Accidental Demise – The Ike Turner Story HT

 

 You know, when you think of who created the genre called rock and roll, Some might say that it was Chuck Barry who created it. Some might say Little Richard was the first one or Fats Domino. But what about Ike Turner? The song titled Rocket 88 that he wrote is considered by many to be the very first rock and roll song ever written.

Let me tell you something about Ike Turner. Ike Turner was a band leader, songwriter, record producer, he played the piano, he played the guitar, the choreographer, the stylist, talent scout, and he was a businessman. One of the greatest guitar players, BB King described him as the best band leader he has ever seen.

 And when it comes to rock and roll, he sees Ike as one of the founding fathers. And BB King also said that Ike Turner was the only guitar player he wouldn’t play behind. That’s how good he was. Little Richard said that he was inspired to play the piano after he heard Ike turn the piano’s intro on the song Rocket 88 in which he later used it note fornotee on his song Good golly Miss Molly Prince.

 Now Prince said Ike Turner was the first of his musical influences. Now some call Ike an innovator. He was a very important man in American music. He put the texture and flavor in the R&B. He defined how to put the Fender base into that music and he discovered Tina Turner. But you know, the movie made him a villain and drugs played a big downfall in his career.

 So, let’s get to his story right now. Ike Turner’s birth name is Azir Luster Turner Jr. and he was born on November 5th, 1931 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. And you know, he was the youngest of two children from his Creole parents. His mother, Beatrice Kushinberry, was a seamstress, and his father, Isaiah Luster Turner, Senior, was a carpenter, a railroad employee, and a Baptist minister.

 Now, growing up, his nickname was Sunny, but where he was from, it was very racist at that time to the point that, you know, black people had to walk across the street if they saw white people walking on the same side of the street. He grew up in the Jim Crow era. Now, around the age of 5 years old, his father ended up being killed after he had an affair with a white woman.

 The story goes his father was messing around with this white woman and he stopped messing with her. So she got mad and told her white boyfriend and the white boyfriend and his white mob came to their house. Right. They blindfolded Ike’s father and took him somewhere, beat him up like crazy, left him bloody and stumped and kicked him so much that they left holes in his stomach. Wow.

 Then they brought him back, threw him in the yard, and the segregated hospitals refused to treat his injuries. And several years later, he finally died from his injuries. And that’s crazy. Now, you know, after his father died, his mother got married to another man and Ike never liked him because he was violent and an alcoholic and he would beat on Ike.

 But one day after he beat Ike, Ike got revenge by hitting him with a tree log and knocked him out cold. And that’s when Ike got on his bike and ran away from home. Now around the age of 6 years old, Ike said he was sexually assaulted by a neighbor. He said it was a woman named Miss Boozy. He used to feed her chickens every morning on his way to school and she would give him a nickel a week if he fed the chickens and she would give him money if she could uh put him on top of her and show him how to move. Wow.

Then around the age of 11 years old, he was sexually assaulted again by a middle-aged woman and Ike stated that he got the impression early on that sex was power. Now, also around that time, he fell in love with the piano after seeing a guy named Pine Top Perkins playing it. And that’s when he asked his mother could she buy him a piano.

 And he also wanted to take piano lessons. And his mother signed him up to take lessons, but the class was just too slow because he wanted to play like Pinetop Perkins the way he played it. But then while working a job at a hotel, he ended up meeting a guy who worked for the radio station WX. And that radio station was on the second floor in the hotel that he worked at.

And him and Ike became friends and he got Ike a job as a DJ for that radio station. Now at the age of 16 years old, he married his first wife named Edna Dean Stewart. But they ended up breaking up because she didn’t want to stay in Clarksdale, Mississippi. So she left Ike and went back home to Ruville, Mississippi.

 Then he married a woman named Velma Dishman. But after that relationship didn’t work out, he married a woman named Rosalie Sain, who ended up having a mental breakdown. So her family put her in an insane asylum and I tried to get out but he never saw her again. Then he married another woman named Bonnie but she ended up leaving him for some other man.

