IKE TURNER - Izear Luster "Ike" Turner Jr. was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, record producer, and talent scout. An early pioneer of 1950s rock and roll, he is best known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s with his then-wife Tina Turner as the leader of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.
A native of Clarksdale, Mississippi, Turner began playing piano and guitar as a child and then formed the Kings of Rhythm as a teenager. His first recording, "Rocket 88" (credited to Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats), is considered a contender for the distinction of first rock and roll song. During the 1950s, Turner also worked as a talent scout and producer for Sun Records and Modern Records. He was instrumental in the early careers of various blues musicians such as B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, and Bobby "Blue" Bland. In 1954, Turner relocated to East St. Louis where his Kings of Rhythm became one of the most renowned acts in greater St. Louis. He later formed the Ike & Tina Turner Revue in 1960, which over the course of the decade became a soul/rock crossover success.
Turner's cocaine addiction and legal troubles, together with accounts by Tina Turner of domestic violence (published in her 1986 autobiography I, Tina and the 1993 film adaptation What's Love Got to Do with It), impacted his career in the 1980s and 1990s. Addicted to cocaine for at least 15 years, Turner was convicted of drug offenses and served 18 months in prison. After his release in 1991, he remained drug-free until he relapsed in 2004, which was the cause of his death in 2007. During the last decade of Turner's life, he revived his career as a frontman by returning to his blues roots. He released two award-winning albums, ''Here And Now'' and ''Risin With The Blues''.
Hailed as a "great innovator" of rock and roll by contemporaries such as Little Richard and Johnny Otis, Turner received critical acclaim as well. Rolling Stone magazine editor David Fricke ranked Turner number 61 on his list of 100 Greatest Guitarists and noted, "Turner was one of the first guitarists to successfully transplant the intensity of the blues into more-commercial music''. Turner won five Grammy Awards, including two competitive awards and three Grammy Hall of Fame Awards. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Tina Turner in 1991.He is also inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame, the Clarksdale Walk of Fame, the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame, the Blues Hall of Fame, and the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.
Turner was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, on November 5, 1931, to Beatrice Cushenberry, a seamstress, and Izear Luster Turner, a Baptist minister. His parents were Creole. Turner was the younger of their two children, his sister Lee Ethel Knight was "some ten years" his senior. When Turner applied for his first passport in the 1960s, he discovered that his name was registered as Ike Wister Turner. By then both of his parents were deceased, so he could not verify the origin of his name.
According to Turner, he witnessed his father beaten and left for dead by a white mob. He was later told it was an act of retaliation over a woman with whom his father was having an affair. His father lived for two or three years as an invalid in a tent in the family's yard before succumbing to his injuries when Turner was about five years old. His mother remarried an artist named Philip Reese, who Turner described as a violent alcoholic. One day after Reese gave him a whipping, Turner knocked him out with a length of lumber and ran away to Memphis for a few days before returning home. Despite their troubled relationship, Turner moved his stepfather into one of his homes in St. Louis after his mother died in 1959 and took care of him until his death in 1961.
Turner recounted how he was sexually assaulted at the age of six by a middle-aged lady called Miss Boozie. Walking past her house to school, she would invite him to help feed her chickens and then take him to bed. This continued daily for some time. Turner was also raped by another middle-aged woman, Miss Reeny, before he was twelve. Reflecting on these experiences, he stated: "That's probably why every relationship I was in was surrounded by sex. Sex was power to me''.
Turner attended Booker T. Washington elementary school, then was promoted to Myrtle Hall in the sixth grade. He quit school in the eighth grade and began working as an elevator operator at the Alcazar Hotel in downtown Clarksdale. During breaks he would watch disc jockey John Friskillo play records at the radio station, WROX, located in the hotel. WROX is noted for being the first radio station in Mississippi to employ a black disc jockey, Early Wright. One day Friskillo spotted Turner watching and put him to work; teaching him the ins and outs of the control room. Soon, he was left to play records while Friskillo took coffee breaks. This led to Turner being offered a job by the station manager as the disc jockey on the late-afternoon shift. On his show, "Jive Till Five", he played a diverse range of music such as Roy Milton and Louis Jordan alongside early rockabilly records.
