Legendary performer Tina Turner opens up on her struggles
At 81, legendary singer Tina Turner looks back on the courage and resilience she drew on to build a long career.
As a young girl growing up in Tennessee, Anna Mae Bullock liked to sing and recite movie dialogue to entertain her family. By 20, she had a new name — Tina Turner — and a burgeoning music career with her partner, Ike. Behind the scenes, he was abusing her. Eventually she found the courage to leave him and move on as a chart-topping, world-touring solo artist. She now lives out of the spotlight in Switzerland and recently released a book, Happiness Becomes You.
You’ve had so many ups and downs in your life and career. What have you learned?
I used to be baffled about why I had to endure so much abuse because I hadn’t done anything to deserve it. After I began practising Buddhism, I realised that my hardships could give me a mission — a purpose. I saw that by overcoming my obstacles, I could build indestructible happiness and inspire others to do the same. Then I could see everything that came my way, both the highs and the lows, as an opportunity for self-improvement and for sparking hope in others.
Did you always dream of a music career?
As a teenager I was a nurse’s assistant and looked after small children as well. I always liked kids, and caring for others came naturally to me. My mother thought I would become either a nurse or a teacher, but in my heart of hearts I knew those paths wouldn’t be mine. I did love singing and dancing as a child, and everyone told me how much they enjoyed hearing me sing. But I never thought much of becoming a professional singer until I was older.
Were your performance skills innate, or did you build them?
I’ve been a performer since childhood. As a girl, every chance I got, I’d go to our local movie theatre and memorise scenes so I could re-enact them. Although I did have a bit of singing training in high school and even learned some opera, my voice and dance abilities have mostly come naturally to me.
When and why did you take up songwriting?
In the late 1960s I had some success with the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, but by the early 70s we hit difficult times, both personally and professionally. I wanted to do something to help get us out of our career slump, so I decided to try songwriting. I started with the topic I knew best: my own life. I wrote about my hometown of Nutbush in what became the 1973 hit Nutbush City Limits. Soon after, when I started practising Buddhism, I also wrote some spiritual songs, but I never finished them. Fortunately, I got another chance to create spiritual music over the past decade in the Beyond Music interfaith albums.
When you confronted discrimination as a black woman, how did you respond?
I’ve always felt that superficial differences like skin colour and social status shouldn’t matter. In my view any labels people use to separate “us” and “them” are illusions and delusions. I do my best to see people as individuals and emphasise common ground. This is also what my Buddhist faith teaches: that our essential identities as human beings are equally precious, regardless of differences. When I started as a solo artist, I was a female black singer in my 40s with no money and few prospects for gigs. Still, I kept a “never give up” spirit. I understood that although many people might have a limited view of me, I could help open their minds. Through hard work and determination, I showed all the naysayers that maybe their preconceived doubts were wrong. Part of my spiritual practice is to “change poison into medicine”, to take negative situations or roadblocks and transform or remove them through positivity. The force of my positivity pushed all the discriminatory “isms” standing in my way right out the window.
You weren’t immediately successful as a solo artist. Did you ever consider quitting?
I never considered giving up on my dreams. You could say I had an invincible optimism. And I always knew that the “what” was more important than the “how.” In other words, although I had a hard time seeing how I could make my dreams come true, I focused more on what I wanted to achieve in my life, personally and professionally. I took actions day by day, often outside my comfort zone, to better myself and bring me closer to those goals. In Buddhism, we call this inner process of transformation “human revolution”.
When you were touring, how did you prep to take the stage in front of millions of people? Did you have a pre-show routine?
Yes, once I started my solo career, I would chant for an hour before each show, focusing on the happiness of each person who came to see me. I visualised my audience and prayed that I could be whoever each person needed me to be that day so that I could inspire their dreams and help them recharge their souls. For me, being onstage was the best — a great exchange of energy with each person in the audience. Afterwards, it often felt like a blur of colour, light, joy, and visions of the smiling faces who had come to see me. Of course, we also had the usual pre-show routines and sound checks!
You’ve also done some acting. Why expand beyond music?
Acting in movies was always a big dream, even though I had never expressed it outside my private prayers. So it was a total surprise when I was asked to play a starring role in the rock opera film Tommy. That was a real dream come true, as was starring in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
One of your albums was called Break Every Rule. What rules did you choose to break over the years, and how and why did those decisions pay off?
As someone who believes in karma, I don’t want to break rules just for the sake of being a rule breaker, but there is value in breaking norms, in challenging the status quo — as I did to break through those “isms” that suggested I couldn’t achieve my dreams because of my skin colour, my age, and my gender. That was rule breaking for the sake of positive change.
What advice would you give to young people making their way up in creative fields today?
Stay true to yourself, work hard, and be reliable. Taking the road less travelled is often harder but well worth it. And no matter what, never give up.
Is happiness a good or realistic goal for all of us?
Yes, absolutely. Regardless of cultural or religious background, personal beliefs, or any other factor, each one of us can open the path to our personal version of a peaceful and happy life. The advice I share in Happiness Becomes You is meant to help all people tap into their own wellspring of joy. I’m confident everyone can because I did it myself, even after facing seemingly impossible circumstances time and again. I’m not superhuman. I’m just a lady from Nutbush, Tennessee. If I can do it, we all can.
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Alison Beard is a senior editor at Harvard Business Review
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