Tina Turner has died at the age of 83 at his home in Kusnacht, near Zurich, Switzerland, his representative confirmed Wednesday. The music legend lived in Europe for decades and his neighbors in Switzerland paid tribute to him this week by laying flowers outside his estate.
“When he was passing by, he was smiling, he could feel us looking at him, but was always very discreet,” a neighbor named Christine told Reuters.
“He’s been a part of my life for over 35 years now and he was a good neighbor, he came to town, he was well liked,” said Costa, a neighbor.
Why did Turner go to Switzerland?
During a 1997 interview with Larry King, Turner said she left America because her “success” and lover, Erwin Bach, were in another country. Turner was born in Nutbush, Tennessee.
She and Bach, a German music executive, first moved to Switzerland in 1995, according to Reuters. Soon after marrying him in 2013, she renounced her American citizenship and became a Swiss citizen.
In an interview with “60 Minutes” Mike Wallace that same year, Turner explained his popularity in Europe. At the time, he was expected to make $100 million on a three-month European tour, and Wallace said he had no idea Turner was such a big star there.
“No one in America knows that,” Turner replied.
Tina Turner was a bigger star in Europe than in America. Tina Turner told Mike Wallace in 1996, “No one in America knows this. I mean, people are always shocked when I explain it.” https://t.co/zIUAs9mfhw pic.twitter.com/w4W7uSAe4M
— 60 Minutes (@60 Minutes) May 24, 2023
When Wallace asked how “American” he was, Turner said: “Still very American. I still can’t speak a foreign language here. I still pay American taxes. I own property in America. All my business is out of here. America still, ” he said. “But in my mind? I don’t think I’ll go home.”
According to Swiss newspaper Handelzeitung, Turner and Bach purchased a new 24,000 square foot home on Lake Zurich in 2021 for an estimated $77 million.
Turner told Gail King about life in Switzerland
Turner showed Gayle King his home in Zurich during a 2019 interview for “CBS Mornings.” “Is there anything in life, Tina Turner, that you want that you don’t have?” asked the king.
“No,” Turner replied. “I have everything. When I’m sitting on Lake Zurich, in the house I have, I’m very calm. I don’t have any problems.”
“I had a very difficult life that I didn’t blame anything or anyone,” says Turner, who has spoken publicly about the abuse she suffered during her marriage to Ike Turner. “I went through it, I lived through it no fault and I’m happy,”
CBS News
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