Ronnie Turner, the son of legendary singer Tina Turner and late musician Ike Turner, was found dead at age 62 in his Los Angeles home, according to TMZ on Friday. Ronnie’s wife, the French singer Afida Turner, confirmed her husband’s death in an Instagram post. She called him a “true angel” and her “best friend.”

Tina Turner also paid tribute to her son, sharing a statement on social media alongside a black-and-white portrait of herself. “Ronnie, you left the world far too early. In sorrow I close my eyes and think of you, my beloved son,” she wrote. Ronnie’s father Ike Turner died in 2007.

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Who was Ike Turner?

Ike Turner was an American musician, bandleader, talent scout, producer, and songwriter. He was 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. 

Ike was born on November 5, 1931, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, US to Beatrice Cushenberry, a seamstress, and Izear Luster Turner, a Baptist minister. Turner’s full name was Izear Luster Turner Jr. He was the younger of two siblings. His sister’s name is Lee Etherl Knight. 

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Turner started playing piano as a child and by the late 1940s had played with a number of the leading blues musicians in the Mississippi Delta region. He formed a band in high school named the Kings of Rhythm. Their first recording, Rocket 88 was made at Sam Phillips’ Memphis (Tennessee) Recording Service but released on the Chess label. It was a number-one rhythm-and-blues hit in 1951, though it was credited to saxophonist Jackie Brenston and Delta Cats. Brenston provided the lead vocal. 

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After Brenston left, Ike served as a talent scout in the Memphis region for Los Angeles-based Modern Records and played as a session musician on early recordings by Howlin’ Wolf, BB King, and others.

In 1956, Ike relocated to St Louis, Missouri. He expanded a new lineup of the Kings of Rhythm to include vocalist Anna Mae Bullock. She changed her name to Tina Turner, even before marrying Ike in 1962. The Ike and Tina Turner Revue, the ensemble, thrived as a live act due to Tina’s fiery stage presence and Ike’s rubber-faced guitar-playing antics. The band included a trio of female backing vocalists known as Ikettes.  

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They bagged nationwide appreciation after the New York Sue Label released a series including A Fool in Love (1960), I Idolize You (1960), and It’s Gonna Work Out Fine (1961). 

In the late 1960s, to reposition themselves to appeal to the growing rock market, Ike and Tina started selling records again with their energetic reworkings of other people’s songs.

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Tina divorced him alleging beatings, cocaine addiction, and infidelity on his part. Ike’s career was affected by Tina’s revelations and he was sent to prison for cocaine possession. 

Ike made a comeback in 2001 with Here and Now. In 2007, he received a Grammy Award for his album Risin’ with the Blues (2006). Ike and Tina Turner were included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.

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Turner is said to have been married 14 times. He first married at 16 years to Edna Dean Stewart. His second wife Velma Davis is the elder sister of former Ikette Joshie Armstead. Turner had six children. Ike and Tina’s son Craig died in an attempted suicide in 2018.

Turner died on December 12, 2007, at his home in San Marcos, California. He was found dead by his former wife Ann Thomas.