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Anger, music echo at Ike Turner's memorial

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DAMIAN DOVARGANES / AP

Ike Turner Jr. and friend Mary Ellis attend his father's memorial service Friday. His father made "billions of people happy," Turner said, adding, "He had the best life.Gardena, Calif.

The memorial service Friday for rock 'n' roll pioneer Ike Turner was much like the life of the troubled star: rich in music and applause, defensive about the nature of his legacy and, for good or bad, most memorable for its moments of controversy.

Phil Spector, fabled record producer and recent celebrity defendant, decried Turner's defining public persona as the abusive former husband of Tina Turner, a reputation largely shaped by the 1993 film "What's Love Got To Do With It," which Spector called "that piece of trash movie that made up things about him." He also insisted, "Ike made Tina the jewel she was."

Spector also took potshots at Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg and Tina Turner, all of whom he said contributed to demonizing Turner, who died Dec. 12 at 76.

Other speakers included Little Richard and members of the Turner family, including Ike Turner Jr., who brought his father's two Grammy Awards on stage. "He made billions and billions and billions of people happy," he said. "He had the best life."

The nearly three-hour remembrance at Greater Bethany Community Church City of Refuge in Gardena also featured Turner's eight-piece band, the Kings of Rhythm, which performed rollicking renditions of some of the musician's greatest hits, including "Nutbush City Limits" and "Proud Mary."

Tina won't be at Ike Turner's funeral

Bang! Showbiz | Monday, 17 December 2007
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Reuters

STAYING AT HOME: Tina Turner won't attend the funeral of her ex-husband Ike Turner, friends say.

Related Links • Blues legend Ike Turner dead at 76 (+video)
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Tina Turner will not attend her ex-husband Ike Turner's funeral, friends close to the singer say.

Ike - who died on Wednesday at his California home aged 76 - was married to Tina for 16 years, during which time he repeatedly physically abused her.

Friends of Tina said there is no way the Private Dancer singer will be attending Ike's funeral in San Diego.

One friend said: "Tina hasn't seen Ike for 35 years and last time she did see him he treated her appallingly, so there's no way she will be going to the service to pay tribute to him."

Following Ike's death, Tina's agent Michele Schweitzer said: "Tina is aware that Ike passed away. She has not had any contact with him in 35 years. No further comment will be made."

During their marriage, Ike and Tina performed as a duo with hits including Proud Mary, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.

Ike made what most music critics believe was the first rock'n'roll record ever, Rocket 88, in March 1951.

He had four children - Ike Jr, Michael, Ronald and Mia.

 
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*The New York Post is reporting that Tina Turner has written an autobiographical musical titled "Simply the Best," which will follow her rise to fame, the abuse suffered under ex-husband Ike Turner and her belief that he is the reincarnation of the tyrannical Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III.

       As the Post puts it: "Simply the Best" portrays Ike Turner as a gun-wielding, cocaine-sniffing, wife-beating monster whose signature line is: "That b*tch will taste my wrath like it's her own saliva!"

       The musical is aiming for London production next year before heading to Broadway, the Post reports. It will feature music from Tina Turner's back catalog to narrate her journey from Nutbush, Tenn. to superstardom. Among the songs in the show are "Nutbush City Limits," "I Can't Stand the Rain," "Let's Stay Together," "Private Dancer" and "What's Love Got To Do With It?"

       The Post reports: "A top-secret workshop of the musical was staged a year ago in London. No auditions were held. Theater agents received discreet phone calls inviting their clients to take part in a 'rehearsed reading of a new musical.'

       "The actors got the script the day before the reading. When they arrived at a dingy rehearsal studio in southeast London, they were shocked to find Turner, in full-diva regalia, there to greet them."       

       A source tells the Post of Turner: "She was every inch the star, but charming and gracious and overwhelmed by the reading."

       A casting director for the show snuck into New York to scout Fantasia in "The Color Purple," as a possibility to play Tina, according to the Post. "Word is he was knocked out by her performance, though there's some concern she isn't sexy enough to play Turner," the newspaper reports.

       "Simply the Best" – which closely mirrors the structure followed in Tina's autobiographical film "What's Love Got to Do With It" – takes a curious turn when the setting shifts to Ancient Egypt.

       According to the Post, "Tina believes she's the reincarnation of Hatshepsut, whose reign from 1479 to 1458 B.C. was prosperous and peaceful. Hatshepsut prevented her evil stepson, Thutmose III (that's Ike), from assuming the throne (though he seized it when she died).  The Egyptian queen watches over Tina. When Ike pulls a gun on Tina, Hatshepsut shields her and the gun 'leaps' out of Ike's hand (special effects!)."

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