JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Rock Hall of Famer (and JPF Member) Ike Turner dies at 76

Rock 'n' Roll Pioneer Ike Turner Dies at 76
Contributions to Music Were Often Overshadowed By Claims of Abuse
By ELLIOT SPAGAT, AP

SAN DIEGO (Dec. 12) - Ike Turner, whose role as one of rock's critical architects was overshadowed by his ogrelike image as the man who brutally abused former wife Tina Turner , died Wednesday at his home in suburban San Diego. He was 76.

Turner died at his San Marcos home, Scott M. Hanover of Thrill Entertainment Group, which managed Turner's career, told The Associated Press.

Rose / Dalle / Retna Ike Turner, whose aggressive presence both on and off stage made him one of music's most divisive figures, has died at his home near San Diego. He was 76. There was no immediate word on the cause of death, which was first reported by celebrity Web site TMZ.com.

Turner managed to rehabilitate his image somewhat in later years, touring around the globe with his band the Kings of Rhythm and drawing critical acclaim for his work. He won a Grammy in 2007 in the traditional blues album category for "Risin' With the Blues."

But his image is forever identified as the drug-addicted, wife-abusing husband of Tina Turner. He was hauntingly portrayed by Laurence Fishburne in the movie "What's Love Got To Do With It," based on Tina Turner's autobiography.

Tina Turner declined to comment on her ex-husband's death.

In a 2001 interview with The Associated Press, Turner denied his ex-wife's claims of abuse and expressed frustration that he had been demonized in the media while his historic role in rock's beginnings had been ignored.

"You can go ask Snoop Dogg or Eminem , you can ask the Rolling Stones or (Eric) Clapton, or you can ask anybody - anybody, they all know my contribution to music, but it hasn't been in print about what I've done or what I've contributed until now," he said.

Turner, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is credited by many rock historians with making the first rock 'n' roll record, "Rocket 88," in 1951. Produced by the legendary Sam Phillips, it was groundbreaking for its use of distorted electric guitar.

But as would be the case for most of his career, Turner, a prolific session guitarist and piano player, was not the star on the record - it was recorded with Turner's band but credited to singer Jackie Brenston.

And it would be another singer - a young woman named Anna Mae Bullock - who would bring Turner his greatest fame, and infamy.

Turner met the 18-year-old Bullock, whom he would later marry, in 1959 and quickly made the husky-voiced woman the lead singer of his group, refashioning her into the sexy Tina Turner. Her stage persona was highlighted by short skirts and stiletto heels that made her legs her most visible asset. But despite the glamorous image, she still sang with the grit and fervor of a rock singer with a twist of soul.

The pair would have two sons. They also produced a string of hits. The first, "A Fool In Love," was a top R&B song in 1959, and others followed, including "I Idolize You" and "It's Gonna Work Out Fine."

But over the years their genre-defying sound would make them favorites on the rock 'n' roll scene, as they opened for acts like the Rolling Stones.

Their densely layered hit "River Deep, Mountain High" was one of producer Phil Spector's proudest creations. A rousing version of "Proud Mary," a cover of the Creedence Clearwater Revival hit, became their signature song and won them a Grammy for best R&B vocal performance by a group.

Still, their hits were often sporadic, and while their public life depicted a powerful, dynamic duo, Tina Turner would later charge that her husband was an overbearing wife abuser and cocaine addict.

In her 1987 autobiography, "I, Tina," she narrated a harrowing tale of abuse, including suffering a broken nose. She said that cycle ended after a vicious fight between the pair in the back seat of a car in Las Vegas, where they were scheduled to perform.

It was the only time she ever fought back against her husband, Turner said.

After the two broke up, both fell into obscurity and endured money woes for years before Tina Turner made a dramatic comeback in 1984 with the release of the album "Private Dancer," a multiplatinum success with hits such as "Let's Stay Together" and "What's Love Got To Do With It."

The movie based on her life, "What's Love Got To Do With It," was also a hit, earning Angela Bassett an Oscar nomination.

But Fishburne's glowering depiction of Ike Turner also furthered Turner's reputation as a rock villain.

Meanwhile, Turner never again had the success he enjoyed with his former wife.

