eary are we as a publication in bringing up the dearth of female voices in rock these days. We could say that what we need is another rock n roll hero like the woman born ANNA MAE BULLOCK in an unincorpated township in Tennessee called Nutbush, but you'd roll your eyes at the pun, as you are probably doing now, and thinking "There isn't gonna be another TINA TURNER." Who needs another TINA TURNER when we've still got the  real thing walking this green earth?  Retired, happily married and living in Switzerland, TURNER has boasted one of those few musical careers that have reached legendary proportions and had the sort of biblical backstory worthy of CECIL B. DEMILLE's TEN COMMANDMENTS. Forget the Old Testament stuff. The unwanted sharecroppers daughter from the backwoods of Tennessee made her way to St. Louis where she became enthralled with local music star IKE TURNER and his KINGS OF RHYTHM. It turned out the little girl from Nutbush had one hell of a RAY CHARLES growl  and soon found herself at the center of the action. With that voice, BULLOCK cut the single A FOOL IN LOVE and the TINA TURNER (a name inspired by the amazonian heroine SHEENA QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE) persona was born. As a duo, IKE AND TINA TURNER enjoyed sporadic success on the charts with such classics as their high octane rendition of PROUD MARY to the all out ruckus of NUTBUSH CITY LIMITS, but it was their blistering live set that put them in a class all by themselves. And of course there is  the dark matter of the violent marriage that TINA found herself in with IKE. Years of abuse came to an end of July 4, 1976 when following a bloody brawl with IKE, TINA walked away with 36 cents to her name and a resolve to take on the world on her own terms. Years of financial and professional struggle followed but the world would soon find out that TINA TURNER was a fighter. That fighting spirit proved useful when putting together a solo music career that would defy the odds of race and age. The often times elusive second act proved to more successful than the first go around and came complete with multi-platinum albums, record-breaking sell out tours, eight GRAMMY wins and a movie about the woman's life in which the actress playing her  (ANGELA BASSETT) was nominated for an OSCAR. 

So great is the woman's influence that TINA - THE MUSICAL has been a massive hit on London's West End and is bound for Broadway in the Fall of 2019. It's a pity that those of us Stateside have to wait but given TURNER's embrace of  Europe and their embrace of her, the decision to launch the musical on the other side of the Atlantic isn't that much of a surprise. In a time when pop luminaries  such as  CHER have enticed audiences with news of a never-ending farewell tour, TINA truly bowed outin 2009 at the age of seventy. Since that time, she has revoked her U.S. citizenship, settled in Switzerland and got hitched to her longtime boyfriend ERWIN BACH. This year, she released another autobiography MY LOVE STORY. At this point in her life, many expected calmer seas for this venerable icon, but the new book recounts other instances of abuse at the hands of IKE as well as some frightening illnesses. Weeks after her marriage to BACH, TURNER suffered a stroke which rendered her immobile. There was also a bout of instestinal cancer and kidney failure which resulted in dialysis. Her husband BACH stepped in an donated his kidney, but there have been issues with her body rejecting the kidney. Despite these challenges, TURNER has soldiered on in recent interviews, demonstrating the very strength that has become her brand. In July of this year, that strength would be tested by the suicide of her first born son CRAIG.