Originally appeared on E! Online
A member of one of music’s most iconic families has died.
Ike Turner Jr., the son of Tina Turner and Ike Turner, passed away Oct. 4 at a Los Angeles hospital, Tina’s niece Jacqueline Bullock confirmed to TMZ. He was 67.
The sound engineer died of kidney failure, Bullock told the outlet, adding that he had battled serious heart issues in recent years.
“‘Junior’ was more than a cousin to me,” she said in a statement obtained by Page Six Oct. 5, “but rather a brother, as we grew up in the same famed household together.”
Bullock went on to highlight Turner’s musical abilities, noting that they were inherited from his parents.
“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,” she continued. “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.”
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Turner went on to become a “sought after sound engineer,” Bullock noted, pointing to his work on his father’s final album Risin’ with the Blues, which won the Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album in 2007.
Tina adopted Ike Jr. and his brother Michael Turner — from Ike Sr.’s relationship with Lorraine Taylor — when she married Ike Sr. in 1962. Likewise, he adopted the “Private Dancer” singer’s son Craig Turner, and the couple welcomed son Ronald “Ronnie” Turner in 1962.
Turner also faced various setbacks during his lifetime, including an arrest two weeks before his mother’s death in May 2023. He was charged with crack cocaine possession and tampering with evidence, according to a police report obtained by E! News at the time.
Turner was predeceased by his brother Craig, who died by suicide in 2018, and his brother Ronnie, who passed away in December 2022. Ike Sr. died in December 2007.
