American music legend Tina Turner passed away this week at age 83 in her Switzerland home. She was known for iconic vocals, energetic dance moves and overcoming an abusive relationship to skyrocket to superstardom. But not many people know she recorded music in the East Texas studios of Robin Hood Brians.
Mike Landess: For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess. Here in Tyler and East Texas, you’ll find great music, great musicians and one of the premier recording facilities in the country, Robin Hood Studios. Through those doors and in front of those microphones have come some of the elite of popular music to be recorded by Robin Hood Brians, and he’s our guest today.
Robin Hood Brians: Hello, Mike.
Mike Landess: It’s good to have you back again. We talked to you last year. In the half century you’ve been recording musical artists, you’ve rubbed shoulders with many greats, but we’ve just learned that we lost Superstar Tina Turner, and you had an encounter with her before she left Ike Turner and the the Ikettes.
Robin Hood Brians: Indeed I did. I got a call, and they wanted to record late at night. And they invited us over to a club in Gregg County to hear them on Friday night. About halfway through the show, Ike got really mad at the bass player. He put his guitar down. He went over and ripped the bass out of the hands of the bass player and told him to go out to the bus, get his clothes, and get outta sight. And the guy said, “Where am I supposed to go?” He said, “I don’t care. Just,” and of course there were expletives involved that I won’t repeat.
Mike Landess: This is in the show.
Robin Hood Brians: The song is still playing. Tina’s up there and the Ikettes are dancing.
Mike Landess: My goodness.
Robin Hood Brians: And Ike is taking the bass and he said, “This is my bass. I own it. You get your clothes and get off the bus.”
Mike Landess: Oh, boy.
Robin Hood Brians: And so he played bass the rest of the night. And that was my introduction to what I may be in for on the next night. We had heard rumors about Ike. It wasn’t hard to tell that Ike probably had bipolar disorder. When they brought their bus in, you know, everybody knew that driveway had seen some busses of ZZ Top and other famous people.
Mike Landess: This is your driveway into your studios on Sunnybrook.
Robin Hood Brians: And so they brought the bus in and started unloading their stuff.
Mike Landess: They had by this time recorded “Proud Mary.” And it had been a huge hit for them.
Robin Hood Brians: She was a big artist by the time she came.
Mike Landess: Well, and although it was Ike and Tina, it was Tina.
Robin Hood Brians: It was Tina. Yeah.
Mike Landess: It was Tina and the Ikettes, I mean those, those dances. And the moves and the incredible song. And the Proud Mary Song, taken from the Credence Clearwater song, that they did a different twist on and did an amazing job and had a huge hit.
Robin Hood Brians: Tina had her own thing going. It was Ike and Tina, but like you say, it was Tina because she put on the show, she did the dancing, and the Ikettes were there dancing with her. They didn’t do much dancing in the studio, but boy, she was like all the other real pros I’ve worked with. They do a little rehearsing, and then you throw the switch. And when you throw the switch, that means you’re in front of a thousand people and get a performance. You don’t wanna sit there and do 30 takes of something and choose. You want to explode one time and give everything you’ve got. And they did. And Tina was fantastic to work with. She was wonderful. She was born with the most incredible, strong voice. It’s amazing. When Ike walked through the door, he was trying to let you know he was in charge. When Tina walked through the door, you knew who the star was because of the way everybody else treated Tina. They treated Ike with kid gloves. But they treated her with respect and love and admiration. And I grew to love that lady, and I grew to respect her immensely. And at one point, Ike acted like he was coming over to slap her, and I put my hand up, and I said, “Sir, not in this building.”
And he looked at me. I said, “Let’s make some music.” And he kept staring at me, and I looked, I stared right in his eyes. I didn’t blink. He says, “OK, let’s start this over.” And then he moved away. But one of my friends said, “What would you have done if he would’ve pulled a knife on you and put you against the wall?”
I said, “I would’ve expected the drummer to pick up a mic boom and help me out.”
Mike Landess: One would hope! You had a little story that you wanted to share.
Robin Hood Brians: I had a conversation years later with Jerry Wexler and he told…
Mike Landess: He’s the label owner who signed Tina right after she left…
Robin Hood Brians: Atlantic Records.
He said, “You know, we signed Tina. We had a big dinner one night, and we were preparing to record the new album to have a national tour. And our press people were there, and we were talking about what we were gonna say and we’re gonna have a press release in a week, and it was going to be wonderful.
And then somebody asked Tina, “Tina, did you and Ike ever record stuff while you were out there on the road?” She says, “Oh yeah, we did about four albums.” They said, “What happened to them?” And she said, “Well, Ike didn’t trust the labels to ever pay any royalties. So we would get together 10 songs, and then Ike would sell them outright to people.”
Mike Landess: At the shows, I guess?
Robin Hood Brians: No, to a label. Small label. And they said, “Who’s got those right now?” She said, “Oh, I think I have a copy of all four.” So Jerry said, “I turned to the publicity people and said, ‘We’re gonna take Tina on Long Island to my place out there. Do not say a word to anyone about signing her. Don’t let anybody know we’ve signed up Tina Turner.'” And they put a team together to go out and find the owners of those albums and buy all four of them back. And of course, not as Atlantic Records. These guys said, “Well, I’m a collector. I just wanna own an album by her, the master tape and everything.” So they sent those people out, and it took ’em 2 months, and they found those masters, and they bought all the rights back before they announced that they were gonna promote Tina Turner.
Mike Landess: Now, where’s Ike in all of this? By this time she’s left him, obviously.
Robin Hood Brians: She’s left him, and you know the thing a lot of people don’t realize is Ike had trademarked her name and owned it. Tina Turner. That was not her real name.
Mike Landess: Anna Mae Bullock was her real name.
Robin Hood Brians: Yeah. He had trademarked that name. So when they got a divorce, all she wanted was her name. She left him property, bank accounts, investments, everything. She walked away from all of that. She said, “All I want is my name.” And some people whispered in Ike’s ear, I think. And he gave up the name. He signed it over to her.
But Tina, she couldn’t help it. She just exuded “star.” Because God made her a star, and she fulfilled his legacy that he put in her when he created her.
Mike Landess: Our guest has been iconic Tyler recording studio owner Robin Hood Brians. To hear this interview again or to share it, go to KVUT.org. I’m Mike Landess for UT Tyler Radio.
(Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)