(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “THE BEST”)
TINA TURNER: (Singing) In your eyes, I get misplaced. I get washed away.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The world of rock ‘n’ roll misplaced its queen yesterday.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “THE BEST”)
TURNER: (Singing) You are merely the very best, higher than all the remainder, higher than anybody, anybody I’ve ever met.
SUMMERS: Tina Turner died at her dwelling in Switzerland on Wednesday. Regardless of the tributes which have poured in since that information broke, regardless of her many years of electrifying performances and chart-toppers and regardless of her alias, queen of rock ‘n’ roll, NPR It is Been A Minute host Brittany Luse says Turner by no means got here wherever near getting the credit score she deserved for shaping a style. Brittany Luse is with me now. Welcome. We’re so glad to have you ever.
BRITTANY LUSE, BYLINE: Thanks a lot for having me. I am completely satisfied to be right here.
SUMMERS: Brittany, I hope you’ll be able to simply begin, if you happen to can, by explaining how somebody that the world is aware of because the queen of rock ‘n’ roll didn’t get the due that she deserved.
LUSE: I imply, look. That is the factor. I am simply taking a cue from Tina. Tina mentioned famously in a late ’90s interview with Mike Wallace from CBS – when he requested her if she felt like she deserved all this, all this which means her lovely life, stuffed with luxurious, stuffed with beloved followers and sold-out excursions, she mentioned, I believe I deserve extra. I deserve extra. And I 100% agree. Tina Turner is an architect of rock ‘n’ roll, and I am simply unsure she’s seen that method. , I believe for many individuals, once they shut their eyes they usually consider a rock star, they image a rock star, they image somebody like Mick Jagger. However Mick Jagger discovered methods to dance, discovered methods to carry out standing within the wings, watching Tina Turner once they toured collectively within the Nineteen Sixties. Tina Turner primarily taught Mick Jagger methods to be Mick Jagger. And I simply really feel like, regardless of all the accolades, I do not know if she actually acquired, in her lifetime, the queen of rock ‘n’ roll remedy because the moniker so goes.
SUMMERS: So I believe we will all agree that there are lots of people who didn’t absolutely recognize Tina Turner for who she was. However you level out that there’s one one that actually does get it proper, and that’s Oprah Winfrey. I simply wish to pay attention for a second to one of many ways in which she talked about Tina Turner.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
OPRAH WINFREY: We’re so in love with Tina. We’re in love with Tina. She is our goddess of rock ‘n’ roll, Tina is.
SUMMERS: Not a queen, a goddess. Say extra, Brittany.
LUSE: Ooh, a goddess. Oprah is 150% proper. Oprah Winfrey is, you already know, bigger than life, and he or she has been for many years. She would not even want to make use of her final title. Everyone knows Oprah as simply, you already know, an entire sentence. However the way in which we act after we see Oprah (laughter) is the way in which Oprah reacts when she sees Tina Turner. And I really like that. I really like that any individual as completed and as recognized and as well-known and as simply large as Oprah is understands the facility of Tina Turner and likewise knew effectively sufficient to name her a goddess.
There are such a lot of lovely moments of Oprah and Tina collectively on numerous Oprah exhibits and in Oprah interviews through the years. Oprah invited Tina Turner to her Legends Ball again in 2005, the unimaginable weekend she hosted at her dwelling for thus many, you already know, Black ladies trailblazers. And, you already know, Oprah, I believe, is any individual who completely confirmed Tina the utmost respect all through her life and actually not simply championed her story however championed her artistry.
I consider one story particularly. I believe Oprah, in some methods, needed to be Tina Turner. For an episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Present,” she received a wig, a Tina wig, made in order that they might form of match. She wore it in that episode. She continued carrying it, although, after that, in lots of different episodes, began carrying it on the weekends, began carrying it to mattress till ultimately Stedman informed her, hate to interrupt it to you, however you are by no means going to be Tina Turner. To me, that form of breathless fandom is the one technique to regard the goddess of rock ‘n’ roll like Tina.
SUMMERS: OK, so we simply heard Oprah speaking about Tina Turner’s Wildest Desires tour. However, I imply, she was such a performer.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TURNER: (Singing) You bought to be mine.
MICK JAGGER: (Singing) ‘Trigger you are so high quality.
TURNER: (Singing) I like your fashion.
JAGGER: (Singing) It makes me wild.
SUMMERS: I imply, that is Tina Turner on the Stay Assist stage in 1985, and he or she was simply electrical. However, Brittany, I perceive that when you concentrate on Tina’s biggest efficiency, you’ve got received a unique reply.
LUSE: Sure, I believe many individuals consider Tina solely as a stage performer, which – I imply, clearly she was probably the greatest to ever do it, however she additionally was electrifying on movie. I am pondering of the 1975 film primarily based on the album The Who’s “Tommy,” the place she performs this character, the Acid Queen.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ACID QUEEN”)
TURNER: (As The Acid Queen, singing) I am the g****, the acid queen. Pay me earlier than I begin. I am the g****. I am assured to tear your soul aside.
LUSE: The Acid Queen has this lengthy solo in the midst of the movie. I imply, Tina’s altering costumes. She’s belting. She’s shaking and quaking together with her entire physique. She’s carrying these tall, I imply, perhaps six-, seven-inch tall, like, lipstick crimson platform heels, and he or she’s giving it her all. I imply, and it is a movie – you bought Roger Daltrey in each scene. You have received, you already know, like – you’ve got received Elton John, you already know, in one of many songs, you already know, additionally performing on this movie at one of many peaks of his fame within the mid ’70s. However in a movie stuffed with rock stars, Tina, to me, stands out because the true supernova.
SUMMERS: I imply, look. There isn’t a query that Tina is gifted and highly effective and was a multi-genre pressure throughout music. However one factor I discover actually attention-grabbing is that I perceive that you simply did not know a lot of Tina Turner’s backstory while you turned a fan. If you first encountered her, you met her as this highly effective and profitable performer, interval. You solely discovered of her backstory, together with the years of abuse that she suffered by the hands of Ike Turner, her ex-husband, later. Do you suppose that altered the lens by way of which you considered her?
LUSE: I completely suppose that that formed my understanding of her. Once I first received to know Tina, I noticed her as a girl who had come already on the opposite aspect. She was one of many greatest stars on the planet to me, and I believe I form of assumed that issues had been all the time that method for her. As I received older and I, you already know, learn her memoirs and likewise, like many individuals, watched the “Tina” documentary that got here out on HBO a pair years in the past, I actually got here to grasp not simply what she survived however how she continued to advocate for herself, maintain area for herself and preserve her peace even, you already know, years after she had escaped her first marriage. , understanding simply how widespread what she survived is, how widespread intimate companion violence and home abuse are, her story has actually simply deepened my appreciation for her not simply as an artist however as a girl, as a human being.
SUMMERS: Brittany Luse of NPR’s It is Been A Minute. Thanks a lot for approaching this journey to recollect Tina Turner with me.
LUSE: Oh, my absolute pleasure. It is the least I may do.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT”)
TURNER: (Singing) Oh, what’s love received to do, received to do with it? What’s love however a secondhand emotion? What’s love received to do, received to do with it? Who wants a coronary heart when a coronary heart could be damaged? What’s love received to do, received to do with it? What’s love however a candy, old style notion? What’s love received to do, received to do with it? Who wants a coronary heart when a coronary heart could be damaged? What’s love received to do, ooh, received to do with it?
Copyright © 2023 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content is probably not in its ultimate type and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability might fluctuate. The authoritative report of NPR’s programming is the audio report.
