Tina Turner broke ground for female performers, victims of domestic violence

I adored Tina Turner.

Her voice. Her energy. Her outfits. Her hair. Those legs. And, oh, how she danced.

So great a dancer was Tina Turner that she’s credited with teaching Mick Jagger how to move on stage when she and her then-husband, Ike, opened for The Rolling Stones’ British tour in 1966.

As much as I love Tina Turner for all that — I mean, really, how cool is it to have taught Mick Jagger to dance? — I will forever respect her as the world’s most-famous survivor of domestic violence.

Now, I realize that most people suffering in abusive relationships don’t have the fame and resources of Tina Turner, but that doesn’t make her triumph in leaving her abuser and starting over any less inspirational. It doesn’t make her global music success any less of a personal triumph.

Tina Turner also took the subject of domestic violence from behind closed doors to center stage, sharing with complete candor the horrors of her relationship with Ike Turner in her 2018 memoir, “My Life Story.”

The abuse she suffered was great; the revelation that she also attempted suicide was shocking. (Did you know that intimate partner violence is tied to putting the victim at risk of attempting suicide? Click here for more on that.)

She always seemed to me to be so strong, so wild, but still in complete control on stage.

But her public life on stage was so different from her private life at home.

“He threw hot coffee in my face, giving me third-degree burns,” she wrote. “He used my nose as a punching bag so many times that I could taste blood running down my throat when I sang. He broke my jaw. And I couldn’t remember what it was like not to have a black eye.”

She left her husband in 1976 after 14 years of marriage with her stage name (she was born Anna Mae Bullock) and half the rights to the music they made together in exchange for giving him all their money, the studio they built, and all the property they ever owned. She was 36.

Consider that awareness of domestic violence and resources for it was nowhere near where they are today. Consider, too, that the first shelter for battered women in the U.S. opened in St. Paul, Minn., in 1974 — two years before Tina left Ike.

It was around that time that a grass-roots group of concerned citizens in Livingston County saw the need to provide shelter for victims of domestic violence: LACASA was formed in 1979 with just $40 in donations, one desk and borrowed office space. Volunteers opened their homes to shelter women and children fleeing violence.

In 1981, LACASA was officially established as a nonprofit organization, and in 1983, it opened its first official shelter. LACASA continues to expand its programs and help victims.

In 1984, Tina Turner released her fifth and biggest album of all time, “Private Dancer.” She went on to build her own career, one that blazed trails for female performers as she filled huge stadiums and scooped up awards. She became the reigning Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Tina Turner’s lives — both on stage and off — serve as inspiration to us all.

RIP, Tina.