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Rock pioneer Ike Turner dies at 76

BY GLENN GAMBOA | glenn.gamboa@newsday.com

7:29 PM EST, December 12, 2007

Ike Turner, whose public role as the pioneering, self-proclaimed "Father of Rock and Roll" will be forever paired with his private role as Tina Turner's tempestuous, reportedly abusive, husband, died Wednesday in his suburban San Diego home. He was 76.

No cause of death was released. Scott M. Hanover of Thrill Entertainment Group, which managed Turner, said, "Details will be coming soon. The family just needs some time right now."

A native of Clarksdale, Miss., Turner was only 19 when he wrote and recorded "Rocket 88" at Sun Studios in Memphis for Sam Phillips in 1951. Noted for its use of distorted electric guitar and its boogie-woogie beat, "Rocket 88" is seen as the first rock and roll recording, though it was never a hit for Turner.

Though Turner and his band, the Kings of Rhythm, became regionally known through their extensive tours, it wasn't until he met and married singer Anna Mae Bullock and changed her name to Tina Turner that he finally had his breakthrough hit. In 1960, the raucous soul single "A Fool in Love," sung by Tina, became a No. 2 hit on the R&B charts and crossed over to become a pop hit.

The band became known as the Ike & Tina Turner Revue and began rolling out a string of R&B hits, crowned by their work with producer Phil Spector, which included "River Deep, Mountain High." The group had uneven chart success, though their remake of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" won them a Grammy in 1972 and "Nutbush City Limits" became a Top 20 hit.

The couple's private life, marked by Ike Turner's drug abuse, was similarly uneven and grew increasingly violent, as documented in Tina Turner's autobiography "I, Tina" and the movie "What's Love Got to Do With It?" -- though he denied abusing his wife.

Tina Turner's escape from the relationship and remarkable comeback in the '80s turned Ike Turner into one of music's most notorious villains. Over time that began to fade and his role as one of rock's pioneers began to be reinstated.

He and Tina Turner were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame together in 1991. And this year he received a Grammy for best traditional blues album for his "Risin' With the Blues" CD.

"There is no doubt that Ike Turner was one of rock and roll's great architects, with his genre-defying sound as an instrumentalist and bandleader," Neil Portnow, president and chief executive of The Recording Academy, said in a statement. "His innovative musicality helped lay the foundation for rock 'n' roll and R&B more than 50 years ago. As a bandleader, his well-rehearsed ensembles were some of the most exciting live groups the world had ever heard ... Ike's legacy as a groundbreaking pioneer in the music industry will never be forgotten."

Turner was lining up tour dates for early next year and he was writing songs for a new album.

"He was always working on something," Hanover said. "That was Ike."