MASTHEAD

GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

Before the public eye Tina's personal life and marriage had began to deteriorate as Ike's drug use led to increasingly erratic and severe physical abuse.  Ike's refusal to accept help led to a decline in their work and record sales.  Despite Tina's successful big-screen appearance in The Who's rock opera, Tommy (she was the Acid Queen), Ike placed the blame on her for the Revue's decline.  After a final vicious beating right before they were due to appear in Dallas over the Fourth of July, 1976, Tina abruptly left Ike.  She started her life  over with thirty-six cents and a gas-station credit card.  Tina hid with various friends, relied on food stamps and finalized her divorce 2 years later.  Tina left her 18 year marriage with no money or property, asking for and retaining only the use of the stage name Ike had given her.  Tina also took on responsibility for the huge debts incurred by the cancelled tour, as well as a significant IRS lien.  In her autobiography I, Tina, which was later made into the film What's Love Got to Do with It; Tina credited her Buddhist faith with giving her the courage to strike out on her own.  Tina supplemented her income with a lounge act and TV appearances on The Hollywood Squares; The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and even the The Brady Bunch.  Tina's solo comeback in the mid-1980s propelled her to become the most successful female rock-artist of all time, selling more concert tickets than any other female performer in history - with record sales at 100 million.  --MORE--
 

Tina Turner, eight-time Grammy winner singer\actress was born of African American, Navajo, and Cherokee ancestry in Nutbush, Tennessee.  At 16, Tina moved to St. Louis and at 18 Tina was singing with Ike Turner.  By 21 Ike & Tina were married with four children in her care.  Throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, Ike & Tina rose to superstardom. As times and musical styles changed, Tina was flexible enough to change.