Since Tina Turner and Elton John truly are two of the biggest music legends of all time, it would have been wonderful if they always were friends. After all, between their shared love for performing and everything each of them was forced to overcome, it certainly seems like they had a lot in common.
While John often was open about having a lot of celebrity friends, it turns out that Turner definitely wasn't one of them at times. Instead, there was so much tension in Turner and John's relationship at one point that they both spoke publicly about what led to their rift.
What Did Elton John Say About Feuding With Tina Turner?
During the '60s and '70s, Elton John and Tina Turner rose to international fame due to their immense musical talents. Unlike most musicians who rise to fame, the two performers beat all the odds by managing to remain relevant over decades.
By the late-'90s, John and Turner were considered to be legends by most people. More importantly, it was obvious to everyone that a lot of the people who love Turner's music adore John's songs and vice versa.
Given their shared fan base, it was a no-brainer for Turner and John to work together, and as it turns out that almost happened. In 2019, John released a memoir titled "Me" in which he went into the attempt to work with Turner.
In John's memoir, his first mention of planning to work with Turner in the late-'90s painted a picture of how things played out. "The idea of doing a joint tour with Tina Turner in 1997 was a nice idea that quickly turned into a disaster."
According to what John went on to describe, Turner called him during the planning of the tour they intended to go on. Instead of wanting to engage in a friendly or professional conversation, John described Turner's phone call to him as incredibly harsh.
"While it was at the planning stage, she rang me up at home, apparently with the express intention of telling me how awful I was and how I had to change before we could work together. She didn't like my hair, she didn't like the color of my piano, and she didn't like my clothes."
John continued, "You wear too much Versace, and it makes you look fat — you have to wear Armani,' she announced. I could hear poor old Gianni turning in his grave at the very idea: the houses of Versace and Armani cordially hated each other. Armani said Versace made really vulgar clothes, and Gianni thought Armani was unbelievably beige and boring. I got off the phone and burst into tears: 'She sounded like my f*****g mother,' I wailed at David."
As awful as John's description of his phone call with Turner sounds, he claimed things didn't get better when the two legends started working together in person.
"Incredibly, our working relationship got worse. In rehearsals, Tina wouldn't address any of the musicians in my band by name — she just pointed and bellowed 'Hey, you!' We started playing Proud Mary. It sounded great. Tina stopped the song, unhappy. 'It's you,' she shouted, pointing at my bass player, Bob Birch. 'You're doing it wrong.'"
John continued, "He assured her he wasn't and we started the song again. Once more, Tina yelled for us to stop. This time, it was supposed to be my drummer's fault. It went on like this for a while, every member of the band being accused of messing up in turn, until Tina finally discovered the real source of the problem.
"This time, her finger was pointed in my direction." John wrote, "'It's you! You're not playing it right!'" From there, John described his bad working relationship with Turner coming to a head.
"The subsequent debate about whether I knew how to play Proud Mary became quite heated, before I brought it to a conclusion by telling Tina Turner to stick her f*****g song up her a**e and stormed off. I've thrown plenty of tantrums in my time, but there are limits: there's an unspoken rule that musicians don't treat their fellow musicians like s***.
John went on to write, "I went to her dressing room and apologized. She told me that the problem was that I was improvising too much — adding in little fills and runs on the piano. That's how I've always performed — it's part of what I love about playing live."
"But Tina didn't think that way. Everything had to be exactly the same every time; it was all rehearsed down to the slightest movement. That made it obvious the tour wasn't going to work"
What Tina Tuner Said About Her Feud With Elton John
In 1999, Tina Turner was interviewed for a special titled "Divas Live '99". During that interview, Turner's past argument with John was brought up and she told her version of the events that led to their planned tour falling apart.
According to Turner's description of what happened, she mishandled how she spoke to John about how to play the song "Proud Mary". "I made a mistake when I needed to show him how to play 'Proud Mary'."
Turner then went on to describe how John reacted to her criticism. "You don't tell me how to play my piano." More notably, Turner said that things got out of control at that point, and she revealed what that took her back to.
"Oh lord, it just exploded. It was like the past slapping me back in the face." After clarifying that all she wanted from John was to "get a new arrangement." Turner claimed John lost it only to come to her later and apologize.
"I was wrong, I was wrong, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Finally, Turner accused John of not being "professional enough" and spoke about his reaction to the whole situation. "He's just very sensitive. Very, very sensitive."
Did Elton John And Tina Turner Make Up Before She Passed Away?
Looking back at the fact that Elton John wrote about his argument with Tina Turner more than two decades later, the situation seemingly stuck with him. For her part, Turner clearly had strong emotions about what happened a couple of years later at least.
Given the quotes that have surfaced about this whole situation, it is easy to conclude that John and Turner likely never got along. Fortunately, similar to how John's feud with Madonna ultimately played out, he made peace with Turner.
In John's aforementioned memoir "Me", he showed empathy for Turner by writing about how she might have been triggered by what happened. "Maybe it was insecurity on her part. She'd been treated appallingly earlier in her career, suffered years and years of being ripped off, beaten up and pushed around. Maybe that had an effect on how she behaved towards people."
More importantly, John revealed in his book that he and Turner mended things writing, "we made up later: she came for dinner and left a big lipstick kiss in the visitors' book." Furthermore, when Turner passed away in May 2023, John was one of the first of her peers to pay tribute to her life.
"We have lost one of the word’s most exciting and electric performers. A total legend on record and on stage. She was untouchable. Condolences to Erwin and her family. The saddest news. @tinaturner #RIP"