TINA TURNER

The most famous person to ever come from Haywood County was born under the name Annie Mae Bullock. Today she is known as Tina Turner. Her parents were poor farmers near Brownsville, and she was raised in the 1940s in the small town of Nutbush. In the 1950s her musical career was launched when she became a backup singer for Ike Turner, who she later married and divorced.

Through the years Tina Turner has had one of the longest lasting careers of any singer in America. Rolling Stone magazine once said that “when it comes to injecting energy and passion in a song, no one does it like Tina Turner.” And although her most played song today is probably “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” some of us who prefer her version of the song “Proud Mary.”