Ike's Turner Causes Mixed Reactions Among Exes
Skee OuiZy
From: Susan Bishop <sus...@gmail.com>
Date: Dec 14, 2007 5:13 PM
Subject: [THE-VINE] IKE TURNER'S DEATH CAUSES MIXED REACTIONS AMONG EXES: Tina says 'no comment'; Jeanette suggests 'forgiveness.'
To: The Vine the-...@yahoogroups.com
Ike Turner's Death Causes Mixed Reactions Among Exes:
Tina says 'no comment'; Jeanette suggests 'forgiveness.' Plus record exec Don Graham reflects.
*It was widely reported yesterday that Tina Turner, who suffered years of harsh physical and emotional abuse from Ike Turner during their volatile marriage, had nothing to say regarding her ex-husband's death on Wednesday at age 76.
The official statement from her camp read: "Tina hasn't had any contact with Ike in more than 30 years. No further comment will be made."
The brusque response didn't sit well with another of Turner's ex-wives.
"I know that Ike was hurt, and I know that she was hurt. But there's something called forgiveness," says Jeanette Bazzell Turner, a former member of his background troupe The Ikettes who married the musician in 1995. "And I know Ike really forgave himself, which is really hard to do."
In an EURweb exclusive, Jeanette Turner suggests that she was also hit by Ike during their marriage.
"I'm not defending what he did. I'm not saying he didn't do what he did when he was with [Tina], or me," she told EUR's Lee Bailey. "But he was a human being. And behind all of that, he's still a child-like person – pure and a good person always willing to help people."
After a pause, she said with a chuckle: "He was an asshole too, but, you know, he did it his way. That's all I can say about that."
Although an official cause of death has not been released, Jeanette Turner says Ike suffered from emphysema. We were also told that the artist was surrounded by members of his band and his sons when he died.
"He was a human being, and he helped Tina. And he helped a lot of people," said Turner, who had four children with Ike: Ike Jr., Michael, Ronald and Mia.
(For more from Jeanette Turner, scroll down to HEAR our exclusive interview with her.)
"He had a family," remembers Don Graham, the head of Turner's former label, Blue Thumb. "He took care of Ikette's kids, their relatives – I mean everybody hit on Ike and he quietly took care of them. It must've been 16 to 18 to 20 [people he took care of]."
"He was a special friend. I really respected and honored him," Graham continued. "He was a perfectionist. I think a lot of the bad blood people saw between he and Tina was the result of his short wick and impatience for perfection. He was always trying to get it right, and when he got it right, he went nuts. It's a big loss, not only to the music and entertainment world, but as a human being."
Graham, who toured across country with Ike and Tina in 1969 to promote their Blue Thumb hit "I've Been Loving You Too Long," suggests that people pick up the late performer's 2001 autobiography "Takin' Back My Name," which was written in response to his unfavorable portrayal in the 1993 film "What's Love Got to Do With It" based on Tina's autobiography, "I Tina."
"He takes you from when he grew up, to the streets of New York, to L.A. It's really well done," Graham says of the publication. "Get the book, because now is the time to read the book before we put him away as some kind of a monster. He was not a monster."
*Ike Turner's ex-wife Jeanette Turner reflects on the late musician's public perception since he was exposed as an abusive husband in Tina Turner's autobiography "I, Tina" and 1993 film "What's Love Got To Do With It," which was based on the book. Jeanette says: "I know that "What's Love Got To Do With It" portrays him as being a wife beater and a womanizer. I'm not saying that Ike was the perfect person. But what husband is?" Jeanette also says the film studio behind the movie tricked her ex-husband into signing over the rights for his name to be used. She says: "He didn't know what he was doing at the time and they knew it, too, because he was on drugs." Hear Jeanette's full conversation with EUR's Lee Bailey here