Everything about Ike Turner totally explained
Ike Turner (born
Ike Wister Turner,
November 5 1931 –
December 12 2007) was a
two-time Grammy Award-winning American musician,
bandleader,
talent scout, and
record producer. His recording of
Rocket 88, under the pseudonym of "
Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats" in 1951 is considered to be the "
first rock and roll song" ever. However, he's best known for his work with his then wife
Tina Turner as one half of the
Ike & Tina Turner duo. Spanning a career that lasted half a century, Ike's repertoire included
blues,
soul,
rock, and
funk. Alongside his former wife, he was inducted to the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
1991 and in
2001 was inducted into the
St. Louis Walk of Fame.
Biography
Early life and career
Turner was born in
Clarksdale,
Mississippi on
November 5,
1931, to Beatrice Cushenberry and Izear Luster Turner. Ike got his first taste of pleasing an audience at the age of eight working at the local Clarksdale radio station, WROX, located in the Alcazar Hotel in downtown Clarksdale. A man in charge of the station put Turner to work as he watched the record turntables. Said Turner:
Turner was soon carrying amplifiers for blues singer
Robert Nighthawk, who often played live on WROX. Ike was mesmerized by Nighthawk's playing, but nothing could equal the experience of hearing
Pinetop Perkins on piano for the first time. Growing up, his idol
Pinetop Perkins helped teach the young Ike to play
boogie-woogie on the piano. Ike soon was enamored of other blues artists such as
Howlin' Wolf,
Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller),
Elmore James,
Muddy Waters and
Little Walter.
Many sources state Turner's real name to be "Izear Luster Turner, Jr." however, in his autobiography
Takin' Back My Name, it's stated as "Ike Wister Turner." In the book, Turner explains about this confusion. His father, Izear Luster Turner, was a minister for the local church. Turner had thought he was named Izear Luster Turner, Jr. after his father, until he found out that his name was registered as Ike Wister Turner while applying for his first passport. He never got to discover the origin of his name, as by the time he discovered it, his parents were both dead. Furthermore, Ike Turner converted to Judaism later in his life.
Music career
Ike Turner's actual music career began in earnest in the late-1940s where he formed a group whom he christened
The Kings of Rhythm. In 1951, the band recorded what historians have debated as "
the first rock and roll record" with "
Rocket 88", credited to
Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats (this band didn't actually exist). Brenston was both the band's
saxophonist and the lead vocalist of the song, and on the original Chess release was listed as the song's writer. "Rocket 88" was produced at
Sun Studio in Memphis by
Sam Phillips. The record was one of the first examples of
guitar distortion, which happened by accident when one of the amplifiers dropped before the recording.
Ike and the Kings of Rhythm settled into local fame in
St. Louis where the band locally recorded for a St. Louis label and even appeared on local television shows. Throughout this early period, Turner became a recording scout and A&R man for independent record companies including
Sun Records - where "Rocket 88" was recorded, helping the likes of Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Elmore James and
Otis Rush get signed. He also became a sideman playing guitar for these blues acts and more. Musically, Turner was known for his hard-hitting guitar style. He was known to put the
whammy bar of his
Fender Stratocaster to frequent use.
Turner's music career changed drastically after meeting a teenage singer from
Nutbush, Tennessee, named
Anna Mae Bullock, who demandingly grabbed a microphone during a singing session at one of St. Louis' nightspots and sang a
B.B. King song in her now-trademark throated raspy vocals. Bullock's performance impressed Ike so much he allowed Anna to join his band as a background singer. However within a year, Ike's plans for Bullock changed after Anna recorded what he originally stated was a demo for a song that was to be sung by a male vocalist. After hearing her vocals, he let it be released under an independent label and in the process changed the name of the singer from Anna Mae Bullock to Tina Turner - naming her after
Sheena - and the name of the band to the
Ike & Tina Turner Revue. That song, "
A Fool in Love", became a national hit in early 1960, reaching the top three in the R&B charts and becoming a top thirty pop hit in the process. From then until 1976, Ike and Tina Turner became one of the most explosive duos in rock & soul music. The creation of the revue also led to the soul revues of the 1960s. Inspired by
Ray Charles, Turner created a trio of sexy background singers and dancers who were named
The Ikettes who often had their moves choreographed by Tina and Ike. The Turners eventually scored several hit singles including "
It's Gonna Work Out Fine", "
River Deep - Mountain High", "
I Want To Take You Higher", "
Proud Mary", and "
Nutbush City Limits" over thirteen years.