Turner was inspired to learn the piano after he heard Pinetop Perkins play at his friend Ernest Lane's house. Turner persuaded his mother to pay for piano lessons, but he did not take to the formal style of playing. Instead, he spent the money in a pool hall and learned boogie-woogie from Perkins. At some point in the 1940s, Turner moved into Clarksdale's Riverside Hotel. The Riverside played host to touring musicians, including Sonny Boy Williamson II and Duke Ellington. Turner associated with many of these musicians, and at 13 years old he backed Sonny Boy Williamson II on piano.
As a teenager, Turner joined a local rhythm ensemble called the Tophatters who played around Clarksdale, Mississippi. Members of the band were Clarksdale musicians and included Turner's school friends Raymond Hill, Eugene Fox and Clayton Love. The Tophatters played big band arrangements from sheet music. Turner, who was trained by ear and could not sight read, would learn the pieces by listening to a version on record at home, pretending to be reading the music during rehearsals. The Tophatters had over 30 members, but they broke up into two groups after six months to a year. One faction wanted to play jazz music and the Dukes of Swing. The other band led by Turner became the Kings of Rhythm. Turner said, "we wanted to play blues, boogie-woogie and Roy Brown, Jimmy Liggins, Roy Milton''. Turner kept the name throughout his career, although it went through lineup changes over time. Their early stage performances consisted largely of covers of popular jukebox hits. B.B. King helped them to get a steady weekend gig and recommended them to Sam Phillips at Memphis Recording Service. In the 1950s, Turner's group got regular airplay from live sessions on the radio stations WROX in Clarksdale and KFFA in Helena, Arkansas.
Around the time he was starting out with the Kings of Rhythm, Turner and Lane became unofficial roadies for blues musician Robert Nighthawk, who often played live on WROX. The pair played drums and piano on radio sessions. Turner gained experience performing by supporting Nighthawk at gigs around Clarksdale. He played juke joints alongside other local blues artists such as Elmore James, Muddy Waters, and Little Walter. Performances typically lasted for about twelve hours, from early evening to dawn the next day. Turner recalled, "there wasn't no intermission. If the drummer had to pee, I would play drums until he returned....There were no breaks. We just switched around''.
In March 1951, Turner and his band recorded the song "Rocket 88" at Memphis Recording Service. Turner's vocalist Johnny O'Neal had left to sign a solo contract with King Records, so Jackie Brenston, a saxophonist in the Kings of Rhythm, sang lead vocals while Turner was on piano. "Rocket 88" is notable among other things for Willie Kizart's distorted guitar sound.
Phillips licensed the recording to Chess Records in Chicago. Chess released it under the name "Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats" instead of "Ike Turner and His Kings of Rhythm Featuring Jackie Brenston". Turner blamed Phillips for this misrepresentation. The single, released in April 1951, reached number-one on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues charts in June 1951 and spent 5 weeks on top of the charts. The record sold approximately half a million copies. Turner and the band were paid $20 each for the record. The exception was Brenston who sold the rights to Phillips for $910. Phillips used profits from the success of the record to launch Sun Records in February 1952.
The success of "Rocket 88" generated tension and ego clashes in the band which culminated with Brenston leaving to pursue a solo career, causing the band to fall apart. Turner, without a band and disappointed his hit record had not created more opportunities for him, disbanded the Kings of Rhythm for a few years.
Soon after the release of "Rocket 88", Turner moved to West Memphis, Arkansas and played with various local bands. He then became a freelance talent scout, session musician, and production assistant for Sam Phillips at Sun Studio, commuting to Memphis, Tennessee. Wishing to exploit his Delta music connections, the Bihari brothers at Modern Records also hired Turner as a talent scout, paying him to find southern musicians who might be worth recording. Turner arranged for B.B. King and the Beale Streeters to record for Modern at the YMCA in Memphis. Turner played piano on King's early records "You Know I Love You" and "3 O'Clock Blues", which became King's first two number-ones. According to Joe Bihari, Turner had brought King to his attention years prior. He said, "Ike wasn't more than sixteen then. He would send dubs of things he cut to us, and if we'd like them we'd make a seal or sign the artist. That's how we acquired B.B. King''. King also maintained that Turner introduced him to the Bihari brothers.
