Tina Turner was an American-born and naturalized Swiss[a] singer, songwriter, dancer, actor, and novelist born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, and died on May 24, 2023. She became well-known as the lead vocalist of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue before beginning a lucrative solo career, earning her the title “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll” in the process.
In the 1950s, Tina Turner and musician Ike Turner started touring together. The Ike and Tina Turner Revue gained notoriety for their live performances and recordings, including the top-five song “Proud Mary,” up to Tina’s departure in the 1970s due to years of domestic violence. Turner had a sluggish start to her solo career before her 1984 album Private Dancer brought her enormous acclaim. She continued producing successful albums and songs that reached the top of the charts and was twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Later, the celebrated singer—who has won eight Grammys—became part of the ethereal Beyond project.
Summary of Tina Turner’s Biography:
| Attribute | Information |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Born – Anna Mae Bullock, Now (Tina Turner) |
| Birth Place | Brownsville, Tennessee, U.S |
| Date of Birth | November 26, 1939 |
| Age | 83 Years |
| Died | May 24, 2023 |
| Death Place | Küsnacht, Switzerland |
| Parents Name | Floyd Richard Bullock, Zelma Priscilla (Née Currie) |
| Siblings | Evelyn Juanita Currie & Ruby Alline Bullock |
| Education | Sumner High School |
| Nationality | Born American naturalized Swiss |
| Ethnicity | Mixed |
| Gender | Female |
| Married Status | Married |
| Spouse Name | Ike Turner (1962-1978), Erwin Bach (m. 2013) |
| Zodiac Sign | Sagittarius |
| Hair Color | Dark Brown |
| Children | Raymond Craig, Ike Jr., Michael, & Ronald “Ronnie” Renelle Turner |
| Profession | Musician |
| Famous For | Ex-Wife of Ike Turner |
| Famous For | Daughter of Ike Turner |
| Social Media | N/A |
| Net Worth | N/A |
Early Life:
On November 26, 1939, in Brownsville, Tennessee, Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock. She is the youngest child of Floyd Richard Bullock and his wife, Zelma Priscilla (née Currie). Her father was a sharecropper supervisor at Poindexter Farm on Highway 180, and the family resided in the neighboring rural, unincorporated village of Nutbush, Tennessee. She subsequently recounted harvesting cotton with her family as a little child. He disclosed her genealogy DNA test results and mapped out her family history when she participated in the PBS program African American Lives 2 with Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Evelyn Juanita Currie and Ruby Alline Bullock, a composer, were two of Bullock’s older sisters. Additionally, she was Eugene Bridges’ first cousin once removed. When their parents moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, to work at a defense installation during World War II, the three sisters were split up when they were young. Bullock traveled to the home of her strict, devout paternal grandparents, deacon Alex Bullock and Deaconess Roxanna Bullock, who were Woodlawn Missionary Baptist Church members. Following the war, the sisters relocated to Knoxville with their parents. Bullock attended Flagg Grove Elementary School from first through eighth grade. Two years later, the family moved back to Nutbush to live in the Flagg Grove neighborhood.
Bullock moved home with her mother in St. Louis when she was 16 years old after her grandmother’s death. In 1958, she earned her high school diploma from Sumner High School. After graduating, Bullock worked at Barnes-Jewish Hospital as a nurse’s assistant.
First Marriage to Ike Turner:
Ike and Tina got hitched in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1962 as their fame grew. Ronnie was the son that they had before getting married. In total, they had four kids together: Ronnie, their only child together, Ike Jr., Michael, and Craig. When Tina was 18, she became pregnant with Craig with Kings of Rhythm musician Raymond Hill. Ike adopted Craig, and Tina adopted Ike Jr. and Michael, two of Ike’s kids from a previous marriage.
After a confrontation in Dallas during which Tina retaliated, the pair, by the mid-1970s, had ended their relationship personally and professionally, according to her subsequent memoir. They were legally separated in 1978, with Tina noting Ike’s ongoing affairs and escalating drug and alcohol problems.
Tina’s solo career started slowly in the years after her divorce. When she left Ike, Tina claimed she only had “36 cents and a gas station credit card.” She used food stamps and housecleaning jobs to care for her kids and make ends meet. Despite first finding little success, she performed in less well-known places and appeared as a guest on other artists’ CDs.
