Tina’s niece, Jacqueline Bullock, confirmed the news in a statement.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of my cousin, Ike Turner, Jr.,” the statement reads. “‘Junior’ was more than a cousin to me, but rather a brother, as we grew up in the same famed household together.”
“As the son of Tina and Ike Turner, from an early age, his talents were evident as there wasn’t an instrument he did not want to play. While he favored the drums early on, my aunt and his mother, Tina Turner, insisted that he break down his drum kit after each practice. This led him to favor the keys. Eventually, Junior would end up helping to run Bolic Sound Studios, the recording studios founded by his father, Ike Turner,” Bullock added.
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“While he faced the same challenges that many of us have, he would become a sought after sound engineer, musician, and Grammy winner for Best Traditional Blues Album in 2007 for his father’s ‘Risin’ With The Blues.’”
Bullock concluded her statement by saying the family appreciated the “outpouring of condolences” and is requesting privacy at this time.
Ike Jr. died of kidney failure, TMZ reported. He had been battling serious heart issues for years and his health had been declining, Bullock told the outlet.
Tina adopted Ike Jr. and son Michael at an early age from Ike Sr.’s previous relationship with Lorraine Taylor. Ike Jr. went on to become a successful musician in his own right, and he worked with both his parents professionally. He worked as Tina’s sound engineer after her split from the Kings of Rhythm frontman.
“Tina raised me from the age of two,” Ike Jr. told the Daily Mail in 2018. “She’s the only mother I’ve ever known.”
His relationship with the “Proud Mary” songstress was complicated and they were estranged before she died in May 2023 of natural causes.
“My mother is living her life — she has a new husband and she’s in Europe,” he also told the outlet. “She doesn’t want to have anything to do with the past.”
Ike Jr. was arrested for crack cocaine possession and tampering with evidence in June 2023.
Due to his run-in with the law, the musician was behind bars when Tina died. She was 83.
Ike Sr. died of an overdose in December 2007 after a decades-long battle with cocaine addiction. He was 76 years old.
