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Music legend Ike Turner dead at 76: manager
2007-12-13
Ike Turner, best remembered for his successful musical partnership and violently abusive marriage to singer Tina Turner, has died at home in California, his manager said Wednesday. He was 76. Turner, credited with writing what is often described as the first Rock and Roll record, 1951's "Rocket 88," died peacefully at his home in San Marcos, manager Scott Hanover confirmed to AFP. "He passed away this morning," Hanover, of Thrill Entertainment Group, said from his office in Florida. Tina Turner's management company later issued a brief statement on her ex-husband, who subjected her to years of spousal abuse before the couple divorced in 1978. "Tina is aware that Ike passed away earlier today," her representative told celebrity website TMZ. "She has not had any contact with him in 35 years. No further comment will be made." Ike Turner's musical career had its origins in the late 1930s, where as a child growing up in Mississippi he was taught piano by the legendary blues man Pinetop Perkins. After forming his band, The Kings of Rhythm, in the late 1940s, Turner settled in St Louis, Missouri, where he worked as a scout for labels including Sun Records, helping to sign talent such as Howlin' Wolf and Elmore James. But it was a young teenage singer from Nutbush, Tennessee -- Anna Mae Bullock -- who was to become the most influential figure in Turner's career. Bullock impressed Turner with what was to become her trademark raspy voice, and quickly earned a place as a backing singer to The Kings of Rhythm. In 1960 Bullock -- who was pregnant with Ike's child -- was asked to record the lead vocal on "A Fool in Love." The song became a massive hit. Shortly afterwards Bullock changed her name to Tina Turner and the couple's band became "The Ike and Tina Turner Revue." The duo were married in Mexico in 1962 and over the course of the next decade collaborated in a string of hits including the ground-breaking "River Deep, Mountain High," produced by Phil Spector, and "Nutbush City Limits." However, the couple's marriage was tempestuous. In her 1986 autobiography, Tina Turner accused Ike of violent abuse spanning several years. Ike Turner denied the allegations but later acknowledged in a 2001 book: "Sure, I've slapped Tina. There have been times when I punched her to the ground without thinking. But I never beat her." Tina Turner left her husband after a violent altercation in Dallas, Texas, in 1976 and the couple were finally divorced in 1978. The divorce settlement has become one of the most notorious in music history -- Ike keeping every asset earned by the couple during their marriage. The Turners' stormy marriage was the subject of the 1993 Hollywood film "What's Love Got to Do With It?" which earned Laurence Fishburne an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Turner. For years afterwards the music legend maintained that the film's unflinching portrayal of him was wildly inaccurate. "I've done a lot of wrong things," Turner once told an interviewer when asked about the film. "All I can do is apologize to the people that I may have done wrong. But I'm not the dude that you see in that movie. Nowhere close." Turner struggled to rediscover his magic touch in the 1980s, when drug and alcohol addictions led to brushes with the law which finally resulted in a lengthy stint in jail on drug-related charges. The musician was still behind bars and unable to attend his induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, which was accepted on his behalf by Tina. Following his 1993 release from prison Turner began to rebuild his career, and won a Grammy this year with blues album "Risin' With the Blues."
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