Tina Turner Read online

  According to Tina, one afternoon Ike showed up at the house with a pretty woman in tow. Tina figured that it was just another of the girls whom Ike wanted to impress and then have sex with. The woman’s name was Valerie. She was white and Jewish, and she was married to a black jazz musician.

  Tina met several white women in mixed marriages at the time. Herbie Hancock was married to a woman named Gigi, who was German. Wayne Shorter had wed a Portuguese woman by the name of Anna. Her friend Maria Booker was also married to a black musician.

  She realized that Valerie was part of this same circle. Comparing Valerie to the type of women Ike usually showed up at the house with, Tina says, “All of them weren’t bitches or sluts” (5).

  Ike had hired Valerie to be one of the secretaries down at the studio. When she told him that she was a “chanter,” he assumed that it was some sort of fascinating branch of occult or witchcraft. When she explained to Ike and Tina that chanting was part of the Buddhist religion, Ike was instantly disinterested. However, Tina was just as quickly interested.

  Valerie explained to Tina how chanting was part of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism. Tina was fascinated. Valerie told her about shakubuku, which is the initial phase of Buddhist teaching. During that first meeting, she presented Tina with a book and prayer beads. She also taught her the chant “nam-myoho-renge-kyo.” Tina wrote it down on the spot. According to Tina, something inside her just lit up at hearing Valerie’s explanation of Buddhism.

  While Ike was down at the studio for long stretches, and Tina was all alone in the house, she started trying out this idea of chanting. Just to underscore her Baptist upbringing, she would recite “The Lord’s Prayer,” and afterwards she would recite the Buddhist chant five times. She explains, “I never let go of the Lord’s Prayer until I was sure of those words” (5).

  It didn’t take long before positive things started happening for her. In the beginning, there were small signs that her life was changing for the better. She had been having a problem with face makeup, having developed an allergic reaction to what she had been using. She had been looking for a certain brand that her skin would be tolerant of, but had been unable to locate it.

  She started chanting for the first time, and moments later the phone rang. It was a girl from Bloomingdales department store—the makeup Tina had been looking for was suddenly in stock. Was it the chanting? Or was it just coincidence? Tina was intrigued, so she continued chanting.

  The next step entailed buying a personal Buddhist altar or butsudan. It is essentially a little cabinet that holds incense for the sense of smell, a candle for light, a sacred scroll, and other objects. These are not objects to be worshiped, but they are objects that allow one to focus.

  What was it that Tina was seeking? “Change,” she explains. “The practice—in the early stages of it—when it was introduced to me, was that it could change your life if that’s what you were looking for. And at that time, that’s definitely what I wanted” (16).

  It opened up her eyes to a whole new world of possibility. “What’s reality sometimes is not exactly real,” says Tina. “Because you keep saying, ‘What did I do?’ You get on your knees every night and you say ‘The Lord’s Prayer,’ and you say, ‘Somebody must send some help to me, because I’ve never done a thing in my life to deserve this.’ And that’s when I started to chant” (5).

  Other than Valerie’s introduction to Buddhism, Tina was on her own to explore this new spiritual side of herself. “I had to teach myself, because I didn’t have the freedom to actually go to meetings, or for people to come to me. So I remember working really hard. And I am happy that I did it that way, because it was on my own that I really struggled for it, and it changed my life. . . . How I view it is that it is something that one depends on like—think, like I need my refrigerator, I need the clothing on my back, I need shelter. And chanting takes care of that spiritual side, that subconscious mind that I tap into. My reality is God has given us the faith, but we have to find it. We have to work on it, to find the God within us, that—say that ‘core.’ And when you chant, when you get into the rhythm, the sound,” she explains (16).

  According to Tina, chanting channels her into “the mystical law of the universe. I’m saying a word, but it sounds like ‘hmmmmmm.’ Is there anything that is without that? There’s a hum in the motor of a car, in the windshield wipers, in your refrigerator. An airplane goes rowwmmmnnn. Sometimes I just sit and listen to the sounds of the universe and to that hum that is just there” (6).

