Tina Turner to rock out of retirement for new tour
Last Updated: Thursday, May 1, 2008 | 12:54 PM ET
CBC News
Three months after delivering a blistering performance at the Grammy Awards, R&B diva Tina Turner has announced she is coming out of retirement and heading back on tour.
Beyoncé Knowles, left, sings a duet with Tina Turner at the 50th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in February. (Getty) Turner made the announcement during an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, which filmed the interview last weekend in Las Vegas, but released remarks from the episode on Wednesday.
The 68-year-old musical icon said tickets would go on sale for the U.S. tour next week, with concerts to begin Oct. 1 in Kansas City.
Turner appeared on Winfrey's show alongside 61-year-old singer and actress Cher, who is preparing to launch a Las Vegas show.
Among other questions, Winfrey asked each woman how she felt about aging while maintaining a career in show business.
"I think it sucks," Cher replied.
"That number doesn't mean a thing. It just doesn't," Turner said.
The episode, in which Cher also says she once dated Tom Cruise in his younger days, is scheduled for broadcast May 8.
Turner declared she was retiring from live performance and touring in 2000, following the completion of her Twenty Four Seven world tour.
However, in recent years, a return to the spotlight was rumoured after she began working on new material and made guest appearances on albums by other recording artists.
In February, she delivered an enthusiastic, high-energy performance during the Grammy Awards 50th anniversary gala, singing a duet with current R&B pop star Beyoncé Knowles, who introduced Turner as a "legend" and "the queen."
The intro ruffled the feathers of Aretha Franklin — popularly hailed as the Queen of Soul — who had also performed at the ceremony and interpreted Knowles's description as a snub. Franklin released a statement days later calling it "a cheap shot for controversy."
With files from the Associated Press
