Social media lit up yesterday when news of Tina Turner’s death was announced, especially in this city, with which the singer had a specially affinity. Her passing made for many moving testimonials to the power of her music and the personal depths it plumbed in her fans’ hearts. And with so few details given, what could one do but look back at her place in history? As the New York Times reported, the R&B and pop superstar “died on Wednesday at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland, near Zurich. She was 83. Her publicist Bernard Doherty announced the death in a statement but did not provide the cause. She had a stroke in recent years and was known to be struggling with a kidney disease and other illnesses.”
The Memphis Flyer recently had an opportunity to hear some of that history straight from Turner herself, when she responded to questions on the occasion of the Memphis premiere of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical earlier this year. The show, written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Katori Hall, portrays Turner’s life with unprecedented veracity, and the premiere offered the singer a chance to look back at some of her less well-known ties to Memphis — and Clarksdale, Mississippi native Raymond Hill, with whom she had her first child. The Flyer, having already delved into Hill’s importance in the local R&B and blues scene, turned out to be a perfect vehicle for conveying the singer’s thoughts about this region. Below, in loving memory of the soulful firebrand who shook the music industry to its roots, we reprint our full email interview with Tina Turner from this February.
Memphis Flyer: Growing up in Nutbush, Tennessee, what did Memphis represent to you? Were you aware of the radio and records coming out of Memphis at the time?
Tina Turner: Memphis seemed another world away when I was growing up in Nutbush. Our town was so small and the access to the records coming out of Memphis was just from the radio. My life in Nutbush was very focused on my family, and the church and I suppose that was the music that I remember and how I started to sing. It wasn’t until I moved to St Louis that I started to be more aware of the Memphis music through the local R&B scene.
In the song “Rocket 88,” Jackie Brentson yells “Blow your horn, Raymond!” Ethnomusicologist David Evans has called Raymond Hill “an unsung hero of Black music.” Was this a significant relationship in your life? How do you feel about seeing that romance portrayed in the musical’s plot?
My relationship with Raymond was a very significant relationship in my life especially because of my son Craig. Raymond and I met when I was very young, and I had just started working with Ike when our romance began. Raymond had so many years of experience and I feel calling him an unsung hero of Black music is very true. I was very happy that the relationship has found its moment in the musical.
Was the fact that Katori Hall is from Tennessee important to you? Did you feel she could better relate to your upbringing because of that? How did that play out in specific scenes from the musical?
From the minute I met Katori I felt she was the right person to tell this story. We talked so much about growing up in Tennessee and our families’ experiences. Katori understood immediately what it took for me to get to where I did, given where I started. The odds I had to overcome time and again.
Some great Memphis soul songs are featured in the musical, from “I Can’t Stand the Rain” to “Let’s Stay Together.” Has the Memphis sound spoken to you over the years, and does the premiere of Tina: The Musical in Memphis take on extra meaning because of it?
So many forms of music have their roots in Memphis, and my life and career has circled the city so many times. To bring my show to Memphis has huge meaning to me. If you had told me all those years ago as a small child picking cotton in Nutbush that this would happen … I definitely wouldn’t have believed you, and thought you were telling me a fairytale! It does feel almost like a full circle, to be returning home and to be able to tell my story in such an amazing way; through performance including all my music. How special and how lucky am I. I feel very blessed that I have this opportunity
What is the most powerful moment of the musical for you? Did it lead to any epiphanies about your life, to see it portrayed that way?
Before Tina: The Musical opened in London, my producer Tali [Tali Pelman, the musical’s producer] snuck me into a preview performance. I sat on an aisle, watching the show, and no one ever knew I was there. Later in my hotel room, I turned to Tali and told her that they found the love. That I wished my mother and Ike would have been able to see the show. I remember she teared up. In this way I do feel the musical, though it brought up many painful memories again, also helped me gain acceptance and harmony of the highs and the lows.
