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Tina @ Home With The
Queen of Rock - A Visit At Her Mansion
In The Mediterranean (1999) |
 Surrounded by the
sumptuousness of her mansion in the south of France, Tina Turner oozes
sexuality. Its hard to believe the raunchy songstress will turn 60 at the
end of this month. But for the singer who once famously said she still
plans to work when she's 90, age is unimportant and, with the hits still
flowing, the ever-youthful rock diva has good reason to be in buoyant
mood.
Tina has celebrated her birthday early with the release of yet another
single, when the heartache is over, from her latest album, Twenty Four
Seven. And her landmark year has already been recognized by a flood of
tributes. Earlier this month she collected the coveted lifetime
achievement award at the MOBO Awards (Music of Black Origin), and
Britain's ITV will mark her extraordinary life with a TV special close to
her big day, November 26th.
Although thrilled by the accolades, Tina is not interested in dwelling in
her past. While many retrospect's have focused on her relationship with
singer Ike Turner, she points out that the story of their unhappy marriage
has already been well and truly documented in both her autobiography, I
Tina, and later in the movie, What's Love Got To Do With It.
And despite her heartbreak over the recent death of her 81-year-old
mother, Zelma, the entertainer prefers to look towards the future. With
her apparently inexhaustible energy, Tina is aiming to add to her 17 top
ten hits and 60 million records sold worldwide. While she will no doubt
perform her famously raunchy shows to sold out auditoriums during her
upcoming world tour, planned for next June.
Off-stage she has just finished decorating Anna Fleur, her French hideaway
in the town of Ville-Franche on the Cote d'Azur, which she shares with
long-time German partner, record boss Erwin Bach. And the moment she swung
open the doors to give us a guided tour, it was clear the queen of rock is
very much a homebody, as she dwelt on every detail of the house she has
lovingly decorated.
"Finally finishing the work on this house has given me a tremendous sense
of achievement,", she says from her balcony overlooking a suburb view of
Nice below. "I am delighted with the way it has finally come together.
It's full of the dreams I had while I was traveling - only its better than
I anticipated."
It was Tina's Australian manager, Roger Davies, who first saw, and
encouraged her to buy, the French home. Knowing her love for Europe, which
the singer considers home, he felt sure she'd fall in love with the house,
which nestles in four acres of forested hills.
 In addition to
Anna Fleur, Tina already owns another home in Zurich, Switzerland, which
she had only just renovated before transforming her French retreat. "I
love the mountains and greenery," she says, breathing in the crisp, fresh
air high above the Mediterranean. "When I come home, I still find the
scenery overwhelming and that's after 14 years of living in Europe."
"If I'm in America for work, I find myself hunkering to return. I may be
an American in a foreign country but I am very happy, very comfortable and
very contented here. Europe offers me security. It is a place where I have
found more success, more appreciation, and that makes me feel comfortable.
And of course I am fortunate to have two lovely homes here and this is
where my relationship is based."
Having insisted on preparing a light lunch, Tina throws together a leafy
green salad and makes a delicious pesto sauce from scratch, to add to
healthy fresh pasta. Someone who loves eating al fresco in typical
Mediterranean style, Tina has the table set outside near the barbecue
where she and Erwin often enjoy a romantic meal together in the evening.
 While the
couple can obviously afford a personal chef, its Erwin who does most of
the cooking. She admits, "Nowadays I find extravagant cooking for large
groups of people less and less interesting and the preparation involves
too much work. Erwin is a very good cook and he does a lot of it. In
general, we eat pasta galore, a lot of Thai food, chicken, prawns, and
loads of salads."
She talks animatedly about her life with Erwin, who is 16 years her
junior. But, although people seem to be constantly fascinated about
whether they will marry or not, Tina is deliberate in her choice of words
when discussing the subject. "He does not want children anymore, so we
don't need to marry because we live like a married couple anyway."
"The reason we have been together so long is because we are very honest
with each other and I just think at this point a wedding would simply be
one big party - and we have parties all the time. Besides I don't need an
excuse to wear wonderful dresses. And I don't need that attention. I am
secure."
While she refuses to discuss the past, Tina does have four children, with
whom she has never cut ties. " My own are 41 and 39 years old, there are
also Ike's other two children who are even older. The mother side of me
still cares about them but they have not really found their place in life
yet. Maybe they are late bloomers. I'm waiting to see."
