Tina Turner, known as the “Queen of Rock and Roll,” has died at the age of 83 at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland. The media has praised her vibrant performing talents and career achievements. However, many people are not aware that Turner has been a believer in the Soka Gakkai International Nichiren Buddhism for the past 50 years.
The Soka Gakkai is a lay group of Nichiren Buddhism founded in 1930 in Japan. Today, the international organization is known as the Soka Gakkai International (SGI). This form of Buddhism is promoted in the United States through the organization now known as the Soka Gakkai-USA (SGI-USA).
Turner was introduced to the organization by Valerie Bishop, who was hired by Turner’s first husband, musician Ike Turner, to work in the recording studio.
Turner’s Buddhist practice initially developed in the context of her first marriage and continued into her solo career. This provided inspiration for some of her projects later in her career.
As a scholar of South Asian and American Buddhism, I have studied the careers of African American Buddhist artists in depth. Tina Turner was particularly committed to spreading Buddhism through her works and later recordings.
Born on November 26, 1939, Turner grew up in the community of Nutbush, Tennessee. Her family was Baptist and worshipped at Woodlawn Missionary Baptist Church and Spring Hill Baptist Church. They also sometimes attended a black Pentecostal church near Knoxville, Tennessee.
While researching my upcoming book, Dance in a Dream: A Spiritual Biography of Tina Turner, I discovered that Turner’s religious influences extended far beyond the institutionalized religion of African Protestantism.
In her memoir, Happiness Belongs to You, Turner describes her grandmother’s deep and mystical connection to nature, suggesting that her grandmother was immersed in the more mystical veins of southern black religious culture.
In 1957, she met Ike Turner. Initially, she joined his band as lead vocalist, and they later formed a musical partnership under the name The Ike & Tina Turner Revue.
The duo enjoyed chart success with songs such as “A Fool in Love,” “River Deep – Mountain High,” “Proud Mary,” and “Nutbush City Limits.” Despite their public success, Ike was often abusive toward Tina Turner in private.
Members of the Soka Gakkai began arriving in the United States in the 1950s. Because the members spoke mostly Japanese and were geographically dispersed, their initial efforts to spread Nichiren Buddhism in the United States had little success.
However, this changed in 1960. Under the leadership of the third president, Daisaku Ikeda, the Society’s American chapter was officially established.
Under his guidance, they spread the basic practice of Nichiren Buddhism – chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo before a scroll called the Gohonzon. They preached that this practice would lead to a “human revolution”, a process of gradual inner transformation and empowerment.
It seems that what initially attracted Tina Turner was Nichiren Buddhism’s understanding of personal empowerment and human revolution. In a 2020 interview with Tricycle magazine, Turner explained: “As I began to study Buddhism and chant more, I began to take responsibility for my life and make choices based on wisdom, courage and compassion. Soon after I began chanting, I began to realize that the power I needed to change my life was already within me.”
In the 1970s, changing her life meant leaving the Ike and Tina Turner Dance Company in 1976 and divorcing Ike Turner in 1978.
After the divorce, Turner had a rough ride as a solo artist until she revived her career and gained fame with the album Private Dancer in 1984. She subsequently released multi-platinum albums and toured the world to sold-out shows. Turner attributes each success to her Buddhist practice.
Her practice is documented in two autobiographies: the first, I, Tina, published in 1986; the second, My Love Story, published in 2018. Her practice also appears in the 1993 biographical film What’s Love Got to Do with It?, the 2009 interfaith album Transcendence: A Buddhist and Christian Prayer, and on stage in the musical Tina: The Tina Turner Musical.
Through all of these projects, Turner makes it clear that her practice of Nichiren Buddhism has sustained her over the past 50 years.
