I went to Ike Turner's wedding
Updated on 13 December 2007
Arts reporter Stephanie West recalls her meeting with the controversial musician
I was working in Los Angeles for Radio 5 Live back in 1995, when Ike Turner finally called me late one night. I'd been chasing him for an interview about a premium rate phone line he'd set up where you could hear him 'setting the record straight' about his years with Tina.
He rang me at home, and I had a couple of friends round, both British.
"You just had a really weird call," one told me, as I came back from the kitchen.
"It was a bloke pretending to be Ike Turner," she said. She was puzzled as to why anyone would pretend to be Ike Turner, and had told him as much, saying that it was the weakest prank call she'd ever heard of.
In fact, she'd told him, some people wouldn't even have got the joke. He in turn had been puzzled, then offended and then angry so she told him to get lost and put the phone down.
I called Ike right back, telling him I had a British 'intern' working with me right now who really wasn't up to the job.
After I placated him, he said actually, he was getting married the next day (to the singer Jeanette Bazzell) and would I like to come along to the party he was having in a bar in Beverly Hills after the ceremony.
I didn't want to go, but not wanting to upset him any further, I said yes. Can I bring some friends along, I asked. Sure he said, so long as it's not that f**ing intern.
Of course not, I said. But of course she came along too. We only stayed half an hour. Weddings aren't much fun when you don't really know anyone.
