THE GREATEST COMEBACK

AT THE START OF THE EIGHTIES, TINA TURNER WAS BROKE, ON THE RUN FROM IKE, AND PLAYING CHEESY CONVENTIONS. THE INSIDE STORY OF HER MIRACULOUS SECOND ACT

- DAVID BROWNE

One day in London’s Kensington district in 1983, Tina Turner’s resurrection finally appeared within reach. The prior decade had been one of stage-shaking triumphs, personal nightmares, various degrees of mortification, and now, a chance at possible redemption. But as musician and producer Martyn Ware soon learned, Turner’s past was never in the rearview mirror — and on that day, it was terrifyingly in her face.

The previous year, Turner had sung on an edgy, pulsating remake of the Temptations hit “Ball of Confusion,” and now Ware — who had co-helmed that track, had co-founded the Human League, and was a member of Heaven 17 — was meeting with her to map out another collaboration. Arriving at what he recalls as “a beautiful kind of mansion” where Turner was staying, Ware took note of security guards outside. To his shock, Ware says, he was told that Turner’s ex-husband, Ike, who had previously served 30 days for drug possession and wasn’t averse to shooting at the newspaper delivery guy or making threats on his wife’s life, was in the city and calling; he was apparently trying to scale the walls of the building to demand money from Tina. “It was still going on then,” Ware says. “And I thought, ‘Tina is having to deal with this on a continuous basis.’ She did everything with such grace, poise, and good humor. She must have been hurting underneath it all.”