  There was an empty room in the house, and Tina stashed her butsudan there. Whenever Ike was away she would chant and read her book. She felt herself getting stronger and stronger each time she did it. Ike discovered the butsudan one day and totally freaked out. According to Tina, he couldn’t understand it at all, and it frightened him. He yelled, “Get that motherfucker out of this house!” (4).

  Looking back on this era of self-discovery, she says, “I was introduced to Buddhism and started to really care about what that was about, and I had no idea what the subconscious mind could actually do, and I realized that” (12).

  There were all sorts of signs that things were going to improve for Tina. One of the positive things that happened to her was that she personally met the woman who for years had been her heroine. “My one idol was Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,” claims Tina. “Her grace, her style, her intellect was how I modeled myself in terms of how I wanted to present myself off stage, so to speak. For my work, of course, the guys—The Stones, Rod Stewart. The rock & roll guys. That was what I wanted and that’s what I did. And that’s how it is” (16).

  After years of meeting all sorts of celebrities, Tina was rarely in awe of anyone. But Jackie Kennedy Onassis was different. She was strong and classy, and she had risen above tragedy. Tina wanted to be just like her. “The first time I met her, I was nearly in tears. In those days I wasn’t thinking about anybody in my circle or the clubs where I was. I was thinking that nobody was at the level of what I wanted in my life” (5).

  Regarding her encounter with Jackie, Tina explains, “We were checking into a hotel, and for some reason she was there, and at the time she was with Mr. Onassis. I was standing at the reception, and I looked down, and I wasn’t sure that it was her. But then she made a gesture of how she usually carried her person, and before I knew it I was running towards her. I was totally out of control. And by the time I got to the swinging doors, I said, ‘Oh, Mrs. Kennedy, oh, I mean Mrs. Onassis.’ And she turned very gracefully, and I said, ‘I’m Tina Turner. I just wanted to say hello.’ And she extended her hand and had this big smile on her face, and I thought, ‘I’m saved.’ She could have been rude. Actually, she could have been, but wasn’t. She was very kind. And who was rude was the lady standing with her; she was looking down her nose at me like I was some disease. She [Jackie] says, ‘Oh, hello. My children would be pleased.’ And we had just played Hyannisport, and I had been with Robert Kennedy’s family and we had been boating and dancing with them, and so they had told Caroline and John John, and therefore, she knew who I was. And I was very excited and she shook my hand and left, and as I turned there’s Mr. Onassis, and I said, ‘Hi.’ I had to control myself. And I went to my room, and the sofa was just going,” she says, mimicking nervous shaking. “I can understand now sometimes when some of the fans come. I try to be as compassionate as I can, because I can relate” (16).

  At this point in time, the lives of Ike and Tina Turner couldn’t be any more different. He was busy spending time at Bolic Sound, snorting cocaine, and recording track after track of music, often overworking songs to the point where they had no point. He had also become an out-of-control coke addict. In fact, by this time, he had snorted so much cocaine that he now had a hole in the cartilage that was in between his nostrils. To numb the pain, he simply did more coke. Ike was in the middle of his most self-destructive phase.

  Tina, on the other hand, was on the road to self-discovery and empowerment. For years she had unleash
ed an incredible amount of power and energy on stage as the invincible “Tina Turner,” and then went into a shell when she was off-stage. That was all changing as she began tapping into the incredible strength within her via Buddhism. She continued chanting, and good things just kept happening. The next sign that change was underfoot came in 1974 when she received word that the producers of the forthcoming movie Tommy wanted her to be one its stars. This was to be another very important step on the path to her escape.

  10

  THE ACID QUEEN

  While Tina was finding herself by chanting, Ike was losing himself in a sea of drugs. Bolic Sound Studios was supposed to be a huge “cash cow” for him, since the large studio could be rented out to pay all the bills. Unfortunately, all of the late-night parties did little to help the studio. Several of the soundboards were ruined by having cocaine and coffee dumped down into their inner workings. Good musicians wanted nothing to do with booking recording time there. And the things that Ike was producing, no one was buying.

