The music world is still mourning the death of the Queen of Rock and Roll; however, her hometown of Brownsville, Tennessee is planning to pay their respects in a more permanent way.
Mayor Bill Rawls, Jr. plans to erect a statue monument of Tina Turner in the city’s Heritage Park near Carver High School which was the late singer’s alma mater. Rawls has already received support from local leaders who agree with his motion, according to TMZ
.Brownsville is also home to the Tina Turner Museum which fans visit to get an inside look at the young life of the singer before she became one of the world’s most cherished talents.
“When Tina stepped on stage, she owned it. We want this statue to represent that passion,” Rawls said.
“Tina was an inspiration to the entire world … She showed the people of Brownsville no matter where you start, you own your story about where you end up.”
Since her death last week, tributes have poured in from the likes of Lizzo, Janet Jackson and even Beyoncé, who has been at the center of a debate about lyrics rapped by her husband, Jay-Z, referencing the abuse Turner suffered at the hands of her ex-husband Ike on their hit song “Drunk In Love”.
Turner seemed to have made peace with all of the dark parts of her past before her death. In her HBO documentary Tina
, the 81-year-old singer named her introduction to Buddhism as well as the love of her, now widow, Erwin Bach, as big proponents to the calm she’d been able to reestablish after a tumultuous upbringing and a well-documented turbulent first marriage.“Buddhism was a way out, and it changed your attitudes towards the situation that you’re in,” she said in the documentary.
“The more you chant, the more you become liberated mentally.”
As for Bach, who she married in 2013 after 27 years together, Turner said the man who “had the prettiest face” gave her a soft place to land that she’d never experienced before.
“He was just so so different,” she said. “So laid back. So comfortable. So unpretentious. And that was the beginning of our relationship.”
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