Tina Turner Read online

  In 1984 when Tina staged her huge comeback, what people were most amazed about was how fabulous she looked and the kind of vitality and energy she expelled on stage. It wasn’t just that she was now forty-five, it was her look, her attitude, and her inner beauty. She seemed absolutely radiant.

  Keith Richards said at the time, “She’s probably more energetic now than she was twenty years ago” (28). He was right—success completely became her. She was looking and sounding better than ever!

  “What a lot of people don’t realize about me is that I’ve never done drugs and I’ve never smoked. I became homeopathic,” she explains. “So that means I didn’t have any drugs in my system to tear me down. There’s nothing in my body that pulls me down. I never drink when I’m working. I’m a strong, healthy person, and that comes from eating fairly well and being homeopathic and never abusing my body. I enjoy my work. I’m an unusual person. I could get onstage right now and do a show. Had I abused myself during the early days, I never would have gotten as far as I got. But I’m healthy and I’m in control” (10).

  The funny thing was that the whole new MTV audience had no idea who she was. They were too young to remember The Ike & Tina Turner Revue or “A Fool in Love.” To them, she was this new girl they saw on television or heard on the radio. On the Lionel Richie tour, his young fans felt their jaws drop open at the sight of her entrance. They had never seen anything like Tina Turner before. According to her, “I’ve built my life around performing. I give everything to my audience, and that sustains me. To the younger people I’m now drawing, I was a surprise. They’d gotten used to seeing people just sit on stage and sing. Then all of a sudden, here comes Tina Turner, flying, kicking, and jumping. And they said, ‘Oh, wow! Great! Look at that!’ It didn’t matter that I was older. It was the energy” (11).

  Her health regime helped. “I’m basically a healthy person,” she explained. “My diet has changed though. When I eat less junk, I feel better, and when I have a bit too much champagne—I’ve never had much to drink—I don’t feel good. Basically, I listen to my body” (11).

  The press went crazy for Tina. During this time, you couldn’t pick up a magazine in which she wasn’t featured. Even the fashion bible Vogue was writing about her. According to their May 1985 issue, “In this life, Tina Turner looks about thirty-six, and her skin is flawless. She does not deprive herself. She sips wine at dinner, does not diet, and does not take vitamins. If she’s feeling particularly stressed, she consults a homeopathic doctor in London who gives her intravenous treatments ‘to cleanse the toxins from the blood” (2).

  Tina got a big smile on her face reading what people were saying about her. She said at the time, “Go sing and sweat and yell, jump and dance onstage for twenty years. You’ll look immortal too!” (28).

  To make a fashion statement while onstage, Tina wore short leather miniskirts and punk-looking jean jackets. One of her most identifiable attributes was her shapely legs. What was her exercise regime? “You must realize I’ve been doing this for twenty-five years,” she claimed, “so I should be in good shape. And can you imagine all the walking I do in airports? Now, that’s exercise!” (9).

  Her skin looked flawlessly fabulous. What was her secret? “When I’m not performing I wear little makeup,” she revealed (9).

  And then there was that new hairdo, which became a trademark of hers during this era. It was full and up on her head, clipped into what looked like a rumpled and haphazard style, which was very hip, youthful, and trendsetting. She said at the time, “I washed it one day and didn’t have time to blow-dry it, so it just dried naturally. I said, ‘Uuuummm, this is interesting.’ It works perfectly for me. It’s younger, and there’s a lot of freedom with it. Just wash it and wear it!” (9).

  It was clearly a wig, but what did she do to it to get it in that shape? “I prepare it like a three-course meal. I wash it, let it dry, then fork it up. Then I yuk it up with this gooey stuff, let it dry, then fork it up again,” she explained (30).

  Beginning in this period of time, up to and including the post-year-2000 era, she never looked or acted her age. According to her, “I’ve never been real conscious of age because of my lifestyle—rock & roll music, traveling, always surrounded by young people” (18).

  In the youth-oriented rock world, Tina Turner was clearly trailblazing. “People tell me I look great and I say, ‘You’re damn right!’ I take care of myself,” she claimed (30).

