When you talk about Tina Turner, you are not just talking about a singer. There really hasn’t been anything like her in the Rock and Roll world. And I doubt we will ever see the likes of someone like her again. She has had a stellar career lasting over five decades and is now taking a well-earned rest with her husband. More on that later.
We all know her as an icon of music, but who is Tina Turner? Let’s find out by taking a look at some Tina Turner facts: Singer’s age, real name, husband, children, and more revealed.
A Music Legend
The word “Legend” is used far too often when talking about musicians and singers. But, it is a word that describes Tina Turner. There is another expression that is also applicable, “The Queen of Rock and Roll.”
In other articles that I have written about Tina Turner, I always return to a summer’s evening in 2000 at Wembley Stadium in London. Her “One Last Time” series of concerts. We managed to get “privileged” seats. Any closer, and we’d have been in the band.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. For heaven’s sake, she had just turned 61, and I was breathless just watching. As a spectacle, I had seen little to equal her. As an artist, as I have said before, she was a force of nature.
Tina Turner facts: Singer’s age, real name, husband, children, and more revealed
Her life has been well-documented and commented upon, at times unfairly, in my opinion. From humble beginnings, she got a break in 1957, joining up with ‘Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm.’ In those days, Tina Turner was known as “Little Ann” and sang on her first record in 1958, “Box Top.”
By 1960, she had become Tina Turner and sang with Ike in a duet, “A Fool In Love,” that became a big hit record. The 60s became a period when they could do no wrong. They became a formidable partnership with huge records like “Nutbush City Limits” and, of course, the epic “River Deep-Mountain High.”
It was great stuff. But, as we now know, it was played out against a background of violence, drugs, and emotional, and physical abuse.
Early Life
Some celebrities, and I use that term loosely, do like to put forth the idea that they had a tough time growing up. Tina Turner doesn’t need to embellish any problems from her childhood.
Her younger days were filled with misery and poverty. And from a young age, she picked cotton in the fields where she lived in Tennessee. A town called Nutbush. Yes, that one.
Some Confusion
We all know her as Tina Turner, but her birth name was Anna Mae Bullock. However, during divorce proceedings with Ike, he claimed that wasn’t her birth name. He said it was really Martha Nell Bullock.
What confuses the issue even further is that she has signed several contracts using the name Martha Nell Bullock. There is no real clarification anywhere on this situation, but it could just be him.
Ike was very bitter about the divorce…
He did like to control her. Maybe this was one last attempt to cause trouble, possibly to get a bigger slice of the royalty pie. And, possibly, she was “encouraged,” to put it politely, to sign some of the contracts using that fictitious name. You can hardly blame her for not wanting to talk about that period of her life. Erwin has often said she still has nightmares about it.
The 70s
From the mid-70s divorce to the end of the decade, she had a major slump. Ike was always seen as the star of the show, and now she was on the outside. She appeared in the 1975 stage show of The Who’s “Tommy,” playing the Acid Queen. She released a single of the lead song from her part, “Acid Queen,” but it did nothing.
Furthermore, she released nine singles leading up to the 80s, and all failed to make a chart entry, even in the UK, where she was idolized. Things were turning bad for her, and she had to take on some work outside of music to pay the bills. And things didn’t change until 1983.
One Of The Great Comebacks
In 1983, she released an Al Green Song, “Let’s Stay Together.” It reached #4 in Holland, #6 in The UK, and #25 in America. “Let’s Stay Together” was just the start. It was a track from her album, Private Dancer, released in 1984, which went through the roof.
A Top 10 on the album charts in multiple countries, #2 in the UK, and #3 in America. The lady was back. Private Dancer went multi-platinum, and she had once again become one of the world’s biggest-selling artists. Hit singles poured out of the album, including “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” the single “Private Dancer,” and “I Can’t Stand the Rain.”
Tina rocked her way through the rest of the 80s…
And produced one of the great live albums of the period, Live in Europe. She finished the decade on a high note with the Tony Joe White song “Steamy Windows.”
The album Break Every Rule came next, which by her new standards, was not a great success. “Steamy Windows” came from her next album, Foreign Affair. That album seemed to mark a change in things for her. It reached #1 in the UK and did well in Europe, but chart-wise, things weren’t so good in America. In the 90s, success was harder to come by over there.
But she still had Europe in her pocket…
Sell-out concerts all over the place. These days, you just couldn’t get a ticket to see a singer in her 50s and old enough to be a grandmother. Quite staggering until you saw her, and then you knew why.
The albums continued to come, successful in Europe but largely ignored in America. Her Foreign Affair European tour in 1990 pulled in four million ticket sales, still a record for a tour in Europe.
However, 1991 saw a difficult situation. Tina, along with Ike, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Ike was in prison, and Tina didn’t go. Phil Spector accepted the award on their behalf.
