It was wonderful, well-deserved and long overdue when it was announced May 12, 2021 that Tina Turner was finally inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Today I am inducting Tina Turner into the Manifesters Hall of Fame.
Icon is an overused word but let’s face it, if you look it up in the dictionary you’ll see Tina’s beautiful face beaming back at you.
I am lucky to have seen her perform live several times but the biggest thrill was when she performed The Bitch is Back with Elton John on the VH1 Fashion Awards in 1995 to close the show. I was a Talent Executive on the special and spent the day on set, talent wrangling and watching Tina and Elton rehearse. She had a sore throat and we sent a PA out for chicken soup.
You can watch the performance – 56 and in heels! – here.
And then you must watch the Tina documentary on HBO if you haven’t already.
Owen Gleiberman said it best in his review in Variety:
I went into Tina feeling like I knew this story in my bones, but the film kept opening my eyes — to new insights, new tremors of empathy, and a new appreciation for what a towering artist Tina Turner is.
There’s one extraordinary detail, though, that everyone seems to have overlooked: Tina is a Master Manifestor.
In one of her 1985 interviews with Kurt Loder for the book I, Tina, Tina manifests the man she wants to meet and be with. I was awed and inspired. She has spoken often about her Buddhist practice and how important meditation and prayer are to her. In the documentary, we hear Tina speak into existence – via cassette tape – her heart’s desire:
I want a man without shame that says, I will not disappoint you. I am here for you. And it’s all right. You know why? Because I will receive it when I have earned it.
Later in another interview, shot in the back of a town car, she goes on: The man I’m looking for has to be a very strong man to wear, actually, the trousers, but not to dominate me. That’s fair.
She set the intention. She has faith but not an iron grip on the outcome. She acts as if it is happening.
The following year, in 1986, Tina Turner met the man of her manifestations: Erwin Bach, a German record company executive who picked her up at the Dusseldorf Airport. Tina said she felt it instantly, a kind of electricity, her hands were shaking and she knew their souls met. He was 30, she was 46. They pretty quickly became a couple and wed July 4, 2013.
