Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Tina Turner was the queen of strength. You could hear it in that gritty, gravelly, powerful, soulful voice. When she sang, she sang. Tina was bold. Tina was audacious. She had swagger, and it came through loud and clear in her voice. You know the way Black folks talk about “sanging”? They were talking about Tina Turner, who died Wednesday at age 83. When you’re sanging, you’re giving us that bluesy, soulful sound that makes us feel the music in our spirit. That’s what Tina was all about. My friend, the rock writer Kurt Loder, co-wrote Tina’s memoir “I, Tina.” He said her voice, “combined the emotional force of the great blues singers with a sheer, wallpaper-peeling power that seemed made to order for the age of amplification.”
But in the ’60s and ’70s, as Turner’s star was rising, she was battling a monster. Her husband, Ike Turner — her musical partner, the man who helped make her a star — was beating her. Ike Turner was physically and verbally abusive and he was open about it: In 1985, he told Spin Magazine, “Yeah, I hit her, but I didn’t hit her more than the average guy beats his wife.”
In 1978, she left him. That was a time when it was hard for women to leave their husbands, but Turner knew she had to go no matter what it cost. She struggled for years and came to be thought of as a…
Read the full article here