  And then there was her unique look and fashion sense. She modestly said of herself, “You can’t put me down there with the ugly ones, and you can’t put me up there with the pretty ones. I’m in the middle lane” (18).

  Now that she had paid off all of her debts and was back in the money, shopping became her new passion. “I’m going through being a girl again,” she claimed (2).

  Of her own personal style, Tina explained, “My taste is very European. I don’t have a man to lavish me right now, so I lavish myself” (30).

  One of the things she claimed was that sales girls who tried to second-guess her style were amazed to find that in her personal life, Tina never went for flashy outfits or lots of diamonds “They think sexy legs and chest out, but normally I am very conservative. I get enough attention onstage so I can dress pretty low key on the street. I buy for quality, not flash” (30).

  Regarding her shopping sprees, she illuminated, “My dream is to get the American Express Gold Card. Now I borrow other people’s—the chauffeur’s, my manager’s, anyone’s. Don’t worry I always pay them back” (30). After years of bad debts caused by her split with Ike, money problems were soon to be a thing of the past.

  The one thing that was missing during this era was a man in her life. She wasn’t desperate to find one, but if one came along, that would be great. “After I left Ike, I had my dream to find a rich man to protect me and take care of me. I haven’t found him yet,” she laughed (2).

  “I like to be romanced by a man,” she claimed. And regarding sex: “I’m not one of those women who has to have it no matter what. When you see me on a man’s arm, it means something. I am not touched easily. I don’t go out with men just to have companionship” (30).

  According to her, “I’m still dreaming of meeting the kind of man like the kind of woman I am, very giving, not dominating. We’ll be strong enough to trust each other and give each other freedom. The type of man I’m looking for would love me as much as I love him, would accept me with all my imperfections. He’d be someone who is very honest and alive. I just want a real human being who wants comfort and happiness out of life. That’s the real nitty-gritty of what living is all about” (11).

  What kind of things attract her to men? “First of all, there’s something about a man’s hands I like. And feet. If he’s got horrible feet and shoes, forget it. And I like a wide bottom. In the relationship he has to have the control—and I will give that to him—but that’s only because he really has it anyway. Now that’s magic. Money adds a lot, but he doesn’t have to have it. I am not lonely, but I do miss giving my love. I am very affectionate,” she said (30).

  She noted that her on-stage image was often a cause for confusion. “The illusion I give onstage is that I’m a bitch who sleeps around. But I’m really a one-man woman. . . . The man, my soul mate—that’s what’s missing in my life. But if he never comes, it’s all right. I’m great alone” (31).

  One of the things that press interviewers kept asking her about was her relationship with Ike Turner. According to her, “Living without blame, that is the secret to life. People think I’m bitter in that I hold a grudge against my ex-husband. I’m not bitter. I had a road and I followed it” (2).

  Instead of fighting his way back to the top, Ike Turner was at a very low ebb during this era. Said Tina, “I don’t begrudge Ike nothing. He is a talented musician. I wish he could get something together” (30).

  Ike was astounded by her success. She revealed, “I tried to help Ike mentally. The last time I saw him he said, ‘I�
��m not going to work for nothing.’ I did! Some nights, by the time I finished expenses and paid the band, I would end up with nothing. I told him, ‘Look what I’ve done!’ But he insisted he wasn’t going to work for less money. I said, ‘O.K.’ I don’t like to hear bad things about Ike. We were family, so it still sort of gets me here,” she says motioning to her heart. “If anything good comes for him, I would be really happy to know that he finally got himself together before he was totally lost.” (11) But being totally lost in drugs and depression was where he was at in the 1980s.

  And then there were her children, the four boys. “We’re close, but I’m not mother, mother, munchy, munchy. I’m not that father-figure thing,” she revealed (18). By now, they were all old enough to have their own lives and their own responsibilities.

  And her mother, Zelma Bullock, now lived in Los Angeles, where she had a job in a Beverly Hills beauty shop. She enjoyed the social interaction of having a job to go to every day. Now that Tina was back in the black financially, she could afford to support Zelma. But her mother was happy to work. “I said, ‘Mom, you don’t have to work anymore,’ but she likes it,” said Tina (31).