The success the duo contributed eventually led to the creation of the
Los Angeles-based Bolic Sounds studio, founded by Ike. However, after Tina abruptly left Ike after a violent altercation in 1976, Ike lost ground in the national music market. As a solo artist, he struggled to find success after Tina and after releasing two failed solo albums, had found himself facing drug and weapons charges, of which he was convicted in 1989. Shortly after Ike's release from prison in 1993, the musician went back on the road and back into recording music, which continued until his death. In 2001, Ike released the
Grammy-nominated
Here & Now album. Three years later, he was awarded with an "Heroes Award" from the
Memphis charter of
NARAS. In 2005, he appeared on the
Gorillaz' album,
Demon Days, playing piano on the track, "
Every Planet We Reach Is Dead". He played live with the band on the band's world tour to that particular song. In 2007, Ike won his first solo
Grammy in the
Best Traditional Blues Album category for the album,
Risin' With the Blues. Before his death, a collaboration between Turner and the rock band,
The Black Keys, by Gorillaz' producer
Danger Mouse was expected this year,
2008.
Personal life
The facts surrounding his second marriage to
Tina Turner (Anna Mae Bullock) have been hotly debated. It is believed that Ike married Tina in 1962 due to worries over being sued for
child support and
alimony payments by Taylor. The ceremony is claimed to have taken place in
Tijuana, Mexico, and Tina had a son with Ike. However, their marriage was overshadowed by Ike's constant abuse towards her. Ike is said to have openly cheated on Tina with other women, one of whom was former Ikette, Ann Thomas, by whom he'd a baby and whom he later married in 1981. In 1995, he married yet another Ikette, Jeanette Bazzell. Ike has four known children: sons, Ike Jr., Michael and Ronald and daughter, Mia.
In the mid-1980s, Turner suffered a brush with the law when he was convicted of drug-related charges and sentenced to several years in a California state prison. Turner was still in prison pleading parole when he and Tina were inducted to the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, which Tina accepted on his behalf.
In 2001, Turner's long-awaited autobiography,
Takin' Back My Name (ISBN 1-85227-850-1), was published. In Tina Turner's 1986
autobiography,
I, Tina, later filmed as
What's Love Got to Do with It?, Tina accused Ike of violent spousal abuse, which Ike repeatedly denied for many years. However, in his 2001 autobiography Ike admitted, "Sure, I've slapped Tina... There have been times when I punched her to the ground without thinking. But I never beat her."
Turner has attributed many problems off the stage to his drug and alcohol addiction and intense use of cocaine, resulting in his
abusive behavior and relationship with his wife and children. When Turner was released from prison in 1993, Turner began where he left off in his career with a busy touring and recording schedule.
In 1996, in an interview with NPR's
Terry Gross on
Fresh Air, Ike claimed that he and Tina Turner were never actually married, and that she originally took his name in order to discourage a former lover from returning to her.. On October 17, 2007, in a telephone interview conducted by radio personality
Howard Stern, Ike reiterated his claim that he and Tina Turner were never actually married.
Death
Turner died on
December 12,
2007 at 76 years of age at his home in
San Marcos, California, near San Diego. On January 16, 2008 it was reported by the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office that he died from a
cocaine overdose. "The cause of death for Ike Turner is cocaine toxicity with other significant conditions," such as hypertensive
cardiovascular disease and pulmonary
emphysema, Supervising Medical Examiner Investigator Paul Parker told CNN.
Discography
Ike & Tina Turner
Other
Further Information
Get more info on 'Ike Turner'.
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