 And then he married another woman named Alice. Then he married a woman named Anime Wilson who left him for a policeman. You know what’s crazy is Ike has been married over 14 times. Wow. 14 times. You know, Ike said that back then a marriage license was only $3 and you only had to pay $2 for a preacher to marry you.

 But anyway, then he formed his first band called the Top Hatters and they used to do big band music. But then 6 months later he formed the Kings of Rhythm. But also around that time, he ended up meeting a guy named Riley King, who would later be known as the legendary BB King. And he actually let Ike and his band perform at one of his shows.

 And you know, he told Ike that if he ever wanted to record a real song in the studio, call a guy named Sam Phillips. So after that, I look, I ended up playing playing piano on BB King’s song called You Know I Love You and Three:00 Blues. And that’s when a guy named Joe Bahari offered him a ANR job for Modern Records to go out and find talent for him.

 And what’s crazy is this y’all. Ike was the one who discovered Johnny Ace, Little Walter, Muddy Waters, and Holland Wolf. Wow, that’s crazy. Ike discovered all those guys. But then, you know, Ike started writing and creating songs. And in March 1951, the song called Rocket 88 was released, hit number one on the R&B charts. and is considered the first ever rock and roll song to be released. Wow.

They say that song birthed the genre of rock and roll, but Ike said in an interview that he doesn’t think Rocket 88 is a rock and roll song. He thinks he think Rocket 88 is a R&B song, but he does think Rocket 88 is the cause of rock and roll existing. He said it was the first black record to be played on a white radio station and made all the white kids buy it at the stores.

 And it also gave record companies the idea that if they made a white guy sing black music, they would make a lot of money. So that’s when that guy Sam Phillips got the idea. He signed Elvis Presley. He got Jerry Lee Lewis and a bunch of other white guys. And so that’s when they named it rock and roll rather than R&B for this reason. Wow. Interesting.

Cuz you know Ike said uh Elvis used to be Elvis used to pull up. Elvis was a truck driver. That’s when Ike first seen him. And he used to come to the black clubs and just sit there and and just listen to black music cuz that Rocket 88 song man has inspired a lot of people. Little Richard, who later used it for his 1958 hit, Good God Golly, Miss Molly, sound just like Rocket 88, the piano.

 But here’s the sad part about that song, though. Now, Ike wrote the verse. He wrote the first verse and his band, The Kings of Rhythm, wrote the rest. Jackie Binston, who played the saxophone for Ike, he sung the song and Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records, sold the song to Leonard Chess for Chess Records.

 Now, the song Rocket 88 was supposed to be credited to Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm featuring Jackie Princeton, but they were never credited and they were only paid $20 each for that song. Wow, that’s crazy. When that happened, Ike was like, “You know what? It would never happen again.” You know, the record labels in the business back then were way worse than what’s going on now.

 But anyway, so after that, Ike and his band, the Kings of Rhythm, continued to play gigs and they became one of the hottest groups out at that time. So he ended up going to St. Louis to visit his sister. And he ended up booking a bunch of shows while in St. Louis. He and his band became so much in demand, so hot out in St.

 Louis that women couldn’t wait to see him. He said it got to the point Ike said it got to the point that he had so many women out there he had keys to 32 apartments out there. Wow. He had a reputation now of being a womanizer which would make other men jealous. And you know Ike and his band was they was always fighting and having shootouts but Ike and his crew carried guns and they weren’t afraid to use them. You know St.

 Lewis was crazy even back then. Now, also around that time, the late great Jimmyi Hendris was part of the that was part of his band. Jimmy Hendricks was part of Ike’s band, but Ike had to let him go because he wouldn’t listen. He said Jimmy wouldn’t listen and he kept messing up when they would perform. So, he let Jimmy go and Jimmy Hendricks blew up after that.