  The one R&B album that the duo released in 1974 was called Sweet Rhode Island Red. It contained versions of two recent Stevie Wonder songs: “Living for the City” and “Higher Ground.” It completely failed to make the charts.

  Disenchanted with the way that the duo’s rhythm & blues records were selling, Ike decided to branch out stylistically. Along these lines came two completely different concept albums, one of them gospel, and one of them country. The album entitled The Gospel According to Ike & Tina Turner was an interesting curiosity. Aretha Franklin had just scored a huge hit with her own gospel album, Amazing Grace, so Ike must have figured that this would be a good avenue to travel down. The resulting album included such gospel standards as “A Closer Walk with Thee,” “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.” It was an odd choice for the duo—Ike was a drug addict who never went to church, and unbeknownst to him, Tina had become a Buddhist. Reflecting this dichotomy, the gospel album completely failed to find an audience.

  In another bizarre move, Ike decided that Tina should do a solo album of all country & western songs. It was recorded at Bolic Sound, and it employed country music’s Tom Thacker as the producer. The resulting 1974 album was entitled Tina Turns the Country On! It included Tina’s version of several recent country songs such as “Help Me Make It through the Night,” “Long Long Time,” and “I’m Moving On.” The Pointer Sisters had just won a Grammy Award for their first country song, “Fairytale.” This was possibly the motivation for Ike to steer Tina in this direction. It does have the distinction of being the first official Tina Turner solo album. Several songs were recorded for this album, including another ten cuts that remained unreleased for years. They are now available in several CD compilations including one called Soul Deep, and another called Simply Tina. The other country songs included Tina’s version of Tammy Wynette’s “Stand by Your Man” and Loretta Lynn’s “You Ain’t Woman Enough to Take My Man.” The song she should have sung would be one called “If You Are Woman Enough—PLEASE Take My Man!”

  The one Ike & Tina single to make the charts in 1974 was called “Sexy Ida, Pt. 1.” It made it to No. 65 on the American Pop charts. Recording-wise it was something of a “bust” for the duo. In addition, Ike had started recording and releasing his own solo albums, none of which ever sold any significant amount of copies. Ike was completely losing his grip on what was viable in the marketplace.

  He was also making some bad investments with his money. His once-profitable enterprise was starting to lose money right and left. It seemed that their live appearances in Europe were the only things producing money. The American audience is very fickle. Without the benefit of any new hit records, the number of dates they could play in the states was dwindling.

  According to Tina, “There were a lot of ups and downs, but Ike kept our act going because he had a dream to have a certain amount of songs in the Top 10. He wanted to be successful with charted music and be known for that and to receive that type of recognition from the industry. As a producer/musician, I think that’s what most people strive for. He worked for that” (10).

  Ike decided to upgrade Bolic Sound from a twenty-four-track studio to a thirty-six-track studio. This only gave him more room to tinker with his songs, to the point where he would layer so many sounds onto the tracks that they seemed to make less and less sense. He would start out with good song ideas, but by the time he was done tinkering with them, he would ruin them. “The more tracks they gave him in the recording studio, the more tracks he used,” explains Tina. “So he overwrote a lot of music. Things sort of got lost due to the mixture of drugs and mechanics” (10).

  Furthermore, the couple’s four sons were getting involved in drugs as well. With the example that Ike was setting, and the fact that there was always a ton of cocaine to be had at Bolic Studio, it was easy to see how the boys could fall into that trap as well.

  Ike’s own drug use, his physical violence, and his erratic behavior all escalated even further during this period. Tina never knew when she was going to get hit, for what reason, or with what object. He would suddenly lock the door of whatever room they were in, and Tina would know it was coming.

  Ike’s incredible rage and physical abuse wasn’t reserved for Tina alone. He also beat up Ann Thomas. He would beat Rhonda Gramm while she was driving the car he was riding in. He would grab her hair and pull handfuls of it out.

