NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: In a candid interview, Eddy Armani, former best friend to late legendary singer Tina Turner, has expressed regret over penning a tell-all book about the iconic musician. The renowned artist, who's real name was Anna Mae Bullock and famously known as one of the 'best' songstress, sadly died at the age of 83 after a prolonged illness.
Armani, now 64 years old, met Turner, as a child and went on to work closely with her for nearly two decades. However, their friendship suffered a rift when Turner met her second husband, Erwin Bach. In 1998, Armani wrote 'The Real T', a book detailing the highs and lows of Turner's career, with the intention of capturing her "attention" but little did he know that would mark the final chapter of their relationship.
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Who is Eddy Armani?
Armani's connection with Turner dates back to when he was just 12 years old and encountered her at a department store in Los Angeles in 1968. At the time, Turner, who was known as Anna Mae Bullock, was gaining fame as part of the duo 'Ike and Tina Turner'. The couple had embarked on tours in the UK and US alongside the Rolling Stones. Interestingly, around the same time, Turner coincidentally achieved another milestone by becoming the first black female artist to grace the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. This achievement came after her memorable collaboration with Phil Spector and his renowned Wall of Sound on the timeless classic 'River Deep – Mountain High'.
However, despite the couple's public success, their relationship was plagued by Ike's cocaine addiction, infidelity, and abusive behavior towards Turner. Showing how trapped she was, the star was with her husband’s mistress, Ikette backing singer Ann Thomas, when Armani spotted her across a department store floor. He recalls, “I was with my mother and sister looking for clothes when I heard this voice – and I froze. I looked over and Tina was talking to Ann. I told my sister, ‘That’s her!’ as per Express.
He added, "I walked over and was completely hysterical, shrieking: ‘Oh my God, I love you.’ I annoyed her so much that she left the shop, but I was besotted and started calling their recording studio every day asking, ‘Can I speak to Tina Turner? 'This went on for about a year then one day the receptionist said, ‘I’m going to give you a gift, we are opening the recording studio, I’ll see if I can invite you, but you have to behave.’ I was introduced to Ike and Tina at that event and he later made a joke that I was going to be put in charge of the fan club. I called up on Monday morning and said, ‘When do I start?’” Armani witnessed this firsthand as a runner for Ike and Tina's band, offering him a front-row seat to their dysfunctional dynamic. “Ike was schizophrenic and everybody lived in fear of him,” he says.
Eddy Armani's unwavering fascination with Tina Turner
Despite the challenging circumstances, Armani's fascination with Turner persisted. He said, "I studied Tina like a bible, I went to Church on a Sunday, I studied her walk, her talk her accent, I knew Tina better than Tina knew herself sometimes. 'She was absolutely, very strict, very straight to the point she didn't have time she didn't play games. She tell you something three times you're out," reported Daily Mail. Armani recalled the day that she left her abusive ex-husband Ike ahead of their divorce in 1976, claiming he was "a mean son of a gun."
He added, "When he walked down the hallway, we used to stand to attention. 'He was clever and would never beat Tina in front of us, but sometimes we could hear yelling.' When he came out of the room, he would look at me like, How much did you hear? I would pretend I was busy typing. It was scary. 'Ike acted just like a pimp.' He made Tina feel special in a way that her own mother, who rejected her as a child, never did. Then he stripped her down to nothing and slept with anything that moved.”
Armani said, "By that time I was in my teens I wasn't a fool I knew what was going on. Ike was actually a very nice charismatic man, but it was behind the scenes he did all this damage." Turner found herself broke and without friends when she finally left him following another nasty fight en route to a Dallas hotel in 1976. She tried to make ends meet by hitting the road as a solo artist playing at small “supper clubs”.
“There were times that she couldn’t afford to pay me. “She wasn’t making a lot of money and she had to pay for the band and everything and she could spend money like water. I remember once going to the Neiman Marcus store in Los Angeles where she spotted a $1,800 bag as we were leaving. She said, ‘I have to have that.’ She asked the girl to hold it, but she refused so Tina pulled out a cheque book that was only supposed to be used in emergencies and said, ‘The accountants are going to kill me!’ Eventually, the accountants had to take her cheque book away.”
Eddy Armani's role as Tina Turner's rock amidst haunting memories
However, the bond between Armani and Turner grew strong over the years, with Armani becoming her closest friend and confidante. He moved closer to Turner's by residing in her four-bedroom house in LA, where he provided assistance in caring for her four children. Furthermore, he accompanied her to London during the production of her groundbreaking album, Private Dancer, in 1984. He says, “Tina got the love she was missing in her private life from her audience and that’s why she came alive on stage. “But at home she was a completely different person – much softer and quiet. We liked the same old black and white movies and would stay up late drinking champagne and giggling and gossiping.
“Tina loved Häagen-Dazs ice cream and she used to beg me to eat half the tub so she wouldn’t be tempted, saying ‘This stuff is dangerous.’ But if I didn’t eat fast enough, she would say, ‘Oh Eddy, forget it you’re being too slow,’ and she would grab the tub from me.” The star carried the enduring trauma inflicted by Ike throughout her life, and she lived in constant fear of him until his death at the age of 76 in 2007 due to a cocaine overdose. Armani says, “Once we were watching an old movie with a scene with a wire hanger and Tina started crying. I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ She said, ‘I don’t want to talk about it, it’s too painful, Ike used to beat me with a wire hanger.’ She has never told the public why she really moved to Europe and it was because she didn’t want to be driving in Los Angeles and see Ike pull up beside her. “As long as he was alive, she could never feel safe.”
Subsequently, when Turner's second husband came into the picture, Armani and she grew apart. He said, "Basically she met the man of her life who is now her husband and she's very happy, she and I didn't get along. Erwin [Bach] didn't like me from the beginning, I was such a fan and me and Tina were like two peas in a pod and he couldn't handle it." In 1998 Armani penned the tell-all book The Real T, a book detailing the highs and lows of Turner career in a bid to "get her attention." He explained, "I did find out [her thoughts on the book] I'm still close with family members, she didn't comment on the book or fight me on the book. It did divide us."
"If I had a choice I wouldn't have written the book, because I never wanted to hurt Tina or go against her. I was trying to get her attention and I went about it the wrong way, I love Tina...it's very emotional, when I saw the documentary I thought she's happy." Recently, the release of the HBO documentary Turner brought back memories and emotions for Armani. “I have never stopped loving Tina and I am so happy that she is happy,” the 64-year-old reveals in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Express.
“I didn’t cry but I did get a bit tearful towards the end of the documentary because it brought back memories, including all the bad times when she suffered – it is great to see that she is in a good place now. She is obviously happy and has come to terms with her past – and that gives me a great sense of peace. “Tina and I were as thick as thieves and I feel so blessed to have had her in my life. “And even though I know we will never see each other again, I cannot be anything but grateful that we got to spend all that time together.”
