Ike Turner Has Died, "Beats" Tina To Death
Ike Turner is dead. He died on Wednesday at his home near San Diego aged 76.
He was best known for ex wife’s Tina Turners claims that he regularly abused and beat her for almost two decades. Leaving his musical career overshadowed by an image of a brutal and violent man.
The one time disc jockey shot to fame and arguable “invented” the rock ‘n’ roll genre in 1951 with his song “Rocket 88“.
He shot to fame in the 1960s and 1970s alongside wife Tina Turner and the couple enjoyed great success with hits like “Proud Mary” and “River Deep Mountain High”.
In February this year he won his first Grammy in 35 years for an acclaimed blue album.
The other side, the violent and dark parts of Ike the entertainer was well known to ex-wife and rock singer Tina Turner as well as Rolling Stone guitarist Keith Richards who said he “saw him pistol-whip a fellow musician.
“Ike acted like a goddamned pimp,” Richards told Vanity Fair in 1993.
Tina Turner’s memoir, “I, Tina,” and a 1993 biopic “What’s Love Got to Do With It” turned Ike Turner into one of the most notorious villains in the music industry.
The singer said her ex-husband regularly abused and humiliated her for 16 years, and drove her to attempt suicide in 1968. He cracked her ribs, threw hot coffee in her face, burnt her with a cigarette and punched her in the nose so often she had to have surgery.
Ike denied most of these allegations and said in 1993
“I only punched her with my fist once. I have slapped her, and the times where I slapped her were when she was looking sad.”
Tina Turner is aware of Ike’s passing, has not had any contact with him in over 30 years and is refusing to make any further comments. Noone can really blame her.
Ought we to forgive Ike Turner?
In 2001 Farah Griffin wrote a column on the subject of his violent past:
“The question isn’t whether Mr. Turner owes us an apology; he owes that to Ms. Turner. And only she can truly forgive him.â€
We also noticed the New York Post’s headline on Ike urner’s passing and we do not think it’s in any way smart or funny:
Ike dead at 76 [Reuters]