The HBO Tina Turner documentary blew my head off. That’s it. I’m not even going to try and find a more articulate way of starting today’s newsletter. I just watched a Black woman in her mid 40s launch herself into stardom and now I’m on fire. Look, I already knew Tina’s story. I was a kid when she made her big breakthrough in the 80s, so that Tina was the only Tina I had known until my 20s or so, when I learned about her history with Ike. But I hadn’t really put it together before, what it meant for her to sing in this band through her youth, get out of a toxic marriage, heal from that, and then build something of her own from scratch. When she was at the beginning stages of her reinvention, a producer asked her what her vision was. And it was so fucking grand! Not “oh, record an album that’s close to my heart” or “collaborate with so-and-so” or “make enough doing this so I can maintain my lifestyle.”
5 Questions for Tina Turner
5 Questions for Tina Turner
5 Questions for Tina Turner
The HBO Tina Turner documentary blew my head off. That’s it. I’m not even going to try and find a more articulate way of starting today’s newsletter. I just watched a Black woman in her mid 40s launch herself into stardom and now I’m on fire. Look, I already knew Tina’s story. I was a kid when she made her big breakthrough in the 80s, so that Tina was the only Tina I had known until my 20s or so, when I learned about her history with Ike. But I hadn’t really put it together before, what it meant for her to sing in this band through her youth, get out of a toxic marriage, heal from that, and then build something of her own from scratch. When she was at the beginning stages of her reinvention, a producer asked her what her vision was. And it was so fucking grand! Not “oh, record an album that’s close to my heart” or “collaborate with so-and-so” or “make enough doing this so I can maintain my lifestyle.”