Second Marriage to Erwin Bach:
Erwin Bach, a German music entrepreneur, met Turner in 1986 at Düsseldorf Airport after being brought there by her European record label, EMI. Erwin Bach was her junior by more than sixteen years. They started as pals before dating later that year. They walked down the aisle in a civil ceremony on the shores of Lake Zurich in Küsnacht, Switzerland, in July 2013 after 27 years of dating.
Children:
Turner has two biological sons: Ronald “Ronnie” Renelle Turner, who was born on October 27, 1960, and Raymond Craig, who was born on August 20, 1958, with Kings of Rhythm saxophonist Raymond Hill. She also raised Ike Jr. and Michael, two of Ike Turner’s children, as her own. Turner gave birth to her oldest son when she was 18 years old. Raymond Craig Hill was adopted by Ike Turner, who gave him the new name of Craig Raymond Turner. Ike sent his four boys to live with Turner throughout the divorce proceeding and provided her money to cover one month’s rent. In July 2018, Craig was discovered dead after a possible suicide.
Ronnie Turner, the younger son of Turner, was a bass player in the Manufactured Funk band, including musician and songwriter Patrick Moten. Ronnie also performed in the bands of both of his parents. Turner had two grandkids via him. Afida Turner, a French singer, was his wife. In December 2022, Ronnie passed away due to complications from colon cancer.
Tina Turner Professional Career:
In 1957, Turner made her professional debut with Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm. She made her recording debut in 1958 on “Boxtop” under the stage name Little Ann. With the number-one duet “A Fool in Love” in 1960, she made her solo debut as Tina Turner. Ike & Tina Turner became “one of history’s most formidable live acts.” Before breaking up in 1976, they had singles, including “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine,” “River Deep – Mountain High,” “Proud Mary,” and “Nutbush City Limits.”
Turner began “one of the greatest comebacks in music history” in the 1980s. The smash song “What’s Love Got to Do with It” from her multi-platinum album Private Dancer from 1984 received the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became her sole single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. She was the oldest female solo artist to reach the top of the Hot 100 at age 44. Her chart success continued with “Better Be Good to Me,” “Private Dancer,” “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome),” “Typical Male,” “The Best,” “I Don’t Wanna Fight” and “GoldenEye.” She established a then-Guinness World Record for the largest paying crowd for a solo performer (180,000) during her Break Every Rule World Tour in 1988.
Additionally, Turner appeared in the movies Tommy (1975) and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). A biographical movie based on her memoirs I, Tina: My Life Story, What’s Love Got to Do with It, was released in 1993. After finishing her Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour, the 15th-highest-grossing tour of the 2000s, Turner announced her retirement in 2009. She was the focus of the Tina jukebox musical in 2018.
Turner is among the best-selling music artists of all time, with over 100 million albums sold globally. She was given Twelve Grammy trophies, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, three Grammy Hall of Fame Awards, and eight trophies given in competition. She was the first woman and black artist on the Rolling Stone cover. She was among the 100 Greatest Artists and 100 Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone. Turner was honored with stars on the Hollywood and St. Louis Walks of Fame. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice: first in 1991 with Ike Turner and once in 2021 as a solo performer. She was also a 2005 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and Women of the Year award.
Residences and citizenship:
In 1994, Turner moved into Château Algonquin in Küsnacht, a town on the coast of Lake Zurich. Turner once had homes in Cologne, London, and Los Angeles, as well as the Anna Fleur estate on the French Riviera.
Turner declared she would give up her American citizenship when she filed for Swiss citizenship in 2013. She took the citizenship test in April, which required advanced proficiency in Swiss history and German (the canton of Zürich’s official language). She received a Swiss passport and became a citizen of Switzerland on April 22, 2013. On October 24, 2013, Turner formally renounced her American citizenship at the American consulate in Bern.
Tina Turner’s Illness & Death:
Turner acknowledged having many life-threatening diseases in her 2018 memoir My Love Story. She had a stroke in 2013, three weeks after being married to Erwin Bach, and had to retrain her legs to walk. She was given an intestinal cancer diagnosis in 2016. Turner decided to treat her high blood pressure with homeopathic medications. Her kidneys were harmed and eventually failed due to uncontrolled high blood pressure. She was advised to begin dialysis because the likelihood of her acquiring a kidney was slim. She joined Exit and pondered assisted suicide, but Bach offered to give her a kidney for her transplant. On April 7, 2017, Turner had kidney transplant surgery.
Turner passed away in Küsnacht, Switzerland, on May 24, 2023, at 83, after a protracted illness that included cancer, strokes, and renal failure in her latter years.