After years of drug abuse, he was jailed in 1989 and served 17 months.

Turner told the AP he originally began using drugs to stay awake and handle the rigors of nonstop touring during his glory years.

"My experience, man, with drugs - I can't say that I'm proud that I did drugs, but I'm glad I'm still alive to convey how I came through," he said. "I'm a good example that you can go to the bottom. ... I used to pray, `God, if you let me get three days clean, I will never look back.' But I never did get to three days. You know why? Because I would lie to myself. And then only when I went to jail, man, did I get those three days. And man, I haven't looked back since then."

But while he would readily admit to drug abuse, Turner always denied abusing his ex-wife.

After years out of the spotlight his career finally began to revive in 2001 when he released the album "Here and Now." The recording won rave reviews and a Grammy nomination and finally helped shift some of the public's attention away from his troubled past and onto his musical legacy.

"His last chapter in life shouldn't be drug abuse and the problems he had with Tina," said Rob Johnson, the producer of "Here and Now."

Turner spent his later years making more music and touring, even while he battled emphysema.

Robbie Montgomery - one of the "Ikettes," backup singers who worked with Ike and Tina Turner - said Turner's death was "devastating" to her.

"He gave me my start. He gave a million people their start," Montgomery said.

Accolades for Turner's early and later work continued to come in as he grew older, and the once-broke musician managed to garner a comfortable income as his songs were sampled by a variety of rap acts.

In interviews toward the end of his life, Turner would acknowledge having made many mistakes, but maintained he was still able to carry himself with pride.

"I know what I am in my heart. And I know regardless of what I've done, good and bad, it took it all to make me what I am today," he once told the AP.

Associated Press Music Writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody in New York and Associated Press Writer Robert Jablon in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

Yep. He did a lot for the industry alright.
I don't see it mentioned anywhere but I know i have it in documentation somewhere, he was the producer on Bill Haley And The Comets recording of Rock Around The Clocke, which is said by some to be the first commercial rock and roll record.
I had the original 78 of it, and it was cvalled a foxtrot by the way.
Rocket '88 is often also said to be the first R&R record.
I never heard the later until long after rock waa beyond the toddler stagem and so the former is the one I see as the first on the road to what we listen to today.
ledgends may pass away but they never really die.
Ike was, and is, one of them.
Graham

Here's some photos from Ike Turners 73rd Birthday which I referenced in the newsletter "My Take" about Ike:



Here Ike is singing Proud Mary with the Ikettes.



After they finished a blazing version of Proud Mary.. it was amazing to be there to see that in person in a small room.



Ike was in great spirits and worked the crowd.



He got a big Guitar shaped birthday cake for his 73rd.



This is my favorite picture of him.. he was full of life and energy and still had a Grammy winning Blues Album to come in his life.



I am glad I got to meet a true musical legend. My last words to him that night were "Thank You Ike for inventing Rock and Roll." At the time I thought it was an awkward way to say it.. but in hindsight, I am glad I did. He seemed like just a normal guy with a lot of talent and who'd had a long hard life of big ups and big downs. I like to think he'd come full circle and finished on top.



Ike and Linda. I was glad she was there with me that night. She often misses stuff like this. She also took a lot of video of the night including Ike performing. We'll have to dig it up!

Here's the My Take:

Just Plain Quotes:

"If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing." -Benjamin Franklin

"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever." -Napoleon Bonaparte

"Let us take things as we find them: let us not attempt to distort them into what they are not. We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them." -John Henry Cardinal Newman

"In the end, success is atoning for the errors in your life, being at peace with yourself when your time has come, and having your achievements speak for you after you're gone." -Brian Austin Whitney

My Take:

As I was working on this newsletter tonight I got word that Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and JPF Member Ike Turner passed away at 76. Mixed with your shock if you haven't heard is probably also some mixed feelings on the man and a mental effort to balance the good and bad in his long career in the music industry versus his heavily publicized personal life.

Ike was born November 5th, 1931 in Mississippi and got his first taste of the music world when he was 8 years old and got to spend time playing records at the local radio station while the DJ went for coffee across the street. He was already hooked on music. Meeting his favorite piano player Pinetop Perkins, who taught him boogie woogie piano, set him on a life as a musician.

