Ike Turner

Musician

• Born: November 5, 1931
• Birthplace: Clarksdale, Mississippi
• Died: December 12, 2007
• Place of death: San Marcos, California

A successful bandleader and instrumentalist whose career spanned six decades, Turner was a pioneering figure in the birth of rock and roll, as well as the longtime husband and collaborator of singer Tina Turner.

Early Life

Ike Turner was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, on November 5, 1931. His parents were Izear Luster Turner, Sr., a Baptist preacher, and Beatrice Cushenberry, a seamstress. Turner’s early childhood was marred by exposure to racial violence, including the death of his father at the hands of a gang of white men; details of this incident varied in Turner’s telling. Turner also later recalled seeing a local black man lynched and castrated. After his father’s death, his mother remarried, and Turner developed a tempestuous and violent relationship with his stepfather.

Turner’s first music lessons came from legendary blues pianist and Clarksdale resident Pinetop Perkins, and in high school he moonlighted as a disc jockey at a local radio station. Around this time, Turner formed the Kings of Rhythm, the band with which he would tour and record professionally throughout the 1950’s. By the time Turner finished high school, he and the Kings of Rhythm were playing regularly in Clarksdale and throughout the Delta region.

In 1951, Turner and his band traveled to Memphis to record at Sun Studio. During these sessions, the band recorded “Rocket 88,” written and sung by Turner’s saxophonist, Jackie Brenston. Released as a single under the group name Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats, “Rocket 88” became a national hit and gave Turner his first brush with stardom. In the years afterward, “Rocket 88” was deemed by many as the first rock-and-roll record ever made.

Life’s Work

Turner remained in the South throughout the early 1950’s, working as a musician and record company talent scout, a position through which he advanced the careers of B. B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, and others. During this period, Turner switched his primary instrument from piano to guitar, and in 1956, he relocated to East St. Louis, where his Kings of Rhythm soon became the top musical attraction in the city. It was there that Turner crossed paths with a young singer named Anna Mae Bullock. He was instantly impressed with her raspy, raw vocal delivery and charisma. Turner invited her to join his band as a backup singer, and by 1958, Turner and Bullock were married and she had taken the first name Tina.

In 1959, the Kings of Rhythm recorded “A Fool in Love,” the first single to feature Tina on lead vocal; the record was a smash hit, and soon thereafter Turner rechristened the band the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. By 1962, Turner and Tina had placed four more singles in the rhythm-and-blues Top 10. Along with Turner’s burgeoning fame came an increasingly serious cocaine problem, and by the mid-1960’s, the band’s record sales had begun to stagnate while Turner’s penchant for violence—often directed at his wife—increased. In 1966, Turner and Tina released “River Deep, Mountain High,” their iconic collaboration with producer Phil Spector. Although the single was credited to the couple, Spector found Turner so disruptive that he banned him from the studio while recording the song.

In 1969, the Rolling Stones selected the Ike and Tina Turner Revue as the opening act for their American tour, and the experience of playing for massive rock-and-roll crowds revitalized the Turners’ music. They released a series of successful cover versions of rock songs and scored a tremendous success with their rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary.” “Proud Mary” reached number four on the Billboard Pop Charts in 1971 and won a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.

In 1975, Tina left her husband, both personally and professionally; by the 1980’s, Turner was in precarious financial straits. In 1986, Tina released her autobiography, I, Tina, an international best seller that detailed years of abuse at the hands of her former husband and further damaged Turner’s reputation.

In 1991, Turner and Tina were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Later in his life, Turner enjoyed renewed success as a blues musician, winning a Grammy Award in 2007 for Risin’ with the Blues (2006). On December 12, 2007, Turner died of a cocaine overdose at the age of seventy-six.

Significance

Turner is one of the most important and misunderstood musical figures of the rock-and-roll era. A violent and controlling man whose name became synonymous with spousal abuse, his personal failings have overshadowed his remarkable musical accomplishments. However, he also was a pioneering bandleader and instrumentalist who deserves substantial credit for his role in the development of rock-and-roll music, and the sustained success that he achieved alongside his wife is a formidable accomplishment.

Bibliography

Collis, John. Ike Turner: King of Rhythm. London: The Do-Not Press, 2004. This is the first full-length biography of Turner that is widely available.

Turner, Ike, and Nigel Cawthorne. Takin’ Back My Name: The Confessions of Ike Turner. London: Virgin Books, 1999. A self-serving autobiography, portions of which are inconsistent with Turner’s previous accounts of his life, this source nonetheless offers insights into Turner’s personality and musical career.

Turner, Tina, and Kurt Loder. I, Tina. 1986. Reprint. New York: It Books, 2010. Tina Turner’s best-selling account of her life and career, including her marriage to Ike Turner.

Ward, Brian. Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness, and Race Relations. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. A top-notch history of rhythm-and-blues music in the 1960’s, including the Ike and Tina Turner Revue.