Arts Extra: Reintroducing Ike

For 20 years, Ike Turner's been more infamous than influential. Many people have forgotten-and younger fans never really knew-that Ike was actually a well-regarded guitarist and lyricist before he became the husband and musical partner of Tina Turner. Of course, then came his nasty battle with drugs and his fall from grace when Tina's tell-all book was released in the mid-'80s (followed by the 1993 film, "What's Love Got to Do With It"). There was also that two-year prison sentence. But after a decade of sobriety and hard work, Ike, 69, is back with a new album titled "Here and Now." On the CD, he pairs up with his longtime band, The Kings of Rhythm, to return to his pre-Tina, boogie-woogie sound, and for the first time in his 50-year career, sings lead throughout the album. It's a scrappy, raw, powerhouse of a record, exploding with juke-joint fun and Memphis-flavored blues.

It caps a career that started in 1950, when the Mississippi-born son of a preacher played on recordings with everyone from B.B. King to Muddy Waters, served as an A&R man for Sun Records and wrote the first rock-and-roll song in history, "Rocket 88" (he was never credited for this 1951 work). With Tina, he formed The Ike and Tina Revue in 1960. They split in 1976, and his downward spiral began.

Now he's resurfaced with one of the best modern blues albums around. From his San Diego home, a spry and rambunctious Turner (complete with a thick Mississippi drawl) discussed his past mistakes, future aspirations and the here and now with NEWSWEEK's Lorraine Ali.

NEWSWEEK: Are you nervous that you're now the main singer-the guy in front?

Ike Turner: Hell, yeah! I can't sleep. I'm all-the-way nervous. It's something new. I know the guitar and piano, and I can entertain you to death with that, here, right now, or if there were 15 people in the room. But on stage, I gotta get my confidence up. I used to stand in the back 'cause I was more interested in getting the people off than the glamour part. In a way, I'm kind of glad I have to do this. I should have done it years ago, but I was afraid. I always needed something to hide behind.

A friend said, "You gotta play some of your old stuff, man." I got one of my old records from the early '50s, I put it on, grabbed my guitar and tried to play along, and I couldn't. I said, "How in the hell was I doing that?" I gotta learn to play like my old self. I gained the knowledge of hip-hop, whatever was going on, different trends, but I lost what I really had, except for a few songs I would play on stage. So I said, "I'm gonna learn this!" I got on the piano and on the guitar and taught myself how to play again. It wasn't easy, man. My playing was really unique.