• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Lieff Ink

TELL YOUR STORY

  • About
  • Services
    • Writing • Editing
    • PR
    • Writing Tutor
  • Words
  • Press
  • Blog
  • Clients
    • Client List
    • Testimonials
  • Contact
  • Book
    • Accolades
    • Reviews

Tina Turner: My Love Story

August 4, 2023

When people think of Tina Turner, they probably hear her rumbling, raspy voice and visualize her spangly dresses and long legs. They might think of her notoriously abusive relationship with Ike Turner and how she launched a solo career in her 40s. What people (including me) may not know are small details such as she was born Anna Mae Bullock in a town called Nutbush, Tennessee. While the bulk of 2018’s Tina Turner: My Love Story tells Tina’s life story, it is bookended by her loving relationship with Erwin Bach, as well as, unfortunately, her illnesses that resulted in needing a kidney transplant later in life.

In terms of music, Tina Turner is a rock and roll legend. She sold more than 100 million records worldwide, earned 12 Grammys (including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award ), and was the first Black artist and first woman to grace the cover of Rolling Stone. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice – with Ike in 1991 and as a solo artist in 2021. She was also a 2005 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and Women of the Year award.

When Tina describes going from a very sad childhood to meeting Ike Tuner, who we all know abused her beyond comprehension, it’s hard to read but also fascinating because she exemplifies undeniable strength and courage. Ike was so controlling that he even registered a trademark on the name “Tina Turner” so he owned it and her. It’s awful. A major theme in Tina Turner is that by the time she escaped Ike (which took 14 years and a lot of guts) her career was so tied to him she had to start again. As a result, people thought of her as an “overnight sensation” when it was really just her second act. It’s interesting that as she became a successful solo performer – a designation that was long overdue – she heard from Ike less and less. After “What’s Love Got To Do With It” hit number one on the charts, she never heard from Ike again. “Not a single word up to the day he died on December 12, 2007” which clearly was when she finally got some peace.

Another major theme is a lifetime of feeling unloved which is horrible, and clearly informed her life, but is also one of the reasons we root for her. “I wanted to be loved. Childhood – never loved. Past relationships – never loved. My whole life – never really loved. More than anything, I needed to feel that Erwin loved me.” My heart hurts for her and I’m glad she experienced a love story before passed away in May of this year.

Although Tina is no longer alive, her then-current happiness and hopefulness bleeds through. Her writing is conversational – like she’s explaining her life to a friend rather than writing a biography: “How exciting it was to have people sing along with me when I performed…onstage.” That being said, for someone who wrote very few of her own songs, she definitely had a lot of help from co-authors Deborah Davis and Dominik Wichmann.

An aspect of the book that wasn’t my favorite was how her sons seemed to be a bit of an afterthought. When she and Ike were on tour, the kids were looked after but the affection with which mothers usually talk about their kids is not there and it makes me sad. This story clearly isn’t about them. “As for my sons, well, they’re adults with their own lives, and I’m only a call or plane trip away.” But she is grateful for her success as a singer and the barriers she had no choice but to bust open as a Black female rock and roll singer in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

Fun Facts + Stories:

  • Tina had an interesting relationship with Mick Jagger. In the book she claims that she and her dancers taught him the Pony and other dance steps but apparently Jagger credits his mother. There’s also a bizarre story about him pulling off Tina’s leather miniskirt at Live Aid as some kind of risqué act that I still don’t fully understand.
  • The now legendary beginning of “Proud Mary” was improvised.
  • “Physical,” the song made famous by Olivia Newton-John, was initially offered to Tina but she passed on it.
  • David Bowie got Tina back on the world’s radar when he told record label EMI/Capitol that he was going to see his favorite singer – Tina Turner – in concert. In addition to Bowie, Rod Stewart and Keith Richards were in the audience. In the book, Tina describes that night as a “rock ’n roll dream.”
  • She was always bigger in Europe than in the United States – and then Private Dancer propelled her to worldwide stardom.
  • Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits wrote the song “Private Dancer” and gave it to her.
  • She can’t swim.

Quotes:

“I also felt my chains lifting when I started paying attention to matters of the spirit and the soul.”

“My longest love affair has been with my audience.”

“I’m in a different place now, literally and figuratively – a different seat, and a different state of mind.”

Laura

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Blog Archive

  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010

Footer

Laura Lieff was named Colorado Mountain College’s 2017-2018 Part Time Staff Member of the Year for her work as a writing tutor and teaching assistant.
Laura Lieff was named Colorado Mountain College’s 2017-2018 Part Time Staff Member of the Year for her work as a writing tutor and teaching assistant.

Work With Me

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
lieff-ink-logo_updated-2
  • About
  • Services
  • Words
  • Blog
  • Client List
  • Contact

Copyright © 2025 · PO Box 1228 Edwards CO 81632 · info@lauralieff.com