Izear Luster "Ike" Turner Jr. (November 5, 1931 – December 12, 2007) was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, record producer, and talent scout.

His first recording, "Rocket 88" (credited to Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats), is considered a contender for the distinction of first rock and roll song.

[28] During breaks, he would watch DJ John Friskillo play records at the radio station, WROX, located in the hotel.

On his show, "Jive Till Five", he played a diverse range of music such as Roy Milton and Louis Jordan alongside early rockabilly records.

[23][31] Turner was inspired to learn the piano after he heard blues pianist Pinetop Perkins play at his friend Ernest Lane's house.

[38] Members of the band were Clarksdale musicians and included Turner's school friends Raymond Hill, Eugene Fox and Clayton Love.

[30][41] Around the time he was starting out with the Kings of Rhythm, Turner and Lane became unofficial roadies for blues musician Robert Nighthawk, who often played live on WROX.

[54] He then became a freelance talent scout, session musician, and production assistant for Sam Phillips at Sun Studio, commuting to Memphis, Tennessee.

[58] Artists Turner discovered for Modern and Sun include Bobby Bland, Howlin' Wolf, Rosco Gordon, Boyd Gilmore, Houston Boines, Charley Booker, and Little Milton.

[61] He played piano in sessions with them and lesser-known artists such as the Prisonaires, Driftin' Slim, Ben Burton, Matt Cockrell, Dennis Binder, Sunny Blair, and Baby Face Turner.

[64][65] Turner and Howlin' Wolf then recorded a version of "Moanin' at Midnight" at radio station KWEM in West Memphis without Phillips' or the Chess brothers' knowledge.

[79] Turner maintained strict discipline and the band lived at his home on Virginia Place in East St. Louis which doubled as a studio.

[80] A teetotaler at the time, he avoided drugs and insisted all band members also adopt this policy, firing anyone he even suspected of breaking the rules.

[16] Turner established his group as one of the most highly rated on the St. Louis club circuit, vying for popularity with their main competition, Sir John's Trio featuring Chuck Berry.

The success of the single was followed by a string of hits including "I Idolize You", "Poor Fool", and "It's Gonna Work Out Fine" which gave them their second million-seller and their first Grammy nomination.

"[110] To assure he always had a record out while on tour, Turner formed multiple labels such as Sputnik, Teena, Prann, Innis, Sony and Sonja.

[128] Artists who recorded there included Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Duane Allman, Little Richard, Gayle McCormick, and Frank Zappa.

[135][136] United Artists responded to the Turners' separation by releasing albums of compiled recordings from their last sessions together, Delilah's Power (1977) and Airwaves (1978).

His early influences included Amos Milburn and Louis Jordan, as well as country music artists such as Hank Williams Sr. and Merle Travis.

"[168] Turner's guitar style is distinguished by heavy use of the whammy bar to achieve a strong reverb-soaked vibrato, string bending, hammer-ons and triplets in his blues phrasing.

[170] Unaware that the guitar's tremolo arm could be used to subtle effect, Turner used it to play screaming, swooping and diving solos that predated artists such as Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck by a decade.

"[171] Dave Rubin wrote in Premier Guitar magazine: "All those years of playing piano and arranging taught him a considerable amount about harmony, as he could certainly navigate I-IV-V chord changes.

Ike modestly terms what he does on the guitar as 'tricks', but make no mistake, he attacked his axe with the conviction of a man who knew precisely what he wanted to hear come out of it.

"[169] Reviewing Turner's 1973 album Bad Dreams, Robert Christgau wrote: "After twenty years of raking it in from the shadows, he's finally figured out a way of applying his basically comic bass/baritone to rock and roll.

Main Source also sampled "Getting Nasty" on the track "Snake Eyes" as well as Ike & Tina Turner's "Bold Soul Sister" on "Just Hanging Out"; both featured on their 1991 album Breaking Atoms.

The track "Funky Mule", also from A Black Man's Soul, has been sampled extensively by jungle DJs, with the drum introduction being a very popular break.

On the John Boy and Billy radio show, cast member Jeff Pillars regularly performed an impersonation of Turner in a segment called "Ax/Ask Ike".

[221][276] Producer D'Angela Proctor alleged in Turner's Unsung documentary that the two famous people were Elvis Presley and Redd Foxx.

"[290] Despite his ill health, he collaborated with Gorillaz on their album Demon Days and performed the track with them at the Manchester Opera House in November 2005.

"The cause of death for Ike Turner is cocaine toxicity with other significant conditions, such as hypertensive cardiovascular disease and pulmonary emphysema", Supervising Medical Examiner Investigator Paul Parker told CNN.