Tina Turner (1939–2023)

Growing up in a home filled with music it’s no surprise that I grew up with Tina Turner. With her strong voice and vivacious attitude I always admired her talent, her style, that amazing smile, and those amazing legs! I fell in love with her and her music first but when I saw What’s Love Got To Do With It that admiration went through the roof. What she endured at the hands of Ike was beyond horrifying and I am so thankful that she was able to escape, and just down the street from where I grew up too!

Though I felt like I knew Tina after listening to her music and watching a movie based on her life, it wasn’t until I was able to listen to My Love Story on audiobook that I truly feel that connection on a deep, visceral level. I loved that this was Tina telling her story. There is no better authority of a tale than ones own voice and though I know the narrator’s voice did not sound like Tina’s I still felt like it was her speaking much of the time. The narrator’s inflection and overall vibe while telling Tina’s story was spot on, so I must give a huge shoutout to the narrator.

When I pressed play I pretty much didn’t stop until I had listened to the entire story in one day. I felt a sense of nostalgia when Tina talked about her various collaborations with 80’s rockers as the music landscape during that time was a huge part of my childhood. In many ways I feel like I grew up with Tina Turner and her going back in time also sent me back in time. I am thankful that she didn’t overly embellish when she was talking about her years with Ike, but listening to what she went through was still so incredibly hard to hear. She was such a strong and loving woman and it hurt so much to hear about everything she had to endure.

I wish Tina didn’t have to have such a hard life but I am so grateful that her last years were filled with love and everything her heart desired. I cried when I heard that she had passed away like I had lost a dear friend. She will be forever missed as I don’t think there will ever be another like her. I am thankful that she poured her heart out on these pages and I am glad I finally got a chance to hear it.… (meer)

From her early years in Nutbush, Tennessee to her rise to fame alongside Ike Turner to her phenomenal success in the 1980s and beyond, Tina candidly examines her personal history, from her darkest hours to her happiest moments and everything in between. My Love Story is an explosive and inspiring story.

From her early years in Nutbush, Tennessee to her rise to fame alongside Ike Turner to her phenomenal success in the 1980s and beyond, Tina candidly examines her personal history, from her darkest hours to her happiest moments and everything in between. My Love Story is an explosive and inspiring story.

Tina Turner, the long-reigning queen of rock n' roll and living legend, sets the record straight about her illustrious career and complicated personal life in this eye-opening and compelling memoir. From her early years in Nutbush, Tennessee to her rise to fame alongside Ike Turner to her phenomenal success in the 1980s and beyond, Tina candidly examines her personal history, from her darkest hours to her happiest moments and everything in between. “My Love Story” is an explosive and inspiring story.

Even though the chapters were read by Heather Alicia Simms. I could hear Turners voice and her honest thoughts, emotions, feelings in her own words. Singing was both a form of expression and a source of comfort for Mrs. Turner, which exemplifies why she was so good at her craft. Ike Turner nicknamed “Pistol Whippin’” was an angry and unpredictable man with an infamous dark side. Like Tina, many of Ike’s struggles began at birth. When he was a boy, he watched his father die a slow, painful death. When he was older, he had a hard time at school. he was embarrassed about his lack of education and his poor manners. Success would be his revenge. Ike Turner was verbally abusive, then became physically abusive and controlling. Their relationship was defined by abuse and fear, no love or affection, and stifling of her creativity. She described sex with Ike had become an expression of hostility. Eventually, Ike turned to drugs and alcohol and formed an addiction, habit.

Often times while on the road touring in the southern states, the revue had to deal with racial tensions, and blatant discrimination. In the music industry there was rejection from the US when their music was widely accepted in the UK, such as “River Deep-Mountain High” written by Phil Spector in 1966. Which ultimately led to Tina’s love for the UK, and an intro into psychics, readers, and later turning to Buddhism, meditation prayer, and cleaning was a form of therapy. Later as Ms. Turner resided in Europe, and had homes in England, Germany, France, and Switzerland.

Tina was amongst celebrities, such as Jaqueline Onassis Kennedy, her idol, Sammy Davis Jr, whom bought her first Jaguar,
Ann-Margret Olsson, a fan of Tina Turner, Cher after she divorced Sonny and appeared on her show as a solo artist, Bob Mackie, the fashion designer who designed her costumes.

Her meeting with Erwin Bach, her future husband was magical, love-at-first-sight. She was free to love and love she did, with Erwin.

Turner was a caring, nurturing, and optimistic woman who created lifetime friendships while endured the worst of times and found a love story all her own, by
enjoying artistic freedom and commercial success. I saw her as a beautiful woman, young and aged, who radiated beauty, class, talent, and happiness while gracing the cover of magazines, such as Vogue. She will always be my idol!

I thought the co-authors and Tina Turner did a wonderful job with the writing of this book, I was very surprised to see all the pictures from within the book also at the end of the ebook with explanations and index references that you can click on to take you back to those subjects within the book. I bounced back and forth between audio (which was well done by the narrator) and the ebook.… (meer)

Ich habe neulich eine wunderschöne Aufnahme vom Zürich See gemacht und dabei unvergleichliche Sinneseindrücke erfahren, auch in der Nachbetrachtung. Der lang dahin glitzernde See, die Schweizer Berge, Frühlingsgefühle, zarte Luft und echtes Glück, selten habe ich etwas Schöneres gesehen. Dass dabei Tina Turner den gleichen Ausblick hat, diese Urgewalt des Singens, die ich immer bewunderte, nie hätte ich daran gedacht. Aus dem Buch erfuhr ich, dass sie dort lebt und diese Gegend besonders schätzt.

Das Buch umkreist ihr ganzes Leben und fügt sich zur Acht, die sie vor ihrem Lebensalter führt. In vielen Kulturen Asiens gilt die Zahl 8 als verheißungsvoll, da sie Glück, Öffnung und Wachstum symbolisiert. Die Lotusblume hat 8 Blütenblätter…Grund genug um genau jetzt die Erfüllung, das umfassende Wohlbefinden zu spüren: „Die Schönheit, die ich am meisten will, ist schwer zu erhalten und kommt von innen: Stärke, Mut, Würde.“ (Ruby Dee)

Das Buch mit eingestreuten Zitaten von Freunden ist wunderschön gestaltet, eine Reise mit Tina Turner zu einem selbst, ein starkes Motivationsbuch, das mir viele Anregungen und Ermutigungen gab. Als nicht gewolltes Kind hin und her geschubst, keine echte Heimat und doch liebevolle Bezugspersonen, im Amerika der 40er war das Leben nicht einfach und später, mit Ike wurde es noch komplizierter.… (meer)