In the late 1940's, he created the "Kings of Rhythm" and in 1951 he recorded the first Rock and Roll record "Rocket 88." As would be the case during much of his career, the music wasn't credited to him alone, but rather to the singer Jackie Brenston and the Delta Cats. Brenston, the bands Sax player and lead vocalist, was also incorrectly credited as co-writer on the song which was actually written soley by Ike. The recording featured the first distorted guitar, which was simply the result of a broken guitar amp dropped on the way to the session.

Ike and the Rhythm Kings became regular fixtures in the St. Louis music scene and Ike himself became a talent scout for legendary Sun Records where he helped launch acts like Elmore James, Otis Rush, Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy WIlliamson. He frequently acted as side man for other acts and perfected his use of the "whammy" bar. It was during this era that he met Anna Mae Bullock, who would later become Tina Turner, the source of his greatest fame and his greatest infamy. Together with the trio "The Ikettes" backing them up, the Ike and Tina Turner Revue had a slammin' stage show and a string of hits including "A Fool In Love," "It's Gonna Work Out Fine," "River Deep, Mountain High," "I want to take you higher," "Proud Mary" and "Nutbush City Limits" named after Ida Mae's home town in Tennessee.

Their big successes led to Ike launching an LA based recording studio. But things started to unravel when Tina left him after a particularly bad fight in 1976. Without Tina, and with drug use and bad publicity from the violence and infidelities depicted later in Tina's autobiography "I, Tina," Ike's life and career spiraled downward to rock bottom. He was convicted of drug and weapons charges and went to prison.

Ike would say that he told God that he would stop taking drugs and clean up his life if he could just get 3 days away from drugs. He couldn't achieve that on his own, but prison did it for him. After he got out of jail, he got back into his music, winning awards and accolades all the way up to this year when he won his first Solo Grammy award for Best Traditional Blues Album for his album "Risin' With The Blues."

Most folks today base their opinion of Ike Turner from the depiction in the movie "What's Love Got To Do With It." The stigma of a drug abuser and wife beater will unfortunately be paired up with his creative achievements. Without excusing it, it's important to note that Ike maintained his sobriety after he left prison in 1993 and resurrected his career on his own and in his own name. He was deeply flawed, but he worked hard for redemption and by most accounts, he achieved that in his personal and professional life.

I was fortunate to have been invited to spend Ike's 73rd birthday with him when we were out in LA for our 2004 JPF Music Awards. The event was held at the same club the night before our Pre-Awards showcase. I happened to have my camera with me and when the hired photographer didn't show up, it turned out I had the only photos of the event. Ike had offered to do an interview with me for the JPF newsletter, but like many things in life, it remained on my "To Do" list for the last 3 years. Ironically, when we recently got back from Europe, I came across the photos I had taken at his birthday party and realized I hadn't sent him a copy. I emailed to see if he'd be interested in doing an article for our December newsletter. I never envisioned that article would turn out to be his obituary. It's weird how things work out sometimes.

In the end, success is atoning for the errors in your life, being at peace with yourself when your time has come, and having your achievements speak for you after you're gone. On that note, Ike should be considered a success on anyone's scale. How many of us will be able to say the same?

The last words I spoke to Ike were "Thank you Ike for inventing Rock and Roll."

Thank you Ike indeed.

Here's some photos I took from his 73rd Birthday Party:
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=567153&page=0#Post567153

Learn, Succeed, Thrive. We're All In This Together!

Sad news.... he certainly was a huge influence but due to his drugs and violence was very much underrated and under appreciated. My thoughts go out to all his family and friends. HE WILL BE SADLY MISSED.
His records were some of my first purchases and Ike and Tina was a huge influence on me as a teenager.

