Anna-Mae Bullock was born to sharecroppers in rural Tennessee. Against all odds, she grew up to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (twice) as Tina Turner, a name foisted on her by a man who captivated her until she felt like his captive. Her story is irresistible; a rags-to-riches arc complete with a triumphant happy ending and fairy-tale wedding to her longtime boyfriend, Erwin Bach, in 2013. It delivers what the public wants from victim narratives, but there’s another lesson here about the way we face abuse and fight back personally and collectively, and about the ways radical truth-telling can fundamentally alter the legacies of trauma in individuals’ lives.
Her story is irresistible; a rags-to-riches arc complete with a triumphant happy.
The singer, who died this week at the age of 83, met her first husband, Ike Turner, in 1956. Their personal and professional relationship would last for close to two decades. In public, they were a showstopping dynamic duo, but the singer said a horror show unfolded behind closed doors. Ike, who died in 2007, always deflected and refuted his ex-wife’s allegations, but Tina Turner spent the second half of her life and career detailing the staggering abuse — physical, sexual, verbal and financial — she said she endured before clawing her way out of the relationship.
During one candid interview with the BBC in 2018, Turner described a desperate suicide attempt just four years into their marriage. She said she couldn’t see it then, but that the way to leave was through the front door. And that’s eventually what she did, with very little money or a career of her own.
From that low point, the middle-aged Turner would launch one of the most impressive comebacks in the entertainment industry, becoming the first Black female solo act to pack stadiums. Eventually, Rolling Stone magazine included her as one of its “100 Greatest Artists of All Time,” alongside the likes of Bob Dylan and Diana Ross and The Supremes.
As…
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