984 with the "Private Dancer" album and hit single "What's Love Got to Do With It."

Award-winning playwright Katori Hall ("The Hot Wing King," "The Mountaintop" ) wrote the musical's book with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins. Including encore, the show ran nearly three hours Tuesday night. Hall and company pack a lot in here, but even at that length, some elements, such as Tina's Buddhist practice, are only cursorily developed.

OK, you came here for the music, and in this show you will get it. Villanueva has a powerful voice and a feel for Tina's growls, rasps and embellishments. She also has the legs to simulate many of Tina's classic poses. To the delight of the audience, Brianna Cameron, as young Anna-Mae, has a big voice, too.

Tina's allies along the way include her loyal sister Alline (Gigi Lewis) and manager turned friend Rhonda (Sarah Bockel), both given warm portrayals here. The Ikettes (Brittny Smith, Kendall Leshanti, Amahri Edwards-Jones and sometimes Gigi Lewis) are a recurring treat.

Phyllida Lloyd directed the show, with outstanding choreography by Anthony Van Laast. Jeff Sugg designed the groovy video projections.

Be sure to stay for the encore, which turns into a mini-concert bringing everyone back onstage.

"Tina - The Tina Turner Musical" continues through April 28 at the Marcus Performing Arts Center, 929 N. Water St. For tickets, visit marcuscenter.org or call (414) 273-7206. A talkback follows the April 25 performance.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 'Tina Turner Musical' depicts powerhouse singer finding new life after domestic abuse

Musical Legacy

Professor of Viola Kathryn Plummer celebrates 50 years of teaching and performing with May 4 concert

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Apr 25, 2024, 9:00 AM

by Bonnie Arant Ertelt

The year 1974 brought a raft of cultural milestones to Nashville: Ike and Tina Turner performed at Municipal Auditorium in February, and Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton broke up their musical partnership the same month. President Richard Nixon played piano during the dedication ceremony of the new Grand Ole Opry House in March, only weeks after the Watergate Seven were indicted. Former Beatle Paul McCartney with his wife, Linda, and their kids spent the summer visiting Music City while living in a local songwriter’s home. And Robert Altman filmed on location in and around town for his movie Nashville , which would open to great acclaim the next year.

That fall, Blair Academy, Nashville’s center for classical chamber music, made a new hire. Kathryn Plummer , a 26-year-old violist originally from Lexington, Kentucky, joined the Blair String Quartet . A student of David Dawson at Indiana University’s Jacob’s School of Music and Walter Trampler at the Juilliard School, she took a pay cut to come to Blair from her full-time tenured position with the Cincinnati Symphony as assistant principal violist.

She recalls that one day during an orchestra rehearsal, a white slip of paper with her name on it was handed from person to person, through the violin section to the viola section. “That’s how old I am,” she laughs. “A paper note, an ancient form of communication. I opened it, and it said, ‘Call Chris Teal.’”

Christian Teal , professor emeritus of violin, Blair’s first holder of the Joseph Joachim Chair in Violin and first violin in the Blair String Quartet from 1972 to 2014, had played with Plummer at Indiana. He called Dawson, her former teacher, to track her down and invite her to audition.

“Chris told me about all the hopes and dreams in the future of Blair Academy [the name of the Blair School of Music before the merger of Vanderbilt and Peabody in 1979 and now the name of Blair’s precollege program]. I sent in a tape, and they invited me to audition live,” Plummer said. “As I flew back to Cincinnati, I kept saying to myself, ‘I’ve got to get this job. I want it more than anything I’ve ever wanted.’”

LISTEN to the Blair String Quartet perform Haydn’s Quartet in D minor, Op. 76, No. 2, Allegro from a recital, Dec. 1, 1974, in Peabody’s Human Development Laboratory Auditorium. If you have a VUnet ID, you can hear the full recital . (Courtesy of the Wilson Music Library, Blair Performance Archive)

The blair string quartet, 1974–1987.