 Now, another thing Ike did was help bring the white and the black people together to listen to his music. Even though it would cause problems with the older racial white people, but he helped ease the racial tension in St. Louis at that time. But also around that time he ended up meeting Tina Turner who real name is anime Bullock but her nickname was Little Ann when he met her.

 Now see Ike’s drummer Eugene Washington was dating Tina Turner’s sister named Arlene who kept telling Ike that her 17-year-old sister Anna May who went by the name Little Ann could sing. But Ike really didn’t pay her no mind because every day everybody was coming up to him claiming they could sing all the time. But one night Ike’s drummer handed her the microphone and Tina started singing.

She sang BB’s King hit song, You know I Love You. And Ike heard her. He loved the voice and asked her if she knew more songs. So he let her sing the rest of the night. And that’s when he decided to work with her. and he put her in the band, the Kings of Rhythm. And at that time, you know, Tina was dating Ike’s saxophone player named Raymond Hill.

 Ike said that uh Raymond Hill used to cheat, be mean, and treat Tina real bad at that time and she ended up having his first child with him. Now, Raymond Hill, he lived with Ike and Tina ended up moving in too. And just Ike and Tina though would be up late working on songs. At that time Ike was dating a woman named Lorraine who was the mother of his two kids and she stayed with him too.

But eventually you know Raymond Raymond Hill and Tina broke up and Tina ended up staying with Ike. But still at this point though they were still just friends. They had like a brother and sister type of relationship. Ike didn’t see her like sexually at that way. After that, Ike wrote the song called A Fool in Love for an artist named Art Lasser.

And you know, him and Tina had he had Tina sing the demo version. But when Art Lasser didn’t show up to record his vocals because he owed Ike some money cuz you know Ike lent him $80 for some ties, he owe Ike some money so he never showed up to the studio. That’s when Ike let Tina sing it.

 Then he gave it to the DJ to play it and the young teens, especially the white kids, they love the song, A Fool in Love. Next thing you know, Sue Records, heard it and signed Ike to a contract for $20,000. And that’s when he gave her the name Tina Turner because he wanted his name attached to his music because of what happened to him with the Rocket 88 song.

He was he was much smarter now this time around when it came to dealing with the music business. Plus, you know, this time he made sure he trademarked the name as a form of protection so that if Tina left him, he could replace her with another singer. And you know Ike also created the name the Ikeets for his backup singers.

 Robin Montgomery was singing with them at that time. You know Robin McGomery is from the TV reality show called Sweetie Pies restaurant. But anyway, the song titled A Fool in Love was released in July 1960, hitting number two on the Billboard Hot R&B size charts and hit number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100. Plus, it sold over a million copies, making it one of the first R&B recordings to successfully cross over to the white pop charts since Ray Charles hit song What I Say.

 And you know, they also made their first national TV appearance on American Band Stand. And look, Tina Turner was over 8 months pregnant at that time with her first child with Ike. So, let’s get into the beginning of their relationship. Now, according to Ike on how they ended up being intimate and having sex for the first time, you know, Ike said, uh, at that time, you know, he didn’t drink alcohol.

He decided to have a drink that night, you know, and he ended up getting real sick and Tina was kind of nursing him and they started playing around and next thing you know, they had sex and she became pregnant. Wow. Hey, it can happen. It can happen. Plus, you know, he had another singer pregnant named Pat at that same time, too.

 Now, once his baby mama Lorraine found out about him and Tina, Tina and Tina was pregnant, she ended up confronting Tina about it with a gun, but she ended up shooting herself in the bathroom. But also that same year in 1960, Ike and two others were charged for interstate transportation of forged checks and conspiracy. And you know, he pleaded not guilty and he was forced to stand trial in St.

Louis and he beat it. He was found not not guilty. Now the following year in February 1961, he released their debut album titled The Soul of Ike and Tina Turner. You know, besides the hit A Fool in Love on the album, another single called Idolize You hit number five on the Billboard R&B charts.