  Tina was feeling great as 1984 came to an end. And she had a right to be. She had accomplished an incredible feat with her new album, her new look, and all of the wonderful things that were in store for her. “I’m real proud that I was able to clear up my life,” she said. “I’m real proud of how I’ve evolved into my own shoes. I’ve learned to accept me. I’m proud of me” (11).

  As 1984 came to a close, Tina had just turned forty-six. There weren’t a lot of women in rock & roll who were in their prime at this age. Ms. Turner had broken every rule and then thrown out the rulebook. She was in uncharted territory, and she loved the rarefied air at this new peak. According to her, she would continue at this pace, at least until she was fifty years old. “I’m gonna focus on this. I think that’s gonna be my message, that’s why I’m here. And I think that’s why I’m gonna be as powerful as I am. Because in order to get people to listen to you, you’ve got to be some kind of landmark, some kind of foundation. You don’t listen to people that don’t mean anything to you. You have to be something to make people believe you. And so I think that’s what’s going on now, and then when I’m ready, they’ll listen. And they’ll hear” (6).

  Roger Davies noted that Tina especially didn’t like it when the press kept calling her a “victim” of physical abuse at the hands of Ike in her former life. According to him, “She was so unhappy for so long, she can’t stand it to get too dark. She hates people feeling sorry for her” (2).

  As Tina herself explained, “The victim thing. . . . It’s put in our heads. It’s everywhere. And I don’t think it does anybody any good” (8).

  She was very centered in her personal life, and she continued changing and evolving. “There’s a rhythm to the universe, and chanting is plugging into that rhythm,” she explained. “My life is very simple. When you travel around in limousines all the time you really want to go home and do normal things” (31).

  When she was interviewed in the press, reporters had the habit of asking her the same questions. One of them always seemed to be speculating as to how long she wanted to continue to live the rock & roll lifestyle. “People ask me when am I going to slow down, and I tell them, I’m just getting started,” she proudly pledged (29). This was the beginning of a whole new era of success and accomplishments for Tina Turner. And, the best was still yet to come.

  14

  BREAK EVERY RULE

  Tina Turner is living proof that nothing breeds success quite like success—especially in a show business realm. Suddenly, in 1984 and 1985 everything seemed to fall brilliantly into place in a total multimedia way. Tina was certainly the same consistent, talented person she had been for the past eight years as a solo act; however, the triumph that she was experiencing on record suddenly expanded into other areas as well. Once Private Dancer vaulted up the Top 10 charts, and “What’s Love Got to Do With It” became a No. 1 smash, it seemed everyone wanted more of Tina. Furthermore, the videos of that song and “Let’s Stay Together” were constantly playing on TV stations around the globe, letting the world know how great she looked as well.

  Her appeal cut across all age-groups, nationalities, and races. Her exuberant energy and spirituality seemed to shine through and touch everyone personally. Her tough, yet somehow blasé delivery of the song “What’s Love Got to Do With It” appeared to hit a chord in everyone universally. It was as though she had been hurt by love before and wasn’t about to fall in that trap again. She sang it with such gutsy conviction that it was impossible not to find the song—and its singer—excitingly appealing.

  According to her, she didn’t just sing her songs; she acted them and brought them each uniquely to life. In fact, acting on film was a challenge she deeply wanted to tackle. She loved doing Tommy, but she still longed for more experiences in front of the camera.

  Did she like sensitive women’s kinds of films? Hell no! Not bombastic Tina. Her favorite types of movies were actually horror and action films. Speaking of the kind of horror films she liked, she claimed she enjoyed The Exorcist or The Entity. “What I like is like the dead that’s really alive. People coming from outer space and how they look. I also love the Dracula movies. It excites me, the fear” (30).

  She likes the mystery and the suspense: “I watch horror movies. Imagine that Frankenstein or somebody—a mummy—is coming through the door” (5).

  She also liked big epics like The Ten Commandments or the chariot races like the ones in Ben Hur. “I don’t want to just be prancing around in some frilly dress singing a song, you know. I want to drive one of those damn chariots. Yeow! That’s excitement! That’s the stuff I love,” she explained (30).