Unaware of songwriter's royalties, Turner also wrote new material which the Biharis copyrighted under their own names. They often purchased or claimed co-writer credit of songs written by artists on their labels using pseudonyms. Turner estimated he wrote seventy-eight hit records for the Biharis. Artists Turner discovered for Modern and Sun include Bobby Bland, Howlin' Wolf, Rosco Gordon, Boyd Gilmore, Houston Boines, Charley Booker, and Little Milton. He played piano in sessions with them and lesser-known artists such as the Prisonaires, Driftin' Slim, Ben Burton, Matt Cockrell, Dennis Binder, Sunny Blair, and Baby Face Turner.
Turner was contracted to the Bihari brothers, but he continued to work for Sam Phillips, where he was effectively the in-house producer. This sometimes created conflicts of interest. In 1951, Turner recorded two Howlin' Wolf tracks for Phillips, playing piano on "How Many More Years" and "Moanin' At Midnight", which Phillips sent to Chess. Turner and Howlin' Wolf then recorded a version of "Moanin' At Midnight" at radio station KWEM in West Memphis without Phillips' or the Chess brothers' knowledge. He sent the results to the Biharis at Modern and they released it on their subsidiary label RPM Records. Turner also attempted to poach Elmore James from Trumpet Records and record him for Modern. Trumpet found out and Modern had to cancel the record. However, James did eventually sign with Modern, and Turner played on his recordings that were released on Modern's subsidiary label Flair Records.
While in Helena, Turner tried to recruit Little Walter to record for Modern in January 1952, but Little Walter was on his way to Mississippi. In 1952, Turner discovered Little Junior Parker in West Memphis, and they formed a band with Matt "Guitar" Murphy. Turner recorded Parker's first single, "You're My Angel" / "Bad Women, Bad Whiskey", credited to Little Junior Parker and the Blue Flames. That summer Turner recorded with the new vocalist and pianist in his band, Marion Louis Lee, resulting in "My Heart Belongs To You" / "Looking For My Baby". The records were released on RPM as Bonnie and Ike Turner. Turner married Lee in September 1952.
Unbeknownst to Turner, during his time in West Memphis, he met Elvis Presley who was a truck driver. He recalled, "Presley was just a white boy that would come over to black clubs. He would come in and stand behind the piano and watch me play. I never knew he was no musician''. Turner discovered his identity many years later after Presley approached him when they were both playing at the International Hotel in Las Vegas.
To accommodate his then-wife Bonnie, who also played piano, Turner taught himself how to play guitar by ear and Willie Kizart taught him blues guitar techniques. He began playing guitar in sessions in 1953, and by 1954 with the assistance of Joe Bihari he built a makeshift recording studio at a defunct Greyhound bus station in Clarksdale. Turner used his Kings of Rhythm as session musicians. They played on many recording for Bihari's Modern, RPM, and Flair labels. Some of the artist Turner backed on piano and guitar during this period include Elmore James, Johnny Ace and the Flairs. Around this time Turner discovered Billy "The Kid" Emerson in Greenville. He brought Emerson to record at Sun Records and backed him on guitar in 1954.
In 1954, Turner visited his sister Lee Ethel Knight in St. Louis, Missouri. During his stay, he went clubbing at Ned Love's in East St. Louis, Illinois. Love invited Turner and his band to play at his club. Eventually, Turner returned with his reformed version of the Kings of Rhythm. The band consisted of Willie Kizart on guitar, Willie "Bad Boy" Sims on drums, vocalist Johnny O'Neal, Turner's nephew Jesse Knight Jr. on bass, and Turner's wife Annie Mae Wilson on piano and vocals.