 Then they started touring and doing gigs. And you know, Ike had a total of 16 people in his entourage he would have to look after. And the only problem he really had was the only problem Ike really had was just hooking up with different women every night while he was with Tina. At that time he didn’t drink or do drugs at that time. He was just a businessman.

 He just his only problem was having sex with women, different women. He just loved women. But you know the racism was there. Racism was crazy. Um they had to face a lot of that while touring especially in the south. You know people would try to run them off the road, refuse to serve them. But Ike was always strapped with a gun and ready to fight.

 Even the Ike would fight if they got into it at shows with audience members, you know, if they’re being rude or being disrespectful. You know, Ike stated that uh Tina was no joke. He said Tina Ike said Tina could fight and would beat up people in a brawl, too. Now, in March 1962, he released the album titled I can Tina Turner’s King of Rhythm Dance, which is an instrumental album by the Kings of Rhythm.

 A couple months later in May 1962, he released the album titled Dynamite. And the single called It’s Going to Work Out Fine hit number two on the R&B charts and sold over a million copies, plus earned them their first Grammy Award nomination for best rock and roll recording at the fourth annual Grammy Awards.

 Other charting singles from that album were You Should Have Treated Me Right and Poor Fool. Now, also that same year in 1962, Ike and Tina decided to get married in Tijana, Mexico, but Ike said the marriage was never official because he still he was still legally married to this woman named Alice Bell. In February 1963, he released the album titled Don’t Play Me Cheap.

 A few months later, in June 1963, he released the album titled It’s Going to Work Out Fine. Now, also that same year in 1963, he released the album titled Rock the Blues. After that, I ended up leaving Sue Records and created his own record label. And he will also do deals with a bunch of other record labels.

 Now in 1966 he released the album titled Get It Get It and he also released the Iette’s album titled Sold the Hits. But right after that album they ended up signing to legendary producer Phil Spectre’s label called Phil’s Records. Now, Phil Spectre has seen them perform a year before and wanted to sign them and I and he had to pay $20,000 to get them out of their contract.

 Plus, he negotiated a deal with Ike Turner for creative control over his sessions with Tina Turner. He say he paid an extra $200 to stay out of the studio or something like that. And in September 1966, they released the album titled River Deep Mountain High. And the single River Deep Mountain High, it hit number one overseas now. It was big overseas.

 And you know, Tina stated that Phil Spectre made her sing it over and over until he felt she had it right. She said she had Tina said she was drenched in sweat in the studio. She even had to take off her shirt and stand there in the bra to sing. Now, like I said, the song was real big overseas, but it flopped in America.

 And Phil Spectre was so upset that it wasn’t a hit in America that he announced his retirement. They said he went into hiding and he stopped working and didn’t return to the studio until 4 years later when he worked on the Beatles final album, Let It Be. But like I said, the song was big overseas. And they went on a UK tour with the Rolling Stones to support the album.

 And once they did that, that’s when they really started getting a lot of white fans and making a lot of money. After that, they signed with Pompei Records. And in July 1968, they released the album titled So Fine. But also around that time he ended up getting a woman named Ann Thomas who was one of the Ikeets pregnant.

 And what’s crazy is Tina was also pregnant again by Ike. But she got an abortion. Tina got an abortion though. It’s crazy because Ann Thomas and Tina were like best friends. Now according to Ike, he said, “Hey, used to have threesomes with them all the time.” And Tina was cool with it. Wow. Then he started having an affair with a white woman named Rhonda he had hired to work for him around that time.

 And you know, Tina was kind of getting tired of all the women Ike would have. And she tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose of 50 sleeping pills of volume. In April 1969, Ike released the album titled A Black Man Soul in which earned him a Grammy nomination for best R&B instrumental performance. Now, that same year in October 1969, they released the album titled The Hunter.

