*Little Richard and Bonnie Raitt were among the hundreds paying final respects to rock pioneer Ike Turner Friday at his funeral in Los Angeles – but the ceremony was not without drama.
The service at Greater Bethany Community Church City of Refuge in Gardena lasted nearly three hours and included performances of Turner's greatest hits (including "Nutbush City Limits" and "Proud Mary") by his eight-piece band, the Kings of Rhythm.
The ceremony began with a montage of photos from throughout Turner's life set to his song "Jesus Loves Me," which features the refrain "I'm a bad boy, but Jesus loves me anyway."
"Daddy wouldn't want any of us crying," said Turner's daughter, Mia Turner, according to the Associated Press. "He would want us to throw a party."
Little Richard described his friend as "one of the greatest musicians I have ever met in my life," and told mourners that Turner's breakthrough rock 'n' roll hit, "Rocket 88," "shook my soul."
"I took that same introduction and made `Good Golly, Miss Molly,'" he said. "I took that same thing and made a huge hit."
Music producer Phil Spector (center) is blessed by Edwin Perry, with rising hands, during service for Ike Turner
Veteran music producer and murder suspect Phil Spector also spoke at the service, and had much to say about Ike Turner's contribution to American music being overshadowed by his exposure as a drug addict and abusive husband following the publication of ex-wife Tina Turner's biography, "I, Tina," and biopic, "What's Love Got to Do With It."
Spector told mourners: "First of all, the things that were said about Ike, that were in that piece-of-trash movie they made about him were ... (applause), it was a piece-of-trash movie."
In the film, a scene shows Spector approaching Ike and Tina after a television performance and requesting that Tina, played by Angela Bassett, sing lead on his song, "River Deep, Mountain High," without Ike. The movie depicts the slight as causing Ike, played by Laurence Fishburne, to have even more jealousy against Tina, which manifests in further physical abuse.
"I haven't seen the movie but it was told to me, and [Barney] Kessel was the world's greatest guitar player in the world and the only reason that Ike didn't play on 'River Deep, Mountain High' was because Ike was the second greatest guitar player in the world," Spector told the crowd, according to a witness quoted by Fox.com columnist Roger Friedman. "I treasured him and everybody knew it except Ike. That's how good he was.
"Ike made Tina the jewel she was. When I went to see Ike play at the Cinegrill in the '90s after his absurd reason for being sent to prison for no reason other than being a black man in America, there were at least, and I counted them, five Tina Turners on the stage performing that night, any one of them could have been Tina Turner."
According to Friedman, Spector also lit into Oprah Winfrey for inviting Tina Turner on her talk show in the early 90s to discuss "I, Tina," her autobiography that includes accounts of the physical abuse she suffered during her marriage to Ike.
"She made Tina Turner's book into a bestseller, which demonized and vilified Ike," Spector reportedly said. "The book wouldn't have sold 10 books. It was badly written. It was a piece of trash and because Oprah idolized Tina, she didn't feel it wrong to vilify a 'brother.'
"Other black sisters did the same thing to Ike and there was a very famous story about Whoopi Goldberg, who had a television show for about five minutes, interviewed Ike. Ike had called me and said, 'Shall I do the show?' I said, 'You can't get hurt.' And he said, 'OK, I'm going to do it.' And we figured it would be good because it's Whoopi and Whoopi asked him, 'I understand before you were married when you were living together, you beat the hell out of her and she tried to commit suicide because she was so terrified of you and she tried to jump out of a window,' and Ike said, 'Yeah, but it's hard to jump out of a window from a basement floor.'"
Spector said part of the reason he became disillusioned with the record business was because he could not make Ike and Tina as big of an act as he wanted.
"I wanted them to be the biggest revue in America. They were the first act that I recorded that ever could play big-time and break it in Vegas and America," said Spector, who stood trial for murder earlier this year for the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson. A judge declared a mistrial in September after jurors failed to reach a verdict.
Many speakers alluded to Turner's personal woes, though none directly addressed his history of drug and domestic abuse.
"Stop holding this mess — whatever it is — against this man. Even Jesus forgives," said Richard, 75, who left the service early, aided by a walker and several assistants.
Ike Turner Jr., who brought his father's two Grammy Awards on stage, told the crowd: "He made billions and billions and billions of people happy. He had the best life."
The service concluded with scores of mourners gathering near Turner's casket, which sat beneath a guitar-shaped wreath made of white flowers. A 10-piece horn-and-drum ensemble played as mourners left the church, reports AP.
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