Angela Bassett Inducts Tina Turner Into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Angela Bassett, who portrayed Tina Turner in the 1993 biopic What's Love Got to Do With It, inducted her hero into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame during tonight's ceremony at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.
Bassett described the singer as "that woman, that queen – Tina Turner. People still regularly tell me how much Tina has meant to them. I know exactly what they mean, because she has meant that much and more to me. I too am one of those people, blessed by Tina's remarkable gift for inspiration."
Bassett drew near-unanimous praise for her star-making role in What's Love Got to Do With It, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. As she devoured live footage of Turner and read her 1986 autobiography I, Tina, numerous times, Bassett discovered she and the singer had similar upbringings. They were both from the South, and both knew abuse.
"Let us remember that Tina is already a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for her earlier work with Ike Turner," Bassett said in Cleveland, "but what brings us here tonight is Tina's journey to independence. For Tina, hope triumphed over hate, faith over fear and ambition eclipsed adversity."
Bassett and Turner have remained friends since What's Love Got to Do With It, with the actress appearing in the 2021 HBO documentary Tina. The film covers the illustrious half-century career of a rock icon who became one of only three women inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice. Turner joins fellow 2021 inductee Carole King and Stevie Nicks, who was inducted in 1998 as a member of Fleetwood Mac and in 2019 as a solo artist.
The 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will air on Nov. 20 on HBO alongside a radio simulcast on SiriusXM Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Radio.