At the end of my super FUN gig today at Rossmoor with Joe Lococo and Doug Rowan to a full house of happy campers which I will post about later, a lovely woman approached me to share the sad news about the passing of one of the most iconic artists of any generation, TINA TURNER...
I love TINA TURNER beyond measure....her triumph over adversity in every way humanly possible...NEVER giving up...achieving every dream, including finding true love for the first time, long after everyone else said it couldn't be done...that fierce, singular voice that could redefine the phone book, that unstoppable drive, that unassuageable spirit, time and time and time again...
I had the pleasure of meeting Tina twice: once in 1984 when I was singing background for LA recording artist/actress Tuesday Knight ...Tuesday's guitar player/producer Paul Warren was playing in Tina's touring band on the Private Dancer tour...one of the most spectacular concerts I have ever attended. Paul brought us backstage to meet Tina and she was lovely and gracious to us. It was such a honor and thrill to meet one of my superheroes.
But the time I will hold closest to my heart was when I was hired to be a cater waitress at Tina's mother's house for her mom's birthday pool party. There were only two of us working that day, it was a relatively intimate gathering. I worked a lot of "celebrity parties" over the years in LA/NYC/Nashville and was generally treated like "the help". Tina treated us like family members, and introducing us to everyone and offered us birthday cake. I will never forget her kindness. There was no separation between us. The true definition of a class act.
Watching the HBO documentary in 2021, my heart broke for Tina during the many years of abuse and shame. I won't mention his name because Tina is done talking about him and that time in her life and I want to respect her wishes. And the fact that "River Deep Mountain High" died on the vine when it should have defined her career for a lifetime.
When Tina walked across that freeway and took her life back, I began to cheer her on throughout the rest of the doc. And when she hit #1 with "What's Love Got to Do With It" and filled those stadiums, I was literally on my feet shouting "Whoo HOO! You GO, Tina!!"
I was a part of that time in her life. I remember where I was.
When she gave that interview to Kurt Loeder from Rolling Stone for her book and described how she had never experienced true love in her entire life and began to weep, I cried right along with her. And when she finally found it with her now husband Erwin Bach at age 50, I rejoiced with her. Real tears flowed when he said this on camera toward the end of the doc, “It’s love, it’s something we both have for each other. I always refer to it as an electrical charge. I still have it. I still have it even though when I left her two hours ago, three hours ago, this morning, I still have that feeling. That feeling is still with me. It’s in my heart. I feel very warm about this.”
If ever a human being deserves every moment she has achieved in a lifetime, it's Tina Turner. And THAT's "What's Love Got To Do With it".
Rest in POWER, TINA TURNER. There will NEVER be another. Simply the BEST.