Ike Turner, former St. Louis resident and a founding father of rock music, passed away yesterday (Dec. 12, 2007) at his home in suburban San Diego.
There was no immediate word on the cause of death. He was 76.
It was right here in St. Louis that Turner laid the foundation for his career, which included a chance meeting with Annie Mae Bullock, who would later become international music icon Tina Turner.
He was born Izear Luster Turner Jr. on November 5, 1931, in Clarksdale, MS,.
Turner formed his first band while still in high school and by the late ’40s had assembled an outfit dubbed the Kings of Rhythm.
During the mid-’50s, he moved the Kings of Rhythm to East St. Louis, where they rose to the top of the local R&B circuit. He met Anna Mae Bullock in 1956. She and Turner married in 1958.
Renamed Tina, Turner’s new wife got her first chance to sing lead on a recording in late 1959, cutting “A Fool in Love” for the Sue label. The couple worked the music industry together for nearly two decades until she left him in 1975.
Turner’s contributions to the music industry were often diluted by the negative perceptions of him as a wife-beater. Domestic abuse claims against him were immortalized in the I, Tina autobiography and movie adaptation What’s Love Got To Do With It.
Turner fell upon hard times and was even imprisoned when he and Tina were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.
Turner managed to make something of a comeback before his life’s end. He toured around the globe with his band the Kings of Rhythm and drew critical acclaim for his work. in 2001 he released a new album, Here and Now, which was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Traditional Blues Album category.
In 2007, Turner won a Grammy in 2007 in the traditional blues album category for Risin’ With the Blues.