 And Tina got her first solo Grammy nomination for best R&B vocal performance female at the 12th annual Grammy Awards. And you know, Ike and Tina also became good friends with Janice Joplain. Now, Janice Joplain was a big fan of Tina. You know, uh, Ike said this about Janice Japan. He said, uh, he never believed that Janice Joplain died from an overdose of drugs.

 He believed that the mafia or the powers that be killed her because she was talking about the government and making bold statements and, you know, he believes that they put that needle on her arm. H, wow. Interesting. Now, in April 1970, they released the album titled Come Together, which hit number 13 on the Billboard Sold LP’s chart.

 But then months later on November 9th, 1970, they released the album titled Working Together, which hit number three on the R&B LP charts. And the single called Proud Mary hit number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, number five on the Billboard R&B chart, and won them a Grammy Award for best R&B vocal performance by a group at the 14th annual Grammy Awards.

 Now, in 1972, Ike released the album titled Strange Fruit. In 1973, they released the album titled Nutbush City Limits. And the song Nutbush City Limits was real big overseas, selling over a million copies. But also that same year, y’all, in 1973, Ike and some of his band members ended up getting into a brawl with the Black Panthers.

 Now, the story goes, you know, Ike and Tina were in Oakland, California doing a benefit concert for the Black Panthers. And, you know, they say uh they were already paid $7,000 in cash plus they gave them a check for $500. So, it was a total of $7,500 that Ike was paid. So somehow they end up fighting because the Black Panther Party claimed that the problem started from Iina’s unprofessionalism.

The Black Panthers claimed that I Tina only performed 15 minutes of a 1-hour show and then they walked off stage despite the fact that they had already paid them $7,000 in cash and the Black Panthers weren’t having it. So when the IT attempted to leave the stage, a group of men dressed in black suits refused to let them off the stage.

 And that’s when the brawl happened. And Ike I Ike suffered a 3-in cut on his head after he was hit with a lead pipe. And I heard they tore Tina Turner’s wig off her head. Another one of his band members was struck with a crowbar and was hospitalized for four days. eight people. They say eight of his people were sent to the hospital.

Wow. Now, after that, they ended up finishing the tour with the Rolling Stones. They went to Las Vegas to be the opening act for comedian Red Fox. And that was the first time that Ike Turner was introduced to cocaine. Like I said, before that, he never did no drugs. He was just a businessman. Some believe that this cocaine was given to him to mess his mind up because he was such a good businessman.

 But anyway, Ike said Red Fox and Elvis Presley were the ones that gave him the coke wrapped in a dollar bill and he tried it and he loved it. He loved how it gave him energy and it kept him awake plus made him horny and that’s when he started giving it to his band members. He said uh the first time he tried it was while he was writing a song at his piano and he loved it so much that he started buying kilos of pure cocaine from South America because see before that like I said the only thing he was addicted to was sex.

That’s the only thing he was addicted to. He didn’t drink or do drugs and he didn’t allow anyone in his entourage to do it either because he would fire you if he found out you was doing drugs. But once he got hooked on coke, Ike was snorted so much that his nose would start bleeding, which later on would cause a hole through his nasal spectrum. Wow.

 He burnt a hole in his nose. He did it so much. So that’s when he started freebasing cuz his nose is messed up. He started smoking it. It was free basin, which means he was smoking crack. But like I said, he was getting pure cocaine from South America. And he also said that over overall he spent about $11 million on it.

 Wow, that’s crazy. And you know, he had the money at the time. They was making so much money by him being a businessman, you know, he controlled everything. I said he was spending about 35,000 to 75,000 a month taking care of his band, which was about 15 16 members. But, you know, he was just giving cocaine away for free at parties.

