Tina Turner, the ‘Queen of Rock and Roll’ died peacefully on May 24, 2023, at the age of 83 after a long illness in her home in Kusnacht near Zurich, Switzerland, her family said in a statement. ”With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model.”
”With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model. With her music and inexhaustible vitality, Tina Turner thrilled millions of fans and inspired many artists of subsequent generations,” Turner’s spokesperson confirmed.
Turner’s funeral service will be a private affair, exclusively attended by Tina’s close relatives and friends. Her spokesperson shared: “Close friends and family will attend a private funeral ceremony.” The official announcement was made through Tina’s Instagram account, informing her devoted fans of her passing.
Tina Turner’s life was full of challenges. On one hand, she had a successful career but on the other, she faced traumatic domestic abuse and stress disorders. Also, she had numerous health issues in her entire life, all of which were devastating and life-risking.
While she was recovering from intestinal cancer and a stroke when her kidneys began functioning at only 20 percent and were ‘plunging rapidly’. She was faced with two choices: dialysis or a kidney transplant, and a choice needed to be made quickly.
The move was definitely extraordinary, her second husband music executive, Erwin Bach, made a life-changing decision at the age of 66 for their family. Tina Turner had given an insight into that difficult December day when they made the challenging decision in her autobiography, My Love Story.
Also, she recalled her illness and her relationship with her husband of nine years. However, Erwin Bach and Tina Turner have been together for over three decades after meeting in 1985. After 27 years together, they married in a civil ceremony on the banks of Lake Zurich in Switzerland in July 2013.
Tina Said, ”Only the transplant would give me a good chance of a near-normal life. But the chances of getting a donor’s kidney were remote.” The ‘Rock N Soul’ icon added she didn’t want to ”live on a machine”, saying, ”It wasn’t my idea of life. But the toxins in my body had started taking over. I couldn’t eat. I was surviving but not living and I began to think about death.”
”If my kidneys were going, and it was time for me to die, I could accept that. It was OK. When it’s time, it’s really time.” The heartache must be really disturbing, that is why Tina even signed up for assisted suicide before her husband stepped in and put a stop to it. ”He said he didn’t want another woman or another life,” Tina added.
The iconic singer got shocked when his husband urged that he wanted to give up one of his kidneys. Further, Erwin underwent testing to see if he was a match, and after getting all tests done, the couple went for surgery in April 2017.
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Thankfully, the surgery was successful and Tina clearly remembered the first time she saw her husband after the transplant. She said, ”The best moment was when Erwin came rolling into my room in his wheelchair. He somehow managed to look good, even handsome, as he greeted me energetically.”
He said: ” Hi, darling!” Tina mentioned that she was emotional, happy, overwhelmed, and relieved that they came out of this alive.
While Erwin recovered completely, Tina had to take immunosuppressant drugs forever, ensuring that her body doesn’t reject a foreign transplant.
Turner and Erwin first met when she landed at the airport in Cologne, Germany for her Private Dancer tour. Erwin Bach, who was a music executive with the label EMI, arrived to collect Tina in a Mercedes Jeep, a gift from her manager Roger Davies.
Off course, the singing star wasn’t impressed by the car but was taken away by the man driving it. She wrote in her autobiography, ”So this is what they call love at first sight, I thought. Oh my God, I am not ready for this. My heart suddenly started to beat BOOM BOOM BOOM, drowning out all other sounds. My hands were ice-cold.”
The lovely couple had two children together, Ronald Renelle Turner and Craig Raymond Turner, both of whom, unfortunately, passed away before their mother, Tina Turner.