That summer, after landing the viola position with the BSQ, and before Plummer had moved to Nashville, she met William Fitzpatrick at the Aspen Music Festival. Fitzpatrick had studied at Blair as a precollege student.

“He said, ‘I’m going to be second violin in the Blair String Quartet,’ and we were just amazed that we met by accident,” Plummer said. “We ended up getting apartments in the same house on Belmont Boulevard. He only stayed one year at Blair—not 50—but we’ve stayed close friends.”

“I remember her kindness in allowing me to stay in the apartment in the back of her house during the year I spent in Nashville while a member of the Blair Quartet,” said Fitzpatrick, who retired in 2022 as the Henri Temianka Professor of Music and director of string studies at Chapman University’s Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music in Orange, California. “It’s rare to meet and work with a musician of such a high caliber who is so giving and willing to share. This is what I remember most of all about Kathy.”

Playing with the Blair String Quartet from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s was exciting for Plummer. In 1978, the quartet debuted at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.

“Playing in New York at Weill and being reviewed by The New York Times was such a big moment,” Plummer said. “We also recorded a fair amount during those days. I had done session playing in Nashville , but to record an actual string quartet album—and we did several of them! We also played at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and toured throughout the Southeast. Chris spearheaded so much of that, and it was such fun traveling and working together. Those were exciting years for me.”

“Kathryn was one of the major reasons I was drawn to apply for the Blair String Quartet position at Blair,” said Cornelia Heard , Valere Blair Potter Professor of Violin. “I looked up to her when she was principal viola in the Aspen Chamber Symphony, and I was thrilled to get the opportunity to play with her. We quickly formed a friendship that has grown steadily over the years. Her beautiful tone, excellent rhythm and deep love, understanding and respect for music were foundational in the quartet and have always been an inspiration.”

After the merger with Vanderbilt ended the music department at Peabody in 1979, and the university pledged a new building for the Blair School of Music on Blakemore Avenue, the expansion from a precollege academy to include an undergraduate curriculum and major in music meant opportunities for teaching and performing also increased.

“At Blair, there was the excitement and enthusiasm of starting something new,” Plummer said. “We all had hopes and aspirations that we wanted for the school and for the groups that taught there. We had great dreams, and it was fun to build something and see it start to develop.

“That camaraderie is still [at Blair]. We’re much bigger, but the new faculty I have met all have that vision that we had when we were young: to make the school better. There are a lot of great schools of music, but I think Blair has retained its special collaborative spirit. I hope that that will always remain when I’m gone.”

LISTEN to Kathryn Plummer and Evelyn Grau, violas, perform Wilhelm Friedemann Bach’s Duo in G Major, No. 1, Presto from a recital given Oct. 11, 1975, in Peabody’s Human Development Laboratory Auditorium. (Courtesy of the Wilson Music Library, Blair Performance Archive)

Learning to teach

While it may have been chamber music that drew Plummer to Blair, she was excited about the chance to teach, something she had never done before. The phrasing, shading and timing used in playing chamber music is applicable to how students learn one-on-one with private teachers. Teaching chamber music allows students to learn how to read music emotionally as well as technically within a small group to gain common insight about how to play as an ensemble.

“I learned how to teach on the spot, and Chris [Teal] was a great mentor. I learned so much from him and David Vanderkooi [original cellist with the Blair String Quartet and Blair faculty member, 1967–84]; they took me under their wing.”

Plummer also credits her elementary school music teacher, Joseph Pival, with her teaching philosophy. As a fourth-grade student, being able to play the flutophone by ear got her into trouble when it came time to pass the sightreading examination and gain entry into an elementary music ensemble. She hadn’t bothered to learn it.

“Technically, I wasn’t supposed to be allowed to pick a stringed instrument or a band instrument,” Plummer said. “But—bless his heart—Mr. Pival called my parents and said, ‘I’m going to make an exception, because I see that she has talent, so I’m going to pass her.’