 Everywhere he went, it was free. He would just give it away for free. He would just have it sitting there in big bowls on the table. I did state that that’s one of the real reasons that him and Tina broke up was the cocaine he was doing. And you know, he said Tina never did none of that stuff. She never did no cocaine. He said Tina told him that, you know, the cocaine just made him a mean person and quick temper, in which he did have a quick temper, but when he was on that coat, he was really quick-tempered.

 But you know during that time Ike was making a lot of money and he ended up buying a whole block with apartment buildings where he would house his girlfriends. Plus he was giving them giving them cars and everything. Then he built a $2 million studio in Englewood, California. He would name Bollic Sounds that had advanced technology where he could push a button and lock the doors.

 cameras and mirrors was everywhere and he had bars on the windows and everything. And you know in that studio he would have a bunch of sex orgies and do drugs for days in there they say. And look everybody used to be there and hang out with them. All types of famous celebrities. Natalie Cole, the Gap Band, Shaka Khan, Rolling Stones, Marvin Gay, Stevie Wonder, Bobby Wmac, and many more.

 I remember uh Bobby Wmack saying in this book that one time Ike had locked the Rolling Stones in the studio and they were scared to death because they couldn’t get out. But you know later on that studio ended up catching fire and it burned down mysteriously. And you know Tina became so stressed out that time though with Ike that she just she tried to commit suicide a few more times but Ike thought she was just doing it for attention.

 Ike stated that Tina would just do things for his attention and that’s when he would slap her to fix her attitude. Wow. Ike was crazy man. He said Tina would get mad about all the women he was seeing, but she was the one that told him that she didn’t have a problem with it. And you know, it got to the point that Tina said enough is enough.

 In 1976, Tina ended up leaving Ike. Now, according to Ike, he also said that the only serious fight they had was when they were in a limo in Dallas, Texas. And when they went to the hotel after the fight, Tina left him for good while he was asleep. Tina said she had nothing with her but a mobile credit card and 36 cents on that day she left Ike.

 After that, you know, Ike was angry after Tina left because without Tina, he had to cancel a bunch of shows and he lost a lot of money. And you know, he saw Tina again. He saw Tina again and they even talked about getting back together, but they had got into it again over their child and that’s when Ike was ready to kill her.

 Now, according to Tina, she said that Ike had sent some of his goons to where she was staying and they shot up the house. Wow. You know, Ike once Tina was gone though, Ike fell into a deep depression because he really couldn’t make no money without Tina. And everybody who used to be around him, they just stopped coming around and they wouldn’t help him out.

 And it’s time of need. And that’s when he thought about taking his own life. And he even put the gun in his mouth, pulled the trigger. The gun jam. Wow. the gun jam when he did it. But, you know, he just he just kept doing drugs. He stay He said he went on a a 15-year party with drugs. Wow. 15 years just doing drugs. That’s crazy.

And he also thought about replacing Tina with either Shaka Khan or Natalie Cole. Now, when he and Tina went to court, I try to say that they were never officially married because he was legally married to another woman at the time of their ceremony. But the judge said, “No, you had a common common law marriage.

” And, you know, he still had to go through a formal divorce and you know, Tina got to keep her stage name, Tina Turner. Now, in 1980, the police ended up raiding Ike’s studio, and they found a live hand grenade and seven grams of coke in there, and the judge sentenced him to 30 days in the LA County jail with 3 years probation. In April 1981, he ended up marrying the IAT, former Ike and Thomas.

 But also that same year in April 1981, Ike was arrested for shooting a 49year-old newspaper delivery man in his ankle for assaulting his wife and Thomas and he kicked his dog. But he beat that case though. He beat the case. You know, Ike said he didn’t shoot him. He said he shot in the air to scare him and the newspaper delivery man cut his ankle hopping across the fence.

Now, in June 1985, Ike was arrested and charged with conspiracy to sell $16,000 worth of cocaine. The following year, in 1986, Ike was arrested for cocaine possession, a concealed carry of a handgun, and traffic violations, and he was released on bail. Also that same year in 1986, Tina Turner released her book, It Tina.

