Interviews; Highlights - Tina Turner

My first interview with Tina Turner took place at her home in Notting Hill. At the start of the interview, I mentioned unemotionally that her track 'Simply the Best' had entered the British charts at number 11. Tina corrected me, bellowing excitedly - NUMBER ELEVEN! It was refreshing to meet a star who allowed themselves to still be thrilled by their success. After that, I looked forward to every interview, about ten in total, as each one provided me with a transfer of energy. To meet an artist who was as positive, warm and level-headed as Tina was in strict contrast to my own emotions, which would swing wildly at that time from elation to depression. But I was never at such a low point in my life as I was in 1995 when I met her during my tenure at Viva 2 in Germany. I was trapped in a job I hated. I was a rabbit in the headlights waiting for the inevitable - the end of my career. At the height of my despair, I received an invitation to interview Tina at the Ritz in Paris for a British show coinciding with her 60th birthday. Tina greeted me with a warm hug. During the interview, she told me that she used to think her life was over during her own tough period with Ike, far worse than mine. She told me that life does not end at 40, nor at 50. She said that there can always be change and that she found her way. She asked me directly if I understood what she was saying. I did. Later, what she had said to me reverberated in my head and I felt a flicker of hope for my own future. I didn't just want to survive my situation. Survival would feel like a state of limbo, never really getting over the past, always looking back and never forward. Always feeling embittered. And then it clicked, no-one can end your career, only yourself. And I understood what Tina means to people. She does not embody the survivor. That doesn't do her justice. What lies beneath is much stronger and more powerful. Tina represents triumph over adversity because she decided to triumph. And that triumph is what resonates with all of us.?