Turner maintained strict discipline and the band lived at his home on Virginia Place in East St. Louis which doubled as a studio. A teetotaler at the time, he avoided drugs and insisted all band members also adopt this policy, firing anyone he even suspected of breaking the rules. Turner established his group as one of the most highly rated on the St. Louis club circuit, vying for popularity with their main competition, Sir John's Trio featuring Chuck Berry. The bands would play all-nighters in St. Louis, then cross the river to the clubs of East St. Louis, and continue playing until dawn. Initially, they played for segregated audiences at the black clubs in Illinois: Manhattan Club in East St. Louis, which Turner and his band built, the Harlem Club in Brookline and the Kingsbury in Madison. In St. Louis, Turner was exposed to a white audience who were excited by rhythm and blues. He played at Johnny's Lounge and the Club Imperial which was popular with white teenagers. After Turner gained a strong following among both whites and blacks, he demanded that the clubs should be integrated. He also had live music broadcast on the St. Louis radio station KATZ.
In between live dates, Turner took the band to Cincinnati to record for Federal Records in 1956. One of the Federal releases, "I'm Tore Up" / "If I Never Had Known You" featuring Billy Gayles became a regional hit. Like Brenston years prior, Gayles left Turner's band to pursue a solo career. In 1958, Turner took the band to Chicago to record for Cobra/Artistic, as well as fulfilling his contract as a session musician back at Sun. While in Chicago, Turner backed Otis Rush; playing the signature vibrato guitar parts on "Double Trouble". He also helped Buddy Guy record his second record; resulting in the single "You Sure Can't Do"/"This Is The End" which Turner played guitar and composed the latter.
Turner befriended St. Louis rhythm and blues fan Bill Stevens who set up the short-lived Stevens Records in 1959. Turner released two singles on the Stevens label (No. 104 and No. 107) under the anagram "Icky Renrut" because he was still under contract with Sun for several more months, and he didn't want to cause friction with Phillips. In addition, Turner recorded numerous sessions for Stevens with various vocalists and musician lineups of the Kings of Rhythm.
In 1957, Ann Bullock accompanied her sister Alline Bullock to watch Turner and the Kings of Rhythm at the Manhattan Club in East St. Louis. Her sister was a barmaid at the club and was dating Turner's drummer Eugene Washington. Through her sister and Washington, Bullock asked Turner to sing with his band. Turner said he'd call her onstage, but he never did. One night during an intermission, Bullock got hold of the microphone from Washington and sang "You Know I Love You" by B.B. King. Impressed by her voice, Turner invited her to sing with the band. She made her recording debut on Turner's song "Boxtop", released on Tune Town Records in 1958.
In March 1960, Turner allowed her to record a demo of his self-penned song "A Fool In Love". He intended to use the demo as guide track for Art Lassiter who did not attend the scheduled recording session at Technisonic Studios. A local disc jockey suggested he send the record to Sue Records in New York, where label owner Juggy Murray insisted on releasing the track with Bullock's vocal. Murray offered a $20,000 advance for the song and suggested Turner "make her the star" of his show. Turner then renamed her "Tina" because it rhymed with Sheena, however, family and friends still called her Ann. He was inspired by Sheena, Queen of the Jungle and Nyoka the Jungle Girl to create her stage persona. He had the name "Tina Turner" trademarked, so that in case she left, another singer could perform under the same name.
The single "A Fool In Love" was released in July 1960, and it became a national hit, selling a million copies. It peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues chart and number 27 on the Hot 100. Turner added a backing girl group he renamed the Ikettes, and along with the Kings of Rhythm they began performing as the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. The success of the single was followed by a string of hits including "I Idolize You", "Poor Fool", and "It's Gonna Work Out Fine" which gave them their second million-seller and their first Grammy nomination.
In 1961, Turner played piano on Albert King's first hit record, "Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong". The single, released on King Records, peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues chart. He also wrote and produced the Ikettes hit "I'm Blue (The Gong-Gong Song)".
