Tina Turner is the queen of rock & roll. There’s no disputing that. Her flashy performance style (That fringe! Those legs! The wigs!) has inspired generations of rock and pop stars, ranging from Mick Jagger to Beyoncé. Her voice is in a class of its own, molten with swagger and emotion. Her influence is still reaching the further depths of music, having expanded the once-limited idea of how a Black woman could conquer a stage and be both a powerhouse and a multidimensional being.

Born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in Brownsville, Tennessee, the rock & roller led a life that was anything but easy before she eventually pursued a solo career. She was a fighter, a choice that was made for her. Her father was abusive, and her mother ran away from the family, leaving Bullock and her sisters to fend for themselves. As a teen, she found solace in St. Louis nightclubs, which soon put her in Ike Turner’s orbit. She joined his Kings of Rhythm in 1957, and within a few years Bullock was renamed Tina Turner. As a married couple, they became the Ike & Tina Turner Revue