Tina Turner Got Her Iconic Stage Name From Her Ex-Husband, Ike Turner
- In 2020, Tina Turner recalled to CBS News' Gayle King how she got her iconic stage name.
- Turner said the moniker came from her former husband Ike Turner after the two recorded a song together.
- The music icon and "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll" died on Wednesday at 83.
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Tina Turner once recalled how she got her iconic stage name — and said it took some getting used to.
Turner, born Anna Mae Bullock, told CBS News in a 2020 interview that her former husband Ike Turner picked the stage name when the two recorded their debut single "A Fool In Love" in the early 60s.
Turner — who died Wednesday at age 83 — told CBS News' Gayle King that when the record arrived from the label, she saw the names "Ike & Tina Turner" on it and asked Ike where the name came from.
She had previously appeared on her first record as "Little Ann."
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"I said, 'Who's Tina?' and he said, 'You're Tina,'" Turner recalled.
What is now one of the most known and revered stage names in history was once hard for Turner to get used to, she told King.
"It was really hard to say in the beginning," she said.
The two Turners became one of the most successful musical acts of the 1960s and '70s, releasing hits such as "River Deep — Mountain High" and "Proud Mary."
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Turner has repeatedly recounted the domestic abuse and harrowing violence she faced from Ike in memoirs such as 1986's I, Tina. The best-selling autobiography was adapted into the 1993 film What's Love Got to Do With It starring Angela Bassett.
The music icon died on Wednesday, her family said in a statement. Tributes poured in for the legendary singer, who won eight Grammys and was dubbed the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll."
Bassett herself weighed in on the singer's death, writing in part in a statement to CNN: "Tina Turner showed others who lived in fear what a beautiful future filled with love, compassion, and freedom should look like. Her final words to me - for me - were 'You never mimicked me. Instead, you reached deep into your soul, found your inner Tina, and showed her to the world.'"
"I shall hold these words close to my heart for the rest of my days," the "Black Panther" star wrote.
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Other celebrities who paid tribute to Turner on Wednesday included Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, and singers Ciara and Gloria Gaynor.
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