Tina Turner’s adopted son, Ike Turner Jr, passed away at the age of 67 due to kidney failure. For those who don’t know, Tina adopted Ike Turner Jr after she married Ike Turner Sr., and Ike Turner Jr. was the son of his dad and his wife, Lorraine Taylor. In an interview, Ike Turner Jr. revealed that he was adopted by Tina when he was 2 years old, and she was the only mother he had known. Well, eventually, Tina and Ike Jr.’s relationship became strained, and he once discussed the same.
Who was Ike Turner Jr.?
Ike Turner Jr. was born in 1958 to Ike Turner Sr. and Lorraine Taylor. When he was just two years old, Tina Turner adopted him. While he was brought up in the shadow of two parents and in the public limelight, the tumultuous relationship between Tina and Ike Sr. was witnessed by their children, including Jr. Despite experiencing a traumatic event during his childhood, he remained focused on his professional life and began his career in the music industry as a sound engineer, musician, and producer. From an early age, his parents, with whom he entered the music world, assigned him several responsibilities, which only deepened his interest in this field. At 13, he ran his dad’s studios, went on tours with them and even counted money. As per Amomama, Ike Jr. once told The Mail:
“My father took me out of school at 13. I ended up running his recording studio plus going on the road with them. They made a lot of money on tour, and my father used to make me count it until my hands were grey.”
Ike Jr worked with Ike Turner’s band for years and was involved in music production. His hard work paid off when he won a Grammy award for working with his dad, Ike Turner Sr., on the album Risin’ With The Blues. Following this, he started his own band, The Love Thang and released his album, Hard Labour.
Ike Turner Jr.’s strained relationship with Tina Turner
Before marrying Tina Turner, Ike Turner Sr. had been married five times. Tina then decided to adopt two of his sons, Michael and Ike Jr., after the birth of her biological son with Ike Sr., Ronnie. The constant change in the mother figure in Ike Jr.’s life surely took a toll on him and his brother, but they considered Tina as their only mother figure, as stated by Ike Jr. himself. Talking to The Mail, Ike Jr. once said:
“Tina raised me from the age of two. She’s the only mother I’ve ever known.”
Well, Tina and Ike Sr.’s 16-year-long marriage was filled with violence and abuse, which led the former to turn her back from her kids and husband, for good. The couple’s strained relationship also took a toll on their children. Ike Jr., who started working in the music industry from a young age, had to face some abuse himself. Once, he reportedly revealed that he was abused and pistol-whipped by Ike Sr. just because he started working as a sound engineer for his mom, Tina. After Tina escaped her marriage to Ike Sr., their son, Ike Jr., in a 2018 interview, discussed his strained relationship with his stepmother.
Ike Jr mentioned that he couldn’t clearly remember the last time he talked to his mom, and had a doubt if any of their siblings had talked to their mom either. Tina had a total of 4 children: Craig Raymond Turner, Ronnie Turner, Ike Turner Jr., and Michael Turner. Three of Tina’s sons are dead as of now, and only Michael is alive, but nothing is known about him, as he keeps his life out of the media limelight. It was known about Michael that he too had health and financial issues. Returning to Tina’s relationship with Ike Jr., speaking to The Mail, he stated that his mother had settled in Europe with a new husband and didn’t want to maintain any ties to her past. Ike Jr. could be quoted as saying:
“My mother is living her life – she has a new husband and she’s in Europe. She doesn’t want to have anything to do with the past.”
Ike Turner Jr once said that Tina should have forgiven Ike Sr when he was alive
Ike Turner, back then, claimed in an interview with The Mail that he had been in touch with Ronnie and Michael. He also claimed that Michael was living in medical support, and when asked if Tina even paid a visit to him, he said that their mom used to send money to Michael, and that was all. Talking to The Mail, Ike Turner Jr. said that both of his parents were absent from his life, and he also suffered at the hands of his dad, whom he decided to forgive when he was alive. Talking more about the same, Ike Turner Jr was asked about the speculated fights between his dad and mom, to which he said that it was nothing more than a normal couple, and his dad never took anyone’s bad words. He mentioned:
“My mother and father had no more fights than the people next door to you. I think their problem was her mouth and his mouth – my father didn’t take s*** from nobody.”
Ike Jr. also mentioned that his mom should have forgiven his dad when he was alive. For the unversed, it was in 2007 when Ike Sr passed away due to a cocaine overdose, and following this, Tina decided to forgive him in 2018 during the London premiere of the musical Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. Well, Ike Jr. felt that it was way too late for forgiveness as his dad was long gone, and thus, Tina should have forgiven her ex-husband when he was alive.
What do you think about Ike Turner Jr’s life and his strained relationship with Tina Turner?
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