Tina Turner credited David Bowie with saving her career in resurfaced interview

American pop and soul singer Tina Turner with English singer-songwriter David Bowie, 1985. Photo / Getty Images

Tina Turner credited her rumoured one-time lover David Bowie with saving her career.

The ‘Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll’, whose death aged 83 was announced on Wednesday after a six-decade career, told how the late ‘Ziggy Stardust’ icon helped her back on her feet after she was left feeling lost and isolated following her divorce from her violent, controlling husband Ike Turner.

She told Female First in a resurfaced interview from 2004: “In 1983 David Bowie did something very special and significant for me.”

“We were on the same label, but the decision had been taken not to re-sign me. David, however, had just had his contract renewed by Capitol, who wanted to take him out to dinner that night in New York to celebrate.”

Singers Tina Turner and David Bowie backstage at the Birmingham NEC. Photo / Getty Images

“‘I’m sorry,’ he told them, ‘but I’m going to the Ritz to see my favourite singer perform.’ And that was me.”

The refusal by David – killed by liver cancer aged 69 in 2016 – prompted a record label “bigwig” to tag along to the show, according to Tina, who said: “Luckily it was a great show. Seeing it and the crowd’s reaction turned ‘round how Capitol viewed me.”

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She went on: “It was because of David that I got another deal, and everything else followed. I’ll be ever thankful to him.”

Tina included David’s ‘1984′ hit on her ‘Private Dancer’ album, released in 1984, and which made her a solo sensation following her split from her ex-music partner Ike.

The pair later collaborated for the first and only time, releasing a duet of David’s 1984 song ‘Tonight’, a live version of which was included on Tina’s 1988 live album ‘Tina Live in Europe’.

It’s been rumoured for years Tina and David slept together – with her confidant and personal assistant Eddy Hampton Armani telling in 2020 how the singer told him David came out of a shower when they were backstage together in the 1980s, “stark naked” apart from one of Tina’s wigs.

Tina’s insisted she never had a fling with David, and the Daily Mail quoted him on Thursday as saying: “Tina always denied that she slept with David. But she did tell me, ‘David is more man than a lot of people think.’”