Through hard work and determination, I showed all the naysayers that maybe their preconceived doubts were wrong. I understood that although many people might have a limited view of me, I could help open their minds. When I started as a solo artist, I was a female Black singer in my forties with no money and few prospects for gigs. This is also what my Buddhist faith teaches: that our essential identities as human beings are equally precious, regardless of differences. I do my best to see people as individuals and emphasize common ground. In my view any labels people use to separate “us” and “them” are illusions and delusions.
TINA TURNER 2021 SKIN
I’ve always felt that superficial differences like skin color and social status shouldn’t matter. When you confronted discrimination as a Black woman, how did you respond? Fortunately, I got another chance to create spiritual music over the past decade in the Beyond Music interfaith albums. I wrote about my hometown of Nutbush in what became the 1973 hit “Nutbush City Limits.” Soon after, when I started practicing Buddhism, I also wrote some spiritual songs, but I never finished them. I started with the topic I knew best: my own life. I wanted to do something to help get us out of our career slump, so I decided to try songwriting. But by the early 1970s we hit difficult times, both personally and professionally. In the late 1960s I had some success with the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. When and why did you take up songwriting? Although I did have a bit of singing training in high school and even learned some opera, my voice and dance abilities have mostly come naturally to me.
TINA TURNER 2021 MOVIE
As a girl, every chance I got, I’d go to our local movie theater and memorize scenes so I could reenact them. Were your performance skills innate, or did you build them?
TINA TURNER 2021 PROFESSIONAL
But I never thought much of becoming a professional singer until I was older. I did love singing and dancing as a child, and everyone told me how much they enjoyed hearing me sing. My mother thought I would become either a nurse or a teacher, but in my heart of hearts, I knew those paths wouldn’t be mine. I always liked kids, and caring for others came naturally to me. I’m sure aspects of Anna have merged with Tina and vice versa.Īs a teenager I was a nurse’s assistant and looked after small children as well. Anna Mae is the homebody side and loves peace and quiet and privacy, and Tina is the artistic side and loves all kinds of artistic expression.
They’re two sides of my personality, two facets of my life. I credit my spiritual practice with all the positive transformations-from the smallest to the largest-I’ve had in my career and personal life. And the more I chanted and aligned my goals with an authentic desire to inspire happiness in others, the more my life began to improve. The more I studied Buddhist principles, the deeper I dug within myself and cleaned up whatever attitudes or habits were standing in my way. I came to understand that any achievement stems from inner change. I could easily stay calm and figure out the details instead of jumping to conclusions. But after I embraced Buddhism, it flipped. I used to get angry first and ask questions later.
My approach to life and work became calmer and more thoughtful, and my reactions were more tempered. My true self came out, and I became cheerful, confident, and resilient. After I began studying Buddhism and chanting Nam-myōhō-renge-kyō, I felt as if a different person emerged. The Buddhist teachings of compassion and kindness, which have much in common with the principles of “Love thy neighbor” and “Do unto others” that I learned from the Baptist influences in my childhood, have always been guiding forces for me. Of everything I’ve done to succeed as an artist, spirituality has had the greatest influence. How else has your spirituality-your Baptist upbringing and your Buddhist practice-driven you? Then I could see everything that came my way, both the highs and the lows, as an opportunity for self-improvement and for sparking hope in others. I saw that by overcoming my obstacles, I could build indestructible happiness and inspire others to do the same. After I began practicing Buddhism, I realized that my hardships could give me a mission-a purpose. Turner: I used to be baffled about why I had to endure so much abuse, because I hadn’t done anything to deserve it. HBR: You’ve had so many ups and downs in your life and career. Tina Turner, October 1996 | Anton Corbijn/Getty Images
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