Another Record
She became the first female singer in the history of the UK charts to get Top 40 hits over six consecutive decades. She had become her own woman now. Happy in her private life, living beside a lake in a beautiful Swiss house, and adored in Europe. I suppose you could say she had come full circle. A long way from picking cotton in Tennessee.
But she had arrived the hard way. She had two marriages which are the complete opposite of each other. It had been a long road from Ike to Erwin, and it wasn’t always an easy journey.
Tina Turner facts: Singer’s age, real name, husband, children, and more revealed
There seems to be some controversy over whether Tina Turner actually married Ike at all. Records show that they married in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1962. When Ike and Tina Turner’s divorce proceedings were being finalized, he stated that they had never actually gotten married.
He said he couldn’t marry Tina because, at the time, he was already married to another woman. He said what they had was a common-law marriage. Whatever the truth of it, the marriage was in trouble almost from the start.
Ike was promiscuous…
And took too many drugs. Also, he committed violent acts against her on multiple occasions. He made an interesting statement in his autobiography, Taking Back My Name. He says that “yes, he slapped her around” and “punched her,” but he “never beat her.” I wonder what his definition of a beating was then?
She ran away from him after another fight in Dallas on their way to a hotel with just 36 cents in her pocket. They divorced in 1978.
Enter Erwin
Erwin Bach was born in Cologne in 1956. He was a music executive who worked for EMI, Turner’s European label. In 1986, he was sent to meet her at Dusseldorf airport. And so began a friendship that developed into a romantic relationship. It started slowly, and they saw each other as friends, but later in the year, they started dating. That was the start of a period of real-life love-at-first-sight episodes.
After 27 years, they finally married in July 2013 in Kusnacht, Switzerland, on the banks of Lake Zurich. When Tina Turner had kidney problems and was desperately in need of a transplant, it was Erwin who donated one of his. I suppose you could say that in the case of Erwin and Tina, love had everything to do with it.
The Children
Tina had four children; two were her own, and two that she adopted from Ike Turner’s previous relationship.
Craig
His father was a musician from Ike’s band, Raymond Hill. Tina was 18 when she gave birth to Craig. He didn’t enter the music business but worked in real estate in the Beverly Hills Area. Sadly, he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2018, aged 59.
Ronnie
He was Tina Turner’s youngest biological child. Ronnie became a musician but suffered from addiction problems. He survived cancer once but was found outside his home in difficulty. He was given CPR but did not survive. Ronnie died four years after his brother Craig. He was 62.
Ike Junior
Tina adopted Ike Junior in 1960. He was born in 1958 and has had a life in music.
Michael Turner
Tina adopted Michael, who was born in 1959. He’s always shunned any publicity surrounding his famous parents. He prefers a life away from all that.
Retirement?
I suppose it had to come one day. In 2009, she announced that after completing her 11th concert and stadium tour, that would be it. That tour was called “Tina: 50th Anniversary”. After nearly a lifetime and five decades, she was going to call it a day and walk away from everything she had ever known. Of course, some things still needed to be done, but the tours were finished.
The world tour finished in Sheffield in the UK, on May 5th, 2009. She was nearly 70 years old. The next morning Tina and Erwin got on the plane to go home. She says she knew the time was right, and it felt good. It was over, and she’d seen it through and finished on top.
Can’t argue with that…
Tina had already published one book about her life, I, Tina: My Life Story. But she decided it needed updating, so she produced another book, My Love Story. And, of course, there was the biopic film from 1993, What’s Love Got To Do With It?
She was very involved with the production of “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” in an advisory capacity. The musical opened in the UK in 2018. So, retirement didn’t mean sitting on the porch watching the world go by.
Looking for More Legendary Ladies in Music?
Well, check out our thoughts on the Best Stevie Nicks Songs of All Time, the Best Sarah McLachlan Songs of All Time, the Best Mary J. Blige Songs of All-Time, the Best Alanis Morissette Songs of All Time, the Best Songs By Celine Dion, and the Top 10 Hole Songs for more incredible song selections.
Tina Turner facts: Singer’s age, real name, husband, children, and more revealed – Final Thoughts
At the grand old age of 83, as this is written, Tina Turner lives in Switzerland with her husband, Erwin. In 2013, Tina relinquished her American nationality to become a Swiss citizen. She has said there is nowhere else she’d rather live. If you have ever been to Switzerland, then you will know what she means.
Tina Turner has had a tough time of it over the last few years. She has to face intestinal cancer, a stroke, and kidney failure. And as I mentioned, she needed a kidney transplant which was given to her by her husband in 2017. Add to that the loss of both of her biological children. But if nothing else, she is a fighter and a survivor.
She has had to be…
Here is a lady who has sold 200 million records and has sold more concert tickets than any solo performer ever. The word ‘Legend’ doesn’t do her justice. Let’s just leave you with one live album that pretty much says it all, Simply the Best (Live in Arnhem).
Live on stage in Holland is how we will remember her, and I suspect how she would want to be remembered. The greatest female rocker we have seen in over 50 years.
Until next time, happy listening.
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