How Tina Changed My Life
More adventures from the vault
There was a bus waiting. A big bus, tinted windows but I could still see the exhaustion in the occupants’ eyes. There were some with pillows against the big greyhound rectangles and some heads just staring out the windows into space. I was looking up at them from the parking lot on the way to my car with my boys. We had just had a great night and we were on our way home. We’d been in the back room of the Cinnamon Cinder night club in North Hollywood dancing and trying to hit on the girls from The Valley. We always played a little piano in the back lounge area and sang whatever current song we’d learned while the band in the main room was taking a break.
That night it was Ike and Tina turner headlining and when I say headlining I mean not as in the 14,000 seat venues of the current day, I mean slogging it from city to city and club to club as top billing but bottom of the charts.
Standing there looking up at that bus and those faces sent a chill through me and as much as I loved the small singing groups I was in and the attention we got from the girls I realised in that one moment that I NEVER wanted to be a musician that did what they were doing. It didn’t look like fun, there was no romantic notions attached to those looks. It was pure exhaustion.
Another thing that struck me, and not in a good way, was the looks Ike was throwing at the Ikettes and the rest of the band during the performance. I could barely take my eyes off him because I was sure he was going to take his guitar and bash one of them in the head and not miss a beat. I was particularly worried about the drummer whom I will never forget, eyes popping hyper alert to every subtle raise of the guitar for a question or a slight turn of the head to hit those stops and starts so no one in the audience knew the military precision that band had to exhibit to keep from getting fined and to keep Ike happy. It was a gruelling joyless explosion of energy and precision.
From the moment they hit the stage at the Cinnamon Cinder the sheer energy of the Ikettes was enough to give you a heart attack just watching. Little did I know I would almost have one myself some 40 years later, of all places on stage, supporting Tina Turner.
My phone rang, and someone asked to speak to me, I just said “speaking”. They gave me a story about a band that was looking for a lead singer. Their singer had died and someone told them I was the type of voice that might fit the band. The band was from Belgium and had made quite a name for themselves. Like most European bands there were almost always one or two that appropriated the American style of blues or soul and tried to make it their own. As a black American it always seemed to me to be a cheap imitation of the original artists they tried to mimic. Some were better at it than others but if the band had any swag and a good fashion sense they could make a name for themselves in their own country. There were a few exceptions like The Average White Band and a few others, mostly coming out of the UK. Not so for the bands on the “continent” though. They were doing things to the music lyrically that would literally drive you up the walls if you were an English speaking person. Translating metaphors from Flemish into English was a very tricky linguistic problem you would end up with these mind bending word pretzels that would drive you insane as a song writer.
I didn’t know any of these things at the time and I wasn’t doing anything that required a commitment on my part other than singing sessions and recording demos so I thought I’d listen to what they had in mind.
The first thing that rubbed me the wrong way was they were calling to ask me to audition. I was insulted beyond belief. I had never auditioned for anything. People just asked me to do stuff because they knew what I could do. I wasn’t being arrogant I thought. If they had found my name or someone suggested they call me then surely they were calling me because they knew I could do the job well. So what was the big deal. At the time I had a mind to just say no because they must not have done their homework.
I listened to their pitch and said I’d get back to them. There were two things. One, I hadn’t been the lead singer or a front man of band for a while, more than 10 years. And two, I didn’t know anything about their music other than it was what they called blues or Blunk. I thought since they wanted to pay for me to come down from Hilversum that I would go down to Belgium, sing, get the gig and then tell them I didn’t really like the music, so thanks but no thanks. As it turned out they were really nice guys including an American guitar player that was a killer and basically the music director of the band. He and I hit it off right away and the next thing you know I’m sitting in a hotel press conference with all the biggest Belgium journalists asking me how I intend to fill the shoes of the deceased lead singer. It was surreal.
One album, a few gigs and lots of rehearsals later we got the biggest support tour of the year, Tina Turner’s Wildest Dreams tour!
Check out the video to hear the rest of the story!
The sound track to the video is called “Inside Out” from my band American Gypsy. It was recorded in 1976 but has been sampled a billion times for various artists, sound tracks and even background for TV guides. It’s one of the few original songs we were fortunate enough to muscle onto our debut album all those years ago. The group Groove Armada has a version called “Whatever Whenever” released sometime in early 2000. You can hear more below……..
If you are interested in hearing more stories about my musical journey please share these stories and sprinkle some love around. It helps me to grow creatively and hopefully provides you with a little entertainment. I’ll leave you with a thought for the day……
Love you guys….Peace out
So did you ever find out what that song that she admired was?