Brian, Thanks for posting this and writing your own article and setting the record straight about Ike Turner. I am a "roots" person and have always appreciated Ike's contribution to music. I never dwelt on his personal life because stories of high profile people are often based in rumor and innuendo, but there must be some element of truth because no one can re-invent someone else's life completely. It is his public life that we should celebrate and remember. His personal life belongs to Tina and his family and friends. I first heard "Rocket 88" later in life from an old 45RPM record and was blown away by it and began studying his music afterward. I mentioned him some time ago on the Guitar board about under rated guitar players. His influence was mostly behind the scenes as he let others take the spot light and no one deserves to be in the rock and roll hall of fame more than Ike Turner. "Rocket 88" is rarely played on radio or TV and you have to look for it to hear it and that is a shame. Ben

Brian, very, very well written and we need reminders in life like this to realize along with past crappy things comes a future of victory for the person who really wants it. I appreciated this, thank you.

Brian,
I got your email newletter today and was reading your article about Ike, then used the link to come to this forum to see the photos. Thanks for posting all this info about him. I read in the local (Orlando) paper about his death, and even though they mentioned he was an originator of rock and roll, the article didn't mention any details. So thanks for filling in the details. I had no idea he was that influential in the origins of rock, and yeah, all we were left with was that he beat up Tina all the time. Thanks for a truthful balance of perspective, and the brief history lesson.

Paul,

I am not an apologist for his violence. It is what it is. But I do think that every story needs some balance and usually things are neither as great or as horrible as the mass media portrays them. When I met him he'd been clean for nearly 2 decades and was making Grmamy winning quality music and rebuilding his legacy in a more positive manner. People will either believe in the possibility of redemption or they won't. If they do, I think he might have reached it. I hope that was the case.

Brian

Thanks Brian~
It was so nice to read your honorable eulogy of Ike Turner. His death caught me by surprise and your message and photos really brought back how important his work has been to me and as I read it the tears began to flow...
We are so lucky to have that music. We are also lucky to see someone who endured such hardship and complexity turn it all around. This, I think, may be his greatest achievement, What a bad ass!
Thanks again.
Mia Katherine

I echo everyone else here...It's a shame that his human flaws will forever overshadow his musical contributions {which were MANY.} I visit Memphis Tenn. often, and his influence there is still felt to this day. Take the Sun Studio tour, and you'll learn that his impact on early Rock N Roll was HUGE.

I really appreciate the even perspective you've given us Brian

Ike was undoubtedly a musical genius. His historic achievements over a span of more than 50 years -- from Rocket 88 to Ike & Tina to the Grammy on the eve of his death -- prove that. I used to live in Memphis and conducted many interviews on the musical history of the place as part of an oral history project in the early and mid-90s. I never met Ike, but he frequently came up in my interviews with the likes of Sam Phillips and Earl Forest, a Duke/Robey label singer of the Johnny Ace era.

I interviewed one guy, who became a popular blues dj in Memphis, who remembered Ike singing in a gospel quartet as a teenager in the Delta. They would sing at several churches every Sunday, often having to wash and brush the dust from the dirt roads off their clothes before performing.

Ike not only formed the Kings of Rhythm and recorded Rocket 88, he also worked as something of a talent scout for Sam Phillips, responsible for bringing, among others, BB King to Sam's studio to record in the pre-Sun days. Brian's story about the Rocket 88 recording is right -- a fortunate accident. It seems the amp fell off the top of the car on the trip from the Delta to Memphis. I don't know about the writing credits -- it wouldn't surprise me, a lot of that stuff happened in those days -- but Ike apparently also couldn't get his head around the fact that the singer is the star. That was part of his problem with Brenston and, I suspect, later with Tina.

Another person I interviewed was Calvin Newborn. His brother, Phineas, was a phenomenal jazz pianist in the Art Tatum mode. Unfortunately, he suffered from schizophrenia, severely limiting his recording career, and he died around 1990. Still, he'll be listed in any decent jazz encyclopedia. Calvin was a guitar player and also played with many of the jazz greats in New York in the '60s and '70s.

When Ike walked out in a huff, Sam Phillips hired the Newborn family band -- Phineas, Calvin, and their father, Phineas Sr., a drummer and one of the leading Beale Street band leaders in the '40s and '50s (although he spelled it 'Fineas'. The son changed it to the 'Ph' spelling to stop the teasing he took as a kid -- 'Fine ass') -- to tour with Brenston behind the record. Sam used the Newborns a lot for his studio sessions, and Phineas Sr. was a mentor to many aspiring Memphis musicians, including BB -- he sent Calvin with him to the music store to pick out his first guitar -- and Elvis, who used to talk his way in to clubs on Beale to watch the Newborns and others perform.

