The 'Simply the Best' singer recounted her first meeting with the love of her life years ago, claiming it was a love at the first sight while she was riddled with insecurities.
- Jun 5, 2023
AceShowbiz - Tina Turner was smitten by her husband Erwin Bach when he delivered her a new Mercedes as a present from her manager. The "Private Dancer" singer, who passed away on May 24 from natural causes at the Swiss compound she shared with German music producer Erwin, 67, first met him in 1985 - seven years after she finalised her divorce from her abusive first husband Ike Turner.
"That particular week in 1985, the next date on my tour was in Cologne, Germany," she told in her astonishingly candid memoir "My Love Story" about Erwin delivering an expensive thank-you present on behalf of her manager Roger Davies, 71.
"As my manager, Roger, and I flew into the city, I was tired and a little down, thinking of the gruelling schedule ahead. We were walking through the airport when a young man stepped out from behind a column to greet us."
"I thought he might be a fan, but Roger greeted him warmly. Erwin Bach, an executive from EMI, my record company in Europe, had turned up to deliver a surprise gift to me from Roger - a new Mercedes jeep, the hard-to-get G-Wagon."
Tina added about immediately falling for Erwin, "But the real surprise wasn't the car, it was the man. My heart suddenly started to beat BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, drowning out all other sounds. My hands were ice-cold. So this is what they call love at first sight, I thought. Oh my God, I am not ready for this."
But Tina said as Erwin gave her a lift to her hotel in the Mercedes to explain its features, she was suddenly riddled with insecurities. She added, "Suddenly, I felt very insecure about my looks. I was wearing an Issey Miyake sweater with leather jeans - rock 'n' roll stuff - and my hair was big, big, big in those days."
"But if you ask me, I didn't look so good and I doubt that Erwin found me attractive. Oh, and if the hair wasn't enough of a turn-off, I was 46, divorced and the mother of two sons and two stepsons, who were now practically men themselves."
Tina added she later found out he had felt the same "electrical charge" as her and they married in 2013 - the same year he nursed her through a stroke, and four years before he donated one of his kidneys to the singer to save her life after years of her battles with kidney problems that could have killed her before the transplant.