The Revue performed rigorously on the Chitlin' Circuit and built a reputation as "one of the hottest, most durable, and potentially most explosive of all rhythm and blues ensembles. To assure he always had a record out while on tour, Turner formed multiple labels such as Sputnik, Teena, Prann, Innis, Sony and Sonja. He produced singles by the Ikettes, Jimmy Thomas, Fontella Bass, George Jackson, and other artists on his labels. The duo switched to Turner's Sonja label in 1963. For the next six years, they recorded on Warner Bros./Loma, Modern/Kent, Cenco, Philles, Tangerine, Pompeii, Blue Thumb, Minit, and A&M. Between 1964 and 1965, they scored fourteen top 40 rhythm and blues hits with "You Can't Miss Nothing That You Never Had", "Tell Her I'm Not Home", "Good Bye, So Long", and "Two Is a Couple".
In 1965, Phil Spector saw them perform at a club on the Sunset Strip and invited them to film The Big T.N.T. Show. Impressed by their performance, Spector negotiated a deal with their manager Bob Krasnow, head of Loma Records, offering $20,000 to produce Tina and have them released from their Loma contract. After Tina and Spector recorded "River Deep - Mountain High", the duo signed to Spector's Philles label in 1966. The failure of the single in America triggered Spector's retreat from the music industry. However, it was a hit in Europe, reaching number 3 on the UK Singles Chart and number 1 on Los 40 Principales in Spain. Following the song's success in the UK, Mick Jagger invited them to open for the Rolling Stones on their 1966 British Tour. This exposure introduced them to a wider audience outside of rhythm and blues. Soon they were booking bigger venues, and by 1969 they were headlining in Las Vegas.
In April 1969, Turner and the Kings of Rhythm released an album, ''A Black Man's Soul'', on Pompeii Records. The album earned Turner his first solo Grammy nomination for Best Rhythm & Blues Instrumental Performance at the 12th Annual Grammy Awards. Later that year, the duo released the blues oriented albums ''Outta Season'' and ''The Hunter'' on Blue Thumb Records. Turner and Bob Krasnow, founder of Blue Thumb, co-produced Earl Hooker's 1969 album ''Sweet Black Angel''. In November, the Ike & Tina Turner Revue opened up for the Rolling Stones on their 1969 American Tour.
In January 1970, they performed on The Ed Sullivan Show and released their rendition of "Come Together", which reached number 21 on the Rhythm & Blues chart. Their cover of "I Want To Take You Higher" by Sly and the Family Stone was also successful on the charts in 1970. Turner, who was a friend of Sly Stone, played guitar on Sly and the Family Stone's album There's A Riot Goin' On (1971). The release of "Proud Mary" in 1971 became Ike & Tina Turner's biggest hit, reaching number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 5 on the Rhythm & Blues chart. It sold more than a million copies, and won the duo a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance by a Group at the 14th Annual Grammy Awards.
Their mainstream success provided Turner with the finances to open his own recording studio, Bolic Sound in Inglewood, in 1972. Turner had two sixteen track studios built, a large one to rent out and a smaller one for his personal recordings. He fitted them out with state-of-the-art equipment. Artists who recorded there included Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Duane Allman, Little Richard, Gayle McCormick, and Frank Zappa.
Turner released two solo albums for United Artists Records, ''Blues Roots'' (1972) and ''Bad Dreams'' (1973). In 1973, the duo released "Nutbush City Limits" penned by Tina. The single peaked at number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 11 on the Rhythm & Blues chart and it was a bigger hit in Europe. The Turners received the Golden European Record Award, the first ever given, for selling more than one million records of "Nutbush City Limits" in Europe. During this period, Turner produced singer Judy Cheeks' debut album ''Judy Cheeks'' (1973), and the last album by the Ikettes, ''Gold & New'' (1974). ''Between'' 1974 and 1975, the duo released the singles "Sweet Rhode Island Red", "Sexy Ida", and "Baby, Get It On".
The Ike & Tina Turner Revue ended abruptly in 1976. That year, they headlined at the Waldorf Astoria New York and signed a television deal with CBS-TV. Turner had plans to leave United Artists Records for a five-year $150,000 per year deal with Cream Records, which was to be signed on July 6. On July 1, the Turners got into a violent altercation en route to their gig at the Dallas Statler Hilton. Turner claimed that Tina initiated the conflict by purposely irritating him so that she would have a reason to break up with him before they signed the new contract. Tina fled from the hotel shortly after they arrived, and filed for divorce on July 27, 1976.
