Mick Jagger is remembering Tina turner following her death at 83. After Turner’s publicist confirmed Wednesday that the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll passed away peacefullyin her home in Kusnacht near Zurich, Switzerland after a long illness, the Rolling Stones lead singer joined the chorus of celebrities and fans to pay emotional tribute to the legendary singer.
Jagger honored Turner on Instagram, where he penned a sweet message reflecting on their decades-long friendship and Turner’s career alongside a photo of the late singer. Writing that he was “so saddened by the passing of my wonderful friend Tina Turner,” the Rolling Stones frontman remembered Turner as “truly an enormously talented performer and singer. She was inspiring, warm, funny and generous. She helped me so much when I was young and I will never forget her.”
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Jagger and Turner have a long history together that dates back to the 1960s when Turner and her husband, Ike, opened for the Rolling Stones on tour. Later reflecting on that moment in a 1997 interview with Larry King, per Today, Turner described the experience as “fun” and “fantastic,” adding, “My first experience was when Mick Jagger walked in the dressing room without knocking and says, ‘I love how you girls dance.’ That was my first introduction. I didn’t know who he was.”
In the decades that followed, Turner and Jagger collaborated numerous times, performed on each other’s tours, with Turner opening for The Rolling Stones at several concerts during their 1981 U.S. tour, and took to the stage together, including at the Live Aid Festival in Philadelphia, where Jagger famously tore off Turner’s skirt while onstage.
“Mick and I could never just stand there and sing – that wasn’t us. We had to do something. He looked me over. I was wearing a tight-fitting black leather top and skirt and I could see a naughty idea forming,” Turner wrote of the moment in her 2018 autobiography Tina Turner: My Love Story. “‘Does that skirt come off?’ he asked slyly. ‘What?’ was my startled reply… ‘I’m going to take your skirt off.’ I asked him why, but it was too late to talk it through, Mick had already made his mind up to do it. It wasn’t as if some random guy pulled off my skirt. It was like a boy I knew did it. A very old boy.”
Just a month before her death, Turner opened up about her relationship with Jagger, revealing in an interview with The Guardian that she “always had a crush” on the Rolling Stones lead singer. In that same interview, Turner also revealed how she would like to be remembered, telling the outlet, “As the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll. As a woman who showed other women that it is OK to strive for success on their own terms.”
