Ike Turner Jr., the son of music legends Tina Turner and Ike Turner Sr., has passed away aged 67.
Tina’s niece, Jacqueline Bullock, informed TMZ that Ike Jr. succumbed to kidney failure at a Los Angeles hospital on Saturday. Bullock also stated that Ike Jr. struggled with heart problems for years, and his health had exacerbated prior to his death. He also had a stroke in September.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of my cousin, Ike Turner, Jr.,” Bullock said in a statement. “‘Junior’ was more than a cousin to me, but rather a brother, as we grew up in the same famed household together.”
“As the son of Tina and Ike Turner, from an early age, his talents were evident as there wasn’t an instrument he did not want to play. While he favored the drums early on, my aunt and his mother, Tina Turner, insisted that he break down his drum kit after each practice. This led him to favor the keys. Eventually, Junior would end up helping to run Bolic Sound Studios, the recording studios founded by his father, Ike Turner,” Bullock added.
“While he faced the same challenges that many of us have, he would become a sought after sound engineer, musician, and Grammy winner for Best Traditional Blues Album in 2007 for his father’s ‘Risin’ With The Blues.’”
Ike Jr. was not Tina’s biological son, but she adopted him when he was young. He later became Tina’s sound engineer, though briefly, after she divorced from her ex-husband and his biological father, Ike Sr.
Ike Jr. was arrested for crack cocaine possession and tampering with evidence in June 2023, and he was in prison when Tina died.
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As previously reported by Face2Face Africa, Tina passed away on May 24, 2023, at the age of 83, following a long illness in her home near Zurich, Switzerland.
Tina, who last officially toured in 2009, was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939. She rose to fame as a backup singer in Ike Sr.’s King of Rhythm band in 1958. She later became one half of the prestigious duo, the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.
Ike Sr. passed away on December 12, 2007.