“I think that decision impacts the way I teach,” she said. “I look at every student as a unique, wonderful individual with their own strengths and maybe some challenges. I try to customize all my teaching to that particular person at that particular time. I think that’s what Mr. Pival was doing with me.”

Christopher Lowry, BMus’11, is one of Plummer’s many successful students. Lowry recently won the American Viola Society’s 2024 biennial Maurice Gardner Competition for Composers with his work, Zenith (for Jackson) for viola and electronics. Lowry holds a doctorate in musical arts in viola performance from Louisiana State University and is principal violist for the Alabama Symphony Orchestra.

“I look at every student as a unique, wonderful individual with their own strengths and maybe some challenges. I try to customize all my teaching to that particular person at that particular time.” —Kathryn Plummer

“Kathryn was an amazing mentor and always a fierce advocate for me and all her students,” Lowry said. “She maintained a healthy balance between the technical and musical in her teaching, and she was always incredibly nurturing and patient in her approach, though unwavering in her high standards!”

Her former colleagues, Pam Schneller, emerita senior lecturer in choral music and former associate dean, and Roland Schneller, emeritus adjunct senior artist teacher of piano, agree about her teaching excellence. “Roland and I were privileged to be Kathryn’s colleagues for more than 30 years,” Pam Schneller said. “She’s an exceptional teacher at every level. Her high standards, dedication to the science of healthy technique and steadfast belief in her students inspired them to reach unimagined heights. Her students play in major orchestras all over the world.

“What I remember most, however, is her kindness and collegial attitude with everyone she meets,” she added—a point that Lowry also emphasizes.

“One of my favorite aspects of studying with her is that she always made lessons a safe space for everyone,” he said. “No matter how unprepared you might be for your lesson, she would never make you feel less than anyone else and was always there to help you through whatever you were going through—musically or otherwise. She has continued to be a great colleague and friend.”

WATCH: Monk’s Oboe, Libby Larsen, composer, performed by Jared Hauser, oboe; Carolyn Huebl, violin; Cornelia Heard, violin; Kathryn Plummer, viola; Felix Wang, cello, in Turner Recital Hall, Blair School of Music, 2023

Once more on the Turner stage

On May 4, at 3 p.m., many former students, colleagues and family members will gather for a retirement concert in Plummer’s honor on the stage at Turner Hall. Plummer has handpicked the music and is playing on every piece, including Arboretum , a work for four violas, written by Lowry. He will play it with Plummer, Molly Sharp, BMus’90 and principal viola with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and Alison Wang, Class of 2024 major in viola performance and medicine, health and society. The piece is a tribute to Plummer and uses the metaphor of a tree, like those on campus in Vanderbilt’s arboretum, to symbolize her impact at Blair, as one who has taught for five decades, withstood challenges and propagated a legacy of successful students.

“Chris [Lowry] will be the storyteller playing the first part, I’m the professor playing the second part. Molly Sharp, who was a Founder’s Medalist, by the way, is playing third, and fourth will be Alison Wang, who is going to Juilliard for her master’s,” Plummer said with pride. “I’m so touched.”

“That camaraderie is still [at Blair]. We’re much bigger, but the new faculty I have met all have that vision that we had when we were young, to make the school better. There are a lot of great schools of music, but I think Blair has retained its special collaborative spirit. I hope that that will always remain when I’m gone.” —Kathryn Plummer

Plummer’s half-century journey at Blair began and will end with chamber music, but it’s the students she says she will miss most. “I don’t think students realize how much we learn from them,” she said. “As players, I see where they’ve come from and what they’ve learned from their precollege teachers, and I’m like, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen that before.’ It’s an amazing accumulation of knowledge.”

Plummer’s retirement plans include writing a memoir for her family and spending time with her two children and four grandchildren. But she will never stop playing the viola.

“When you play music, you make new discoveries every day about the music, culture and yourself. You know how to better play the instrument, how to improve, and that’s what keeps me going. I’ll keep playing and maybe do some teaching on the side. I am still learning. I am still a student, even at 76.”

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