I'm out of the musical week, but the last song was a pretty soulful, powerful number, so I thought I'd continue that trend with some impressive vocals. I've always wondered why only one of them had a last name is the duo title, but I was mistaken, they both have the last name Turner because they were married. Who knew? (Probably everyone, I just suck.) So Ike was originally in a group called the Kings of Rhythm and met Tina (named Anna Mae Bullock) when she came to one of the shows. Fun Fact: she didn't start with Ike. She actually dated and had a kid with the saxophone player in the band. Her music career came around by him putting her on a track of his after the artist he wrote it for never showed up. He knew she could sing because he'd brought her on stage before then. The studio loved it and convinced him to keep her voice, so Ike dubbed her Tina Turner and the background singers The Ikettes, then trademarked it so she couldn't run off with the name. They became a duo, they started sleeping together (even though Ike said it felt like sleeping with his sister), and they got married (although Ike basically said it didn't count). So far in the story, Ike sounds like a douche. As they got more famous, things got harder for them. Ike started doing cocaine and Tina attempted suicide at least once. Tina won a solo Grammy, then was nominated for a second when both of them were doing solo projects. By 1976, Tina had managed to get herself in a better place mentally by discovering religion, while Ike was so far into his cocaine abuse that he burned a hole through his septum. They were looking into a new record deal that Ike planned to sign, which would tie her to him for another five years, but they got in a huge brawl (best term I can use) which led to her escaping in the night and divorcing him. Ike apparently believes she egged that fight into existence so she could leave him. Honestly though, the more I read about him, the more I think he's full of shit. They fought in the divorce settlement (of course) but in exchange for the stage name, Tina gave up all financial earnings of which there was a shit ton. Both their careers took a hit, and while Ike struggled to make it work around his drug problem, Tina (obviously) made such a comeback that she became a legitimate record breaker. He signed the rights to portray him over to have their life story made into a biopic (he says against his will) and after that his musical contributions were ignored because he was only ever known for the domestic violence he put her through over their whole career.Ike died in 2007.At that point the two hadn't talked in decades and honestly? Fuck him. Manipulative, controlling bastard. I've never really known anything about Tina Turner until I looked up her life story for this and I find I have so much respect for her. I, myself, have never been in an abusive relationship (never been in any relationships, but whatever) but I have lived in a house where domestic violence was an issue when I was in high school. It's a shitty situation and all you can really do is wait for the abused to decided enough is enough, and I'm glad she had the strength to get the fuck out of there eventually. Man, this is a long one... okay well I'll shut up now so you can enjoy the song.
Peace.
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