United Artists responded to the Turners' separation by releasing albums of compiled recordings from their last sessions together, ''Delilah's Power'' (1977) and ''Airwaves'' (1978). Two years after their divorce was finalized, Turner released the single "Party Vibes"/"Shame, Shame, Shame" from the album ''The Edge'' (1980) which peaked at number 27 on the Billboard Disco Top 100 chart.
After his breakup with Tina, singer Holly Maxwell sang with Turner on occasion from 1977 to 1985 and again for eight months in 1992. She reported a positive working relationship with Turner, and later released the memoir Freebase Ain't Free about their close friendship. In 1979, Turner spent time in the studio with Chaka Khan following her separation from her manager-husband. She told Jet: "He's been real inspiration and a catalyst emotionally and in other ways as well. We plan to record together''. Turner struggled to find success due to his cocaine addiction and run-ins with the law. In 1988, Turner attempted an ill-fated return to the stage with Marcy Thomas, Bonnie Johnson, and Jeanette Bazzell as his Ikettes.
While Turner was in prison following a drug conviction, Ike & Tina Turner were inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. Tina did not attend because she took the year off from making public appearances, so Phil Spector delivered a speech at the ceremony on their behalf. After his release from prison, Turner told the press that he was nervous about returning to performing live, but had plans to return to the studio. He sold 20 unreleased Ike & Tina Turner masters to the independent label Esquire Records.
Hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa sampled Turner's composition "I'm Blue (The Gong Gong Song)", released by the Ikettes in 1961, for their 1993 single "Shoop". The song reached number 4 in the Billboard Hot 100 and Turner earned around half a million dollars in royalties. He re-recorded "I'm Blue" as a duet with singer Billy Rogers in 1995. Produced by Rogers, the remake received favorable reviews. Turner later appeared on the song "Love Gravy" with Rick James for the soundtrack album ''Chef Aid: The South Park Album''.
Turner reformed the Ikettes in the mid-1990s, which included his then-wife Jeanette Bazzell Turner and Michelle Love (Randi Love). Vera Clyburn, who was an Ikette in the 1970s was the lead singer. They performed to positive reviews as the Ike Turner Revue. In August 1997, Turner returned to his hometown Clarksdale to headline the 10th Annual Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival. Turner credited Joe Louis Walker with encouraging him to return to his roots in blues music. Turner played guitar and assisted in production on Walker's 1997 album ''Great Guitars''; Walker paid him $5,000 a night for six songs. Walker invited Turner to perform with him at the San Francisco Blues Festival and to tour in Europe. The positive response to the tour encouraged Turner to reform the Kings of Rhythm. They toured the U.S. in 2001, and headlined a showcase at South by Southwest where they were hailed as one of the highlights of the conference. Turner's work on the tour led to the recording and release of his Grammy-nominated album ''Here & Now'' (2001). In 2002, Turner's performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival was released as a live album and DVD.
In 2002, Turner filmed Martin Scorsese's PBS documentary series ''The Blues'', which aired in September 2003. He is featured in the documentaries ''The Road To Memphis'' and ''Godfathers And Sons'', as part of the series. Turner appeared on the Gorillaz's album ''Demon Days'' (2005); playing piano on "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead". He performed the song with Gorillaz at the Manchester Opera House in November 2005. His performance is featured in the live concert DVD Demon Days: Live at the Manchester Opera House.
In 2006, Turner released his last album ''Risin' With The Blues'' on the independent label Zoho Roots. The album received positive critical reception, and was nominated for best Blues Album at the 7th Annual Independent Music Awards. Turner won his first solo Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards in 2007.
Turner began working on a collaboration album with Gorillaz's producer Danger Mouse and the Black Keys in early 2007. The Black Keys sent demos to Turner, but the project was temporarily shelved. After Turner's death, the songs were used for their 2008 album ''Attack & Release''. Although Turner does not appear on the album, Pitchfork noted his influence in the production.