As a Bryan Adams song blares in the background, Tina launches into a story
about how she worked on the house, despite often being thousands of miles
away on tour. "In the beginning. I rented a place nearby so I could
personally oversee the building work and then later, when I was on tour, I
continued organizing everything over the phone," she says, breaking off a
healthy portion of crusty bread. "On my days off, I loved going shopping
to find things for the house and would come back with sample after
sample."
Tina Turner is a woman who knows exactly what she wants. At work, she
oversees each minute detail from the choreography to the outfits worn by
the dancers and, if necessary, tells the musicians to curb their language.
Everything she does is deliberate. Which is why she laughs when describing
how the designers, who specially flew in from the States, were shocked to
discover that the bulk of decorating had already been done before they
arrived.
"I only really wanted them to cast a professional eye over the place and
help hang the artwork correctly," she says matter-of-factly. "They changed
the odd mirror here and there, but I was confident about what I had
already done. They did try to split up my Louis Phillipe furniture and
moved some of it into the bedroom but I insisted that it stayed together
as a set.
People who visit the queen of rock at home for the first time are often
surprised by what they find. They expect her wild stage performances to
somehow be reflected in her taste in interiors, only to discover it is
both classic and simple. The singer of hits like 'What's Love Got To Do
With It', 'Private Dancer' and 'River Deep, Mountain High', says people
often seem to expect her to keep up her raunchy image all the time." "They
come here and expect to find everything to be modern with the furniture
made of leather," she says "And it's not. I like classic things. I love
walking around old gardens of old homes."
If her interior design is conservative, other gestures are less so. Such
as having an amphitheatre built in her backyard, for example. But then,
for a rock 'n' roll star who loves entertaining as much as she likes to
perform, it is entirely functional. It has already been put to good use,
and will continue to be, with a number of special events planned for the
near future. Never one to forget those who have helped her in her rise to
stardom.
Tina plans to dedicate a house-warming party to the man who first
encouraged her to buy it, Roger Davies, who also looks after Cher and
Janet Jackson. "We've had a very successful working relationship of almost
three decades and I want to share that with a lot of people," she says.
"My dream is to make it very formal, with cocktails served in the front
garden and me greeting guests in a white tuxedo."
The amphitheatre will also be called into service, for a fancy dress
karaoke evening she also aims to hold. "I want everyone to get into a
Greek mood," she adds. "I have a karaoke machine, so everybody has to
perform. I want them to be the stars. Meanwhile, I'm planning to sing some
opera which is the last thing they'll expect."
 After
lunch, she continues the tour, talking us into the personal domain of her
bedroom. When she doesn't have a packed itinerary and is relaxing at home,
her biggest indulgence is breakfast in bed. "I love those days when it's
raining outside," she says, plunking herself on the inviting four-poster
bed with its plumped-up pillows. "I love to sit up and have breakfast as I
look out over Nice from up here on the top of the mountain."
Off to one side of her bedroom is a huge walk-in wardrobe, filled with
outfits by her favorite designers - from classic Armani trousers to Yohji
Yamamoto shirts - and neat rows of shoes. But despite being known for her
legendary shopping expeditions, the grandmother twice over claims that she
likes to recycle her clothes in the same way as she re-upholsters her
comfortable old sofas.
Similarly, while most of us would expect exercise to be the secret of her
eternal youth, its simply not on the menu. Nor, according to Tina, does it
need to be, because life on the road, singing and dancing since the age of
17, has kept her fit and healthy - and those fabulous legs and figure
permanently in shape.
It's something of a surprise, perhaps, that her continued appeal and
staying power has not resulted in forays into the world of acting.
Although she'd be interested if Hollywood came up with another suitable
movie offer, she says, Tina has been in the business long enough to
realize that strong black female parts are thin on the ground.
"I'm often offered roles as a prostitute", she says laughing out loud.
"But I am not prepared to do anything unless its as good as 'Mad Max:
Beyond Thunderdome'. And looking around the luxurious haven she has
created on the shores of the Mediterranean, its clear that it would take a
very special role to price her away from it all.
from Hello magazine (UK), Nov 1999 |
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