That’s the title of the book, It Tina, which became a worldwide bestseller. Then in January 1987, Ike was arrested again for trying to sell 10 ounces of cocaine to an undercover police officer. In May 1989, he was arrested on drug charges and convicted of cocaine intoxication and driving under the influence of cocaine and was sentenced to 4 years in prison.

But after completing only 18 months of his sentence, he was released and he also kicked his drug habit. He was clean and sober when he got out, y’all. In 1991, Ike and Tina Turner were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1993, the female hip hop group Salt and Pepper sampled the Iette song called I’m Blue, the Gone Gone song for their number one song called Shoot.

 Now, also that same year, the classic movie title What’s Love Got to Do With It was released and it grossed over $60 million in the box office. Now, Tina did admit though, now Tina said this. Tina said the movie wasn’t all the way accurate and wish they would have put more truth in it. She didn’t realize they would change the details so much in the movie.

 H but you know the company that made the movie said no that’s impossible because the people would not have believed the truth so they had to you know spice it up a little. Ike said it was all lies. I said the whole movie he never watched the movie and he guessed they needed some drama.

 They needed to make somebody into the bad guy and this time it was him. And you know, look, Ike wanted to sue him, but he signed the contract while he wasn’t in his right state of mind. According to Ike, he said, you know, the company came to him, which was Walt Disney. He said they wanted to make the movie.

 They gave him like 45,000 to sign a release form. And you know, he thought he was signing something that said they could have someone else play him in the movie, but he didn’t realize that it said they could portray him any way they wanted to and he couldn’t do anything about it. He was signing his rights away to sue him. Wow.

 You know, and you look, Ike said uh he stated that, you know, he he did hit Tina. He admitted that. He said he hit Tina. This is what he said. He said, “Yeah, I hit I hit her, but I didn’t hit her more than the average guy beats his wife.” And the truth is, our life was no different from the guy next doors. It’s been exaggerated.

 People buy bad news, dirty news. If she says I abused her, uh, maybe I did. And you know, he also said that the only time he ever punched Tina with his fist was the last fight they had. He said he hit he hit her after she kne him in the chest, but prior to that, their fights or their little slaps or whatever they were were all just about her attitude.

He said he and Tina never fought about other women or about her not keeping house or her not taking care of the kids. It was always about because she was looking sad he say and he don’t like people looking sad around him. He would tell her what’s wrong with her. What’s wrong she would take the attitude with her on stage and that’s when he would really get depressed.

 So after the show he said he ended up slapping her or something but then after he slapped her everything would be okay. Ike crazy man. Ike is off the chain. Now, Lawrence Fishburn stated that he didn’t want to play Ike to begin with because in the script he was pretty one-dimensional. He said he said there was no explanation for his behavior or for why Tina would stay with him for 16 years.

And because those things were lacking, he said that he was very hesitant. So he talked, you know, Lawrence Frisman said he talked to the producers and they agreed that he needed to be fleshed out and they were able to give him some history and texture and some real dimension and depth and that’s when he agreed to play Ike.

 Now in 1999, Ike released his book titled Taking My Name Back, The Confessions of Ike Turner, which is a great book, I must say. Y’all must read that book. That’s his side of the story. Now, that same year in 1999, Ike did an interview with Roseanne Bar and she urged him to publicly apologize to Tina on her show.

 In 2001, he was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame. The following year, in 2002, he was inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame. But then in 2004, while trying to save one of his friends who had a crack cocaine addiction, Ike ended up smoking crack again. Wow. He relapsed, y’all. And look, before that, he was 14 years clean from doing drugs.