In the weeks leading up to his death, Turner became reclusive. On December 10, 2007, he told his assistant Falina Rasool that he believed he was dying and would not live until Christmas. As he predicted, Turner died two days later, on December 12, at the age of 76, at his home in San Marcos, California. He was found dead by his former wife Ann Thomas. Rasool was also in the house and administered CPR. Turner was pronounced dead at 11:38 am.
His funeral was held on December 21, 2007, at the City of Refuge Church in Gardena, California. Among those who spoke at the funeral were Little Richard, Solomon Burke and Phil Spector. The Kings of Rhythm played "Rocket 88" and "Proud Mary". Turner was cremated after the funeral service.
On January 16, 2008, the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office reported that Turner had died from a cocaine overdose. "The cause of death for Ike Turner is cocaine toxicity with other significant conditions, such as hypertensive cardiovascular disease and pulmonary emphysema", Supervising Medical Examiner Investigator Paul Parker told CNN. His daughter Mia was said to be surprised at the coroner's assessment, believing his advanced stage emphysema was a bigger factor.
Turner died without a valid will. Less than a week after his death, his former wife Audrey Madison Turner filed a petition stating that he had penned a handwritten will naming her as a beneficiary. In 2009, a judge ruled that the handwritten will was invalid and that by law Turner's children were the direct heirs of his estate.
Source: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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SALLY WILBOURN - Born January 11, 1937, Sally Wilbourn begins working in October 1955 for Sam Phillips as his secretary, bookkeeper and office manager and she will remain his personal and professional companion until his death. Today, Sally lives in Memphis and continues to assist the Phillips family in the management of their publishing, radio and other holdings. She has maintained Sun Records and Sam Phillips memorabilia and has assisted researchers into Sam Phillips' life and career.
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She edited several alumni publications at LSU, as well as publishing freelance feature articles and scholarly papers on music, literature, folklore, and pedagogy. After leaving LSU, she became an independent technical and business writing consultant for the State of Louisiana and major industrial corporations.
Her husband passed away in 2004, and her daughter resides in Kentucky at a home for individuals with special needs. In 2006 she taught a course in ''Sun Records and Early Rock And Roll'' at the Chautauqua Institution in New York, at university adult-education classes, and for several cruise lines.
On August 2014, Barbara Sims published her book, The Next Elvis: Searching for Stardom at Sun Records, chronicles Sims’s career at the studio, a pivotal time at this recording mecca, as she darted from disc jockeys to distributors. Sims not only entertains with personal stories of big per-sonalities, she brings humor to the challenges of a young woman working in a fast and tough industry.
Her disarming narrative ranges from descriptions of a disgraced Jerry Lee Lewis to the remarkable impact and tragic fall of disc jockey Daddy-O Dewey Phillips to the frenzied Memphis homecoming of Elvis after his military service. Collectively, these vignettes offer a rare and intimate look at the people, the city, and the studio that permanently shifted the trajectory of rock and roll.
Dewey Phillips and Elvis Presley, too, became fast friends. Dewey bought Elvis his first touring car, a $450 1941 Lincoln, but turned down an offer to manage him. His business of breaking new records was still not finished. It was Dewey Phillips who often "broke" Sam Phillips' latest releases over the air in Memphis. Dewey and Sam's friendship went back to 1950, when the two men launched their own record label, Phillips Records, billed as "The Hottest Thing In The Country". Singer Carl Perkins has said that Dewey may have been the first to use the expression, "Man, they're rockin' country music, they're rockabillies".
CECIL SCAIFE - born as Cecil Ross Scaife in Helena, Phillips County, Arkansas on April 13, 1927 to Brooks and Elsie Lumpkin Scaife. He attended the University of Arkansas at Monticello where he was President of the Student Body, voted ''Most Likely to Succeed'' as well as ''Wittiest'' among his peers. In 1986, he was selected Alumnus of the year and an endowment was established in his honor. He did his graduate study at Texas Christian University. Ever so theatrical, soon after graduation he was off to Broadway when he was selected the winner of a Mid South talent contest sponsored by the Memphis Press Scimitar.
