Tina Turner is living in a space of forgiveness.
The pop diva says she’s forgiven former husband Ike Turner for years of physical abuse.
“As an old person, I have forgiven him, but it would not work with him,” Tina, 78, told the Times in an interview. “He asked for one more tour with me, and I said, ‘No, absolutely not.’ Ike wasn’t someone you could forgive and allow him back in. It’s all gone, all forgotten.”
However, she admits to sometimes thinking of Ike, who died in 2007. “I don’t know what the dreams are about,” she said. “The dreams are still there — not the violence, the anger. I wonder if I’m still holding something in.”
The pair split in 1976 after she showed up at a Dallas Ramada Inn in a bloody white suit, a scene made famous in “What’s Love Got to Do with It?,” a biopic about Turner’s life. Their divorce was finalized in 1978.
In “Takin Back My Name,” his 2001 autobiography, Ike partially acknowledged his behavior, saying, “Sure, I’ve slapped Tina. There have been times when I punched her to the ground without thinking. But I never beat her.”
Since then, Turner has enjoyed immense solo success with songs like “Private Dancer” and “Better Be Good to Me,” but her sound has changed.
“I didn’t like the blues because I didn’t like what they were singing about,” Turner explained. “The blues can bring you down a little. I like to be a little bit up, and as soon as I left Ike, I never sung heavy, heavy rhythm and blues anymore. ‘I Can’t Stand the Rain’ was a blues song, and also the songs of Tony Joe White were blues, but an up-tempo, fine kind of blues. That was the change in my life, to enjoy singing.”