  Tina proclaims, “He was an evil and possessed person” (4). At night in bed, Ike would insist on sleeping on the crook of Tina’s arm. If she moved, he would punch her in his sleep. She was his prisoner, and she was resigned to being routinely maimed and beaten by him.

  On plane rides, Ike would insist on booking three coach seats in a row. Tina would have one end seat, Ann Thomas would have the other end seat, and Ike would sit in the middle. During the flight he would take off his shoes, and stretch out across the three seats—his head in Ann’s lap and his feet in Tina’s lap. He did everything he could to degrade Tina.

  Fortunately for Tina, in 1974 she got a nice long vacation from Ike. That was when the film version of Tommy was being shot in London. The producers were very interested in Tina, but they had no interest in putting Ike in the film.

  Producer Robert Stigwood was bringing The Who’s classic concept album to life, and he was planning to mix the cast of movie stars with several rock stars. The familiar screen actors included Tina’s friend Ann-Margret as Tommy’s mother, Oliver Reed as her second husband, and Jack Nicholson as the doctor. In the rock star department came Roger Daltry as adult Tommy, Elton John as the Pinball Wizard, Eric Clapton as the Preacher, Arthur Brown as the Priest, and Keith Moon playing perverted Uncle Ernie. Casting for the role of the Acid Queen was still up in the air. Reportedly, the film’s director, Ken Russell, had also been considering David Bowie as the Acid Queen. During this era, Bowie was amidst his makeup-wearing, gender-bending, unisexual phase, so it could have worked in that context.

  However, Tina’s name kept coming up. A script was sent to her, and when she read it, she was convinced that the role was perfect for her. Like most of the rock star appearances in the film, the Acid Queen only appeared in one sequence. Just as Ike had done with Tina when he cut the deal with Phil Spector for her to record “River Deep-Mountain High,” he likewise agreed to this deal. When the contracts where signed, Tina flew over to London to join the production. Tina has always wanted to act, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity for her.

  The funny thing is that Tina had never even heard the original Tommy album by The Who, so she really had no idea about the whole storyline or some of the drug connotations in the story when she took the role.

  When she initially met Ken Russell, he was shocked to find that she wasn’t six-feet tall like her on-stage persona might suggest. To give her height in the film, the wardrobe department made sure they outfitted her with a pair of outlandishly high platform shoes. She thought the shoes were “awful,” and she found t
he tacky short skirt that she was to wear “horrible.” But she decided to take the look even further, and added some additional touches all her own: fishnet stockings, bright red lipstick, and fingernail polish. When she put it all together, Russell still wasn’t convinced he had made the right casting decision. But Tina knew how to turn on the wattage when the cameras started rolling. According to her, she did her best Vincent Price-like evil genius imitation, complete with big bulging eyes and a head that quivered with madness. Russell instantly loved it and delightfully shouted for “more!”

  When it came time for the Acid Queen’s big scene, Tina was shocked to find that her beautiful female twin “assistants” entered the scene bearing a dramatically large hypodermic syringe. “My God, is this movie promoting drugs?” she asked out loud in shock. She had no idea that the “acid” in her character’s name referred to LSD! Nonetheless, she had a great time bringing the Acid Queen to life in front of the cameras.

  Tina’s experience of filming her role in Tommy went pretty much without a hitch. According to her, “My part was small, but it was my part. It gave me strength. I could feel myself growing” (1).

  Her friend Ann-Margret, on the other hand, had a very well-publicized accident on the set of Tommy. There was one scene in the movie called “Champagne.” Pete Townsend of The Who wrote the song especially for the movie. During the scene, Ann-Margret’s character of Nora throws a champagne bottle through a television screen, and a sea of baked beans (yes baked beans!) starts flowing out. Ann-Margret, or “Nora,” was to gleefully play in the resulting baked bean mess. Unfortunately, she got too close to the broken glass of the TV screen, cut her arm, and required twenty-seven stitches to piece her back together.