 You know, the story goes on how he got hooked back on crack. Ike had gone to try to save a friend who needed his help from a crack house and you know Ike went went to the he went to the crack house tried to save him blew crack in his face to smoke a crack in his face and that’s all it took he was back on drugs y’all sad man why did he go to that crack house why he was 14 years clean before that too and you know they say uh he would often cry expressing frustration that he wasn’t able to move beyond his addictions. After that

in 2005 he was inducted into Guitar Cent’s rock wall but also that same year in 2005 he announced to the public that he was diagnosed with emphyma which required him to use an oxygen tank. you know, he’s been battling that since 1994. On September 12th, 2006, Ike released his last album titled Rising with the Blues, which ended up winning him his first solo Grammy Award for best traditional blues album at the 49th annual Grammy Awards.

Now, also that same year in 2006, Vibe magazine ranked the character of Ike Turner from the movie What’s Love Got to Do With It at number four in their list of the 20th best movie bad guys. Wow. In 2007, I told Jet magazine that he had written Tina Turner an apology letter, but he had never sent it.

 But on December 12th, 2007, Ike Turner died from a cocaine overdose. Now, the story goes like maybe about a year before, Ike was in and out the hospital with his health issues. He had fallen a couple times going to bed and you know, he just knew something was coming and he started being alone more. Now, days before his death, he told his personal assistant and caretaker that he was about to die and he won’t be here by Christmas.

 So, on that day he died, his caretaker noticed while sitting on the edge of his bed, Ike was Ike was shaking. His body was shaking. He told his caretaker he didn’t want to die in the hospital. and his daughter had invited his band over to play some music for him to help cheer him up, lift his spirits, and see would that make him come out of his room.

 Cuz like I said, he was spending a lot of time alone in his room. But next thing you know, you know, he fell on the floor and they had to call the paramedics, but he ended up passing away. The police arrive and they found drug paraphernalia, a small scale plastic baggie containing cocaine, apparent apparent marijuana residue, a clear glass pipe, a syringe, and a foil wrapped pin cap with a steel wool at one end.

 Now, when they did the autopsy on Ike, the medical examiner listed the cause of his death as cocaine toxity. They also stated that heart and lung disease also played a significant role plus hypertensive cardiovascular disease. Now his wife at the time Audrey Turner, she said Ike was also bipolar and had schizophrenia. But Ike’s daughter Mia disagrees and states that her daddy is not bipolar.

 He was so heavily overmedicated he could hardly speak. He was double stepping and walking sideways.  Now, at his funeral, you know, legendary producer Phil Spectre criticized Tina Turner for vilifying Ike Turner and her movie. He called a movie a piece of trash. And you know, a lot of people spoke highly of Ike at the funeral, how generous he was, and he would help anybody.

 Little Richard was there and told everybody how Ike lent him some money to save his house. Now, in 2018, Tina Turner told the Sunday Times that as an old person, she has forgiven Ike, but she would never work with him, though. And she said that Ike has asked her if he could to tour with her for one more time, and she told him no. Absolutely no.

 She stated that Ike wasn’t someone you could forgive and allow him back in. You know, um, Ike said at one time that he was offered a movie deal. So, what y’all think about that, a Ike Turner movie about his life? Because this whole thing I just did, this is nothing compared to the book and the research.

 It’s much more info out there on Ike, but a movie would be great. Tina Tina Turner told her side, I think a Turner movie would be crazy. The man is responsible for creating rock and roll. That has to be told. That has to be told. And in 1993, he said uh after Tina had did her movie, he was offered a movie deal, but I guess it never happened.

 But Ike Turner, man, was a legend though, man. as a musician. Like I said, the man invented rock and roll, the first rock and roll song, Rocket 88, and he created one of the greatest singers to ever hit the stage, which is Tina Turner. You have to give Ike Turner credit for what he did in the music industry. And he was a a smart businessman before the drugs took him down, which some say it was given to him a conspiracy to stop him because he was on the road.

 I probably would have took over the world, man. The way he was getting money. 76 years old, y’all. He was 76 years old when he passed. Rest in peace, the icon, Ike Turner.