  Tina wanted to make that jump into doing action parts and being a movie star. She claimed that this was part of “the enormous leap I’m after” (32).

  She didn’t want sensitivity, she wanted action. “Right now I just want physical parts,” she said at the time. “I don’t want serious roles because I feel that I have another good seven to ten years of being physical and using my youth. I can do those other parts later” (9).

  When the opportunity came along for her to star in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, it was like the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. When she had seen films as a child, she fantasized about one day being a movie star. “Then, after I grew up,” she said, “I discovered it wasn’t easy for black people to get into movies. The types of movies they were allowed to make, I didn’t want to do. So I waited until now, when it doesn’t make any difference what color you are” (11).

  According to the film’s director, George Miller, “Mad Max is about an apocalyptic world, and we needed someone who was powerful, but most of all, who was a wonderful survivor. That no matter what had happened after the apocalypse, this was someone who had endured and become very strong and had tremendous resources. And we were writing this character—the Queen of Bartertown—and as a writing reference we kept on saying, ‘Someone like Tina Turner, someone like Tina Turner.’ And then, when it came time to shooting the film, we thought, ‘Let’s ask Tina Turner if she really wants to do it.’ Luckily, she was available, she had a gap in her concerts at that stage, and was able to do it” (21).

  It was in the fall and winter of 1984–1985, while Private Dancer was in the Top 10, that she flew to Australia to film this exciting new role. How did she find the experience of filming such an action role as that of Aunty Entity? “Fantastic!” she claimed. “Plus, I was driving a car and wearing weird clothes. . . . Yes, yes, that was very wild” (16).

  She totally enjoyed the assignment, and she had an instant rapport with her co-star and onscreen nemesis, Mel Gibson. “I won’t say that when I finally got to Australia it was the easiest thing I ever did, because a lot of times there were sandstorms and it was hot and those were long days. But I learned a lot, and I loved working with Melvin. He hates that name, but t
hat’s what I call him, because he reminds me so much of one of my sons. He also reminds me of my Ikettes,” she was later to laugh (30).

  The director of the film, George Miller, said of Tina, “I’ve never seen anybody who could be on the one hand so energetic and on the other so still” (29).

  The film wrapped up production in January 1985. That same month she headed to Rio de Janerio, Brazil, to appear at the huge rock festival known as Rock in Rio. Also on the bill were Rod Stewart, Whitesnake, Queen, and AC/DC.

  That same month Tina returned to the United States. Her return was certainly not for a rest from chasing Mad Max through the hot Australian desert. Now she had real work to do, as this was just the first month of one of the most hectic and action-packed years of her entire career.

  She had returned just in time to attend the international telecast of The American Music Awards, on January 28, 1985. On stage, in front of millions of viewers, Tina Turner was seen picking up awards in the categories of Favorite Female Vocalist Soul/R&B and Favorite Female Video Artist Soul/R&B of the year.

  The night of the awards, dozens of singing stars were invited to A&M Recording Studios to record the song “We Are the World.” The funds that the song raised were to assist relief efforts in famine-plagued Africa and especially the people in Ethiopia. “We Are the World” was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and produced by Quincy Jones. They were able to get the participation of a virtual “Who’s Who” of the concurrent recording world, primarily because it was recorded the night of the annual American Music Awards telecast. It was kind of like those old Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney movies, where someone would announce, “I’ve got a barn—let’s put on a show.” Somehow it seemed, everyone—including Tina—wanted to be involved. In alphabetical order, the cast of singers included Dan Aykroyd, Harry Belafonte, Lindsey Buckingham, Kim Carnes, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Sheila E., Bob Geldof, Daryl Hall, James Ingram, Jackie Jackson, LaToya Jackson, Marlon Jackson, Michael Jackson, Randy Jackson, Tito Jackson, Al Jarreau, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper, Huey Lewis, Kenny Loggins, Bette Midler, Willie Nelson, John Oates, Jeffrey Osborne, Steve Perry, The Pointer Sisters, Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson, Kenny Rogers, Diana Ross, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick, and Stevie Wonder. When it was released, the recording of “We Are the World” received a tidal wave of airplay and raised millions of dollars. It became a huge No. 1 hit.