http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2007-07-20-turner_N.htm
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Ike Turner will have the stage, but not the day, when he performs in St. Louis in September.
Mayor Francis Slay has turned down a request to make Sept. 2 "Ike Turner Day." The 75-year-old singer is scheduled to perform that day at the Big Muddy Blues Festival.
Cathy Smentkowski, an aide to Slay, said that when the request "was brought to the mayor's attention, he did not feel comfortable issuing it." She declined to elaborate.
"We were only looking to celebrate his contributions to the music industry. Many entertainers have checkered pasts," festival director Dawne Massey told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "He helped put St. Louis rhythm and blues on the map."
Turner's past troubles include a 17-month stint in jail on a 1990 drug conviction.
He was depicted as a violent and abusive husband in What's Love Got to Do With It, a 1993 movie about ex-wife Tina Turner's life. In his 1999 autobiography, he disputed the movie's characterization of him.
Once a fixture of the nightclubs around St. Louis, Ike and Tina Turner met at a show in East St. Louis, Ill. They married and toured together before ending their tumultuous relationship in the late 1970s.
Bridget Brennan, executive director of the St. Louis Healthy Marriage Coalition, was among those who didn't want the mayor to honor Turner.
"We believe there is a zero tolerance for any kind of violence," Brennan said. "We would not want to honor someone who has publicly stated they have hit their wife."
Scott M. Hanover, a manager at Thrill Entertainment Group, which represents Ike Turner, said it was a "shame" that Turner's troubled history still follows him.
"People are living in the past," Hanover said. "They don't know the man I know. This ain't 1962."
Turner won a Grammy for his 2006 album, Risin' With the Blues.
― Roy Kasten, Monday, 23 July 2007 18:28 (eighteen years ago)
She declined to elaborate.
No shit she declined. Mayor Slay's office approved the request and then withdrew it when they got some heat. Fuck that.
― Roy Kasten, Monday, 23 July 2007 18:31 (eighteen years ago)
why not? i bet it would be a hit ...
― Eisbaer, Monday, 23 July 2007 18:39 (eighteen years ago)
I guess that's the thing, when you're famous and you abuse your equally famous wife for years, you have to accept that major cities will never name a day in your honor. Another reason not to abuse your wife.
― Mark Rich@rdson, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 00:07 (eighteen years ago)
Does St. Louis honor Miles?
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 00:15 (eighteen years ago)
Or Chuck Berry?
― kornrulez6969, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 00:22 (eighteen years ago)
OR another reason to make bigger fucking hits (music hits)!
― Jamesy, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 00:41 (eighteen years ago)
Exactly. The Miles remark isn't fair since he is KNOWN for his music, Ike isn't.
― sonderangerbot, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 00:42 (eighteen years ago)
Well, Mark, congrats on being as simple minded as Mayor Slay. Golly, I wonder who St. Louis is named after? How about Lindbergh Blvd? Mark McGwire Highway? For a minute there I thought I smelled hypocrisy.
Miles Davis has received honors from St. Louis institutions, but I don't believe there's an official "Miles Davis Day." There isn't one for Chuck Berry either, for that matter.
The Miles remark isn't fair since he is KNOWN for his music, Ike isn't.
Yeah, and let's be sure to keep it that way!
― Roy Kasten, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 01:10 (eighteen years ago)
Healthy Marriage Coalition--sounds like an Ike Turner cover band to me. Woeful day in the fine Gateway City indeed. Ike's changed, and so have we...I sure love those Ike instrumentals from the '50s and "You Got to Lose"...what's the problem??!!
― whisperineddhurt, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 02:23 (eighteen years ago)
The Miles remark isn't fair since he is KNOWN for his music, Ike isn't.-- sonderangerbot, Tuesday, July 24, 2007 12:42 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link
-- sonderangerbot, Tuesday, July 24, 2007 12:42 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link
uh whut
― hstencil, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 02:36 (eighteen years ago)
me thinks Roy Katsen honors Bill McClellan
― bnw, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 02:45 (eighteen years ago)
It's Kasten, Captain Anonymous.
― Roy Kasten, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 03:59 (eighteen years ago)
wait, did I just see someone try to equate 'roids with wife-beating?
― milo z, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 04:02 (eighteen years ago)
You tryin' to honor Ike?!
― Hurting 2, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 04:08 (eighteen years ago)
Mayor Slay is a spineless pious little man; he'll probably dig this thread enough to link it on his blog.
― Roy Kasten, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 04:17 (eighteen years ago)
To wit: What's Truth Got to Do With It?
― Roy Kasten, Thursday, 26 July 2007 16:46 (eighteen years ago)
this isn't something i can get really worked up about. ike doesn't need a day. lots of people don't have days. that's life.
― M@tt He1ges0n, Thursday, 26 July 2007 16:50 (eighteen years ago)
No kidding. So a mayor (correctly) intuited that if he dedicated a day to a guy most of America knows as the bad guy from Whats Love Got To Do With It he'd get tons of negative publicity. So what? I'm sure if he would have okayed it, there would have been a "Can you believe Ike Turner has his own day!!!" thread with all of us talking about how crazy it was.
― filthy dylan, Thursday, 26 July 2007 18:40 (eighteen years ago)
So what? So the truth, so not being a coward, so not being full of shit.
― Roy Kasten, Thursday, 26 July 2007 20:00 (eighteen years ago)
Because usually mayors make brave, open minded decisions when they dedicate a day to someone and aren't just trying to rally up some good P.R.
― filthy dylan, Thursday, 26 July 2007 20:04 (eighteen years ago)
Because the reversal has generated nothing but great publicity--for Turner. St. Louis, not so much.
― Roy Kasten, Thursday, 26 July 2007 20:20 (eighteen years ago)
Where is Tina in all this mess?
― filthy dylan, Thursday, 26 July 2007 20:50 (eighteen years ago)
Bartertown
― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 26 July 2007 20:57 (eighteen years ago)
fuck, Ike deserves like a week. get him to speak in front of some battered women and let them throw things at him, if that's what it takes. I mean Ike's probably sorry he did it, and at least is chastened by the movie and the perception that hitting Tina Turner was all he did, that and a lot of blow. to say that a city can't honor anyone who isn't perfect is inane and as Roy points out just makes St. Louis look bad. politicians are spineless but think about how good it would make the St. Looie mayor look if he directly addressed the "concerns" about "Ike" and said we're gonna honor him anyway, for his considerable contributions to American culture.
― whisperineddhurt, Thursday, 26 July 2007 21:05 (eighteen years ago)
"days" are stupid anyway. waste of time.
― M@tt He1ges0n, Thursday, 26 July 2007 21:05 (eighteen years ago)
Its not hard to make St. Louis look bad... I'm just glad no one suggested that we make the 3rd of July "Goo Goo Dolls Day" when the played that free show under the arch.
― jonathan - stl, Thursday, 26 July 2007 21:57 (eighteen years ago)
Dude, Slay would have, but he heard about that whole "Sex Maggots" thing.
― Roy Kasten, Thursday, 26 July 2007 22:37 (eighteen years ago)
I thought Goo Goo Dolls were from Buffalo.
― Pleasant Plains, Thursday, 26 July 2007 22:57 (eighteen years ago)