Elvis was well-known in the black community long before he became famous, and very well-liked at that time because of the respect he showed them. He would acknowledge people he knew when he met them on Main Street, not just Beale Street. He also loved black gospel music, for which Memphis was famous, and would attend the churches where the better choirs sang, and he was an occasional after-church dinner guest in the Newborn home.

Calvin was a very flamboyant on-stage performer and was the model for some of the mannerisms Elvis adopted and which later became iconic. But he had no jealousy or resentment whatsoever about that. He said the Rocket 88 tour, which drew a lot of white fans, had showed him they were going to have to find some white guys to play that kind of music. There was no way they were going to stand for having teenage white girls mobbing black musicians. Calvin was still living and performing in Memphis last I knew, although it's been a few years. He'd be in his mid-70s now.

Thanks for that additional info Gregg. It's very much appreciated! Glad to have you around! We can always use a good historian!

Brian

Post deleted by Brian Austin Whitney

A Sad Footnote:

Cocaine Killed Ike Turner, Coroner Says
Rock Legend Overdosed; Emphysema Played a 'Significant' Role
By CHELSEA J. CARTER, AP

SAN DIEGO (Jan. 16) - Rock n' roll pioneer Ike Turner's death last month at age 76 was caused by a cocaine overdose, the San Diego County Medical Examiner's office said Wednesday.

"We are listing that he abused cocaine, and that's what resulted in the cocaine toxicity," said Paul Parker, chief investigator at the medical examiner's office.

Ike Turner, whose aggressive presence both on and off stage made him one of music's most divisive figures, died at his home near San Diego on Dec 12. He was 76. Now a month later, the city's medical examiner concludes that Turner's death was caused by "cocaine toxicity."

The medical examiner's office also listed hypertensive cardiovascular disease and pulmonary emphysema as "significant and contributing factors" to Turner's death, Parker said.

Turner's daughter, Mia, said she was surprised by the coroner's assessment. She said her father's emphysema was at such an advanced stage that he was on oxygen and extremely weak in the last days of his life.

"He just couldn't - he'd gone at the time of his death four or five days without doing anything, and if he'd done anything, it would have been so minimal," Mia Turner said. "He was too weak from the emphysema to do anything. He'd go in the studio for a couple of minutes and play a couple of bars and say he had to go lay down."

She said she had not yet spoken to her father's doctors about to coroner's findings.

Whatever the medical case, Turner said she didn't want her father remembered for his drug use.

"That didn't and doesn't define who he was," she said. "Who Daddy was, was the legend, was the icon, was the major contributor to the music industry, not what this report says."

Turner, whose musical accomplishments were overshadowed by his image as the man who brutally abused former wife Tina Turner, died Dec. 12 after years of drug abuse. He was jailed in 1989 and served 17 months.

Turner once told The Associated Press he originally began using drugs to stay awake and handle the rigors of nonstop touring during his glory years.

"My experience, man, with drugs - I can't say that I'm proud that I did drugs, but I'm glad I'm still alive to convey how I came through," he said. "I'm a good example that you can go to the bottom. ... I used to pray, `God, if you let me get three days clean, I will never look back.' But I never did get to three days. You know why? Because I would lie to myself. And then only when I went to jail, man, did I get those three days. And man, I haven't looked back since then."

But while he would readily admit to drug abuse, Turner always denied abusing his ex-wife. In her 1987 autobiography, "I, Tina," Tina Turner told of a brutal pattern of abuse.

After years out of the spotlight his career finally began to revive in 2001 when he released the album "Here and Now." The recording won rave reviews and a Grammy nomination and finally helped shift some of the public's attention away from his troubled past and onto his musical legacy.

Turner spent his later years making more music and touring, even while he battled emphysema.

I guess the info I got from a friend of one of his former band members sadly turned out to be true. It's a damn shame.

first Kevin DuBrow, now this. sad, really.

markus