Remembering Tina Turner: ‘She was one of those people you thought would live forever’

In 1985, I attended Tina Turner’s CNE Grandstand appearance. The crowd went wild as she stalked around the stage, singing her heart out. Her voice — and those famous legs — made her seem larger than life.

A few years later, I met Turner at a Toronto record company reception to launch her “Foreign Affair” album and was shocked to discover that she was five-foot-four tops.

But that was among the superstar’s many gifts: she always appeared bigger as a performer than the room that was hosting her.

It was a trait that couldn’t be denied, whether you saw her perform at the Copa in 1985, or her handful of more recent appearances at Maple’s Kingswood Music Theatre, Molson Amphitheatre (now Budweiser Stage) or the Air Canada Centre (now Scotiabank Arena), the venue where she made her last Toronto appearance on Dec. 13, 2008.

Larry LeBlanc, a senior writer for CelebrityAccess, remembers Turner as empowerment personified, but personable.

“She had a huge smile,” said LeBlanc. “She was one of these touchy, feely people. She’d grab you and grab your arm. She made you laugh: she was very, very funny.”

LeBlanc first met Turner in 1967, when he was 22. He had spent nearly an hour interviewing Turner and her then husband Ike in front of Club 888 (now the Masonic Temple). Ike invited Leblanc to continue the conversation in the dressing room while the singer, and her backup dancers, changed into their performance attire including shapely “bum pads.”

“She was maybe two feet from me and I was like, ‘Oh my God! What a business this is.’”

Turner, who died Wednesday at the age of 83, experienced the highs and lows of the business.

After establishing herself with the Ike & Tina Turner Revue from 1960 through 1976 — scorching the stage with her electrifying performances and R&B and rock-infused classics such as “River Deep, Mountain High,” “Proud Mary” and the Tina-penned “Nutbush City Limits” — the woman born Anna Mae Bullock in Brownsville, Tenn., left her abusive marriage to seek more peaceful pastures.

After starring as the Acid Queen in Ken Russell’s 1975 cinematic interpretation of the Who’s “Tommy,” Turner released a number of albums in the late ’70s that failed to gain traction but continued to gig through numerous TV variety show guest appearances, tour (including a run at Toronto’s Imperial Room) and headline in Vegas.

The early ’80s showed more promise: Turner appeared on “Saturday Night Live,” joining Rod Stewart on a performance of “Hot Legs.” In 1981, she was the opening act for the Rolling Stones’ “Tattoo You” tour.

But the real catalyst to Turner’s revival occurred in 1982 in the U.K., when the British Electric Foundation (B.E.F.) — a production company that consisted of Heaven 17 members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig — recruited Turner to cover a dance version of the Temptations’ “Ball of Confusion” that became a club hit.

The song drew the attention of Capitol Records A&R executive John Carter, who signed the singer and began assembling the songs for “Private Dancer.” Martyn Ware co-produced the first single from the album — Turner’s rendition of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” — and Turner never looked back. That album delivered the hits “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” “Better Be Good to Me” and the album’s title track. It sold 12 million copies worldwide, captured four of Turner’s 12 Grammys and placed her back in a spotlight that she never truly relinquished.

Her soulful rasp delivered the No.1 hit “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)” for the box office smash “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” in which she co-starred with Mel Gibson. The momentum continued with “Break Every Rule” (1986) and the hit “Typical Male.”

Turner was intensely charismatic — she was tailor-made for the MTV and MuchMusic video eras — but her real success came from her heart. She was a beacon of inspiration to countless fellow female singers and entertainers.

“She was so full of vitality and so full of life,” said LeBlanc. “She was one of those people you thought would live forever.”

Today, the world seems a little heavier without her presence.

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