WINK MARTINDALE - Country singer, disc jockey since 1950. Born Winston Conrad Martindale in Bells (nearby Jackson), Tennessee, on December 4, 1934. Martindale has also been called Win Martindale. He has hosted the TV game shows "Gambit", "How's Your Mother-In-Law?", "Can You Top This", "What's This Song", "Words And Music", and "Tic Tac Dough", among others.
At the age of 24, Wink Martindale has reached an enviable position as disc jockey, it all started in Jackson, Tennessee. Later he came to Memphis and Martindale worked at 56 WHBQ radio, beginning on April 20, 1953, and was there when Dewey Phillips first played an Elvis record.
Wink Martindale met Elvis Presley for the first time that evening. On Memphis' KLAC TV's "Dance Party", Martindale interviewed Elvis Presley on June 16, 1956. On December 31, 1956, Elvis Presley gasting Wink Martindale's program "Holiday Hop" for KLAC-TV, Memphis, Tennessee.
Martindale, like almost everyone else in Memphis, cut an unreleased song at Sun Records, "Bug A Bop", backed by Bill Justis' orchestra. He made his movie debut in the 1958 rock and roll movie "Keep It Cool". In 1959 Martindale recorded a hit song titled "Deck Of Cards" for Dot Records (Dot 15968) entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 7.
Along with all this, Wink Martendale found time to attend the Memphis University and to marry his childhood sweetheart, Madelyn. Wink joined KHJ in Los Angeles, where he does his morning show, "The Clock-Watchers Show". He likes the coast, and hopes to remain there permanently.
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REBECCA ''BECKY'' BURNS PHILLIPS - A pioneering female disc jockey, matriarch of Memphis' legendary rock and roll Phillips family and the woman who provided the light for Sun Records. Long before Sam Phillips made his name and fortune as the man who discovered Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, he scrapped by for years chasing after his musical dreams. "And my mother was the reason Sam was able to do what he did'', said her son, Knox Phillips. "She would give him the spirit to get through all his trials and tribulations, starting out especially''.
Born Rebecca Burns on June 22, 1925 in Colbert County, Alabama, she was a 17-year-old high school student with a passion for radio when she got a show with her sister on Sheffield's WLAY in 1942. It was there that she met her 19-year-old husband-to-be Sam Phillips, who was starting out as an announcer.
They were married in 1943 in Decatur, Alabama, where they continued their careers as broadcasters. Sam would often describe his wife as "the best damn announcer I ever heard''. The couple moved to Nashville, and later settled in Memphis. Rebecca would give birth to two sons, Knox on October 30, 1945 and Jerry on September 9, 1948.
In 1950, Sam would launch his Memphis Recording Service and later Sun Records label. During those early years, it was Becky Phillips who helped her husband through the difficult times. "Sam worked 20 hours a day'', said Knox. "During that period, he had two nervous breakdowns and she saw him through all that''.
In 1955, Mrs. Phillips provided the spark for the launch on October 29, of Memphis' WHER, "the first All-Girl Station in the nation'', which went on the air that fall. "Sam was inspired by her, inspired by what a great announcer she was'', said noted music historian Peter Guralnick, who was working on a biography of Sam Phillips. "He saw (the station) … as giving women a way to express themselves that they hadn't been offered before''.
"At the time, females could not even go to the Columbia School of Broadcasting'', said Knox Phillips. "They would not accept them. But, because of my mother, when Sam started the station he made it all female: all female air talent, all female executives and sales staff''.
The history of the station and Phillips' role in it was the subject of a Peabody Award-winning piece on National Public Radio titled "WHER - 1000 Beautiful Watts" in 1999.
Becky Phillips would continue to broadcast on various Phillips-owned radio stations into the 1980s, signing off with her signature line "a smile on your face puts a smile in your voice''. It was an attitude Mrs. Phillips carried with her daily.
Rebecca Burns Phillips, the 87-year-old great radio announcer, died on Friday September 13, 2012 at her home in Collierville, Tennessee, after a long illness. She is buried at the Sheffield Oakwood Cemetery, Sheffield, Alabama.
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