IKE & TINA TURNER

Tina Turner denied Jimi ever having been in her band. Ike Turner, on the other hand,  in a syndicated 2004 news story, even claimed that he owned a guitar played by Jimi: 1
"Both guitars were old, with one belonging to Hendrix when the legendary guitarist played in Turner's band in the 1950s. Turner said he recently considered auctioning the guitars, because he thought he could get a million dollars for them."

Jimi himself stated on several occasions that he DID perform with Ike & Tina so I`ll take his word for it even though so far no photographs or other direct evidence has surfaced.

The gigs with Ike & Tina Turner took place in early 1965 around the West Coast of USA in between, or possibly on some occasions on the same night, as Jimi`s gigs with Little Richard. See the Little Richard "Live Dates" -page for more information.

Found on Newspapers.com
In an interview published in the 18 March 1967 issue of "Humo" (Belgium) Jimi said:
"In Los Angeles I had enough of him [Little Richard] and played behind Ike and Tina Turner." 2

The liner notes of the 1967 UK Track Record issue of Are You Experienced mention that Jimi played with Ike & Tina "on the west coast". This information is likely to have come from Jimi as he must have supplied his "CV" for the liner notes of his own debut album.

In a taped interview by Hans Carl Schmidt on 17 May 1967 at the Hotel Intercontinental in Frankfurt Jimi said:
"I was playing behind different acts like, you know like, what is it Little Richard, Isley Brothers, you know, and some shows with Tina Turner and eh, Hank Ballard, you know Chuck Jackson the regular Top 40 R'n'B, and er, you know you get kinda tired playing the same songs all the time."
An especially interesting comment as Jimi says that he played "some shows" with Tina Turner - so this was a very short term arrangement.

In a taped interview by Tony Palmer on 15 March 1968 at Clark University in Worcester Jimi said:
"...all these places like the Fillmore, I played there before with Ike & Tina you know, in the good ol', you know, "do you feel alright" -days."

In a taped interview recorded by Gus Gossert between 10-12 October 1968 at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco Jimi said: "Yeah, I came out here before, yeah. I played here at the Fillmore with Ike and Tina and Little Richard about 4 or 5 years ago." The Little Richard gig Jimi mentions took place on Sunday 21 February 1965 so roughly three and a half years before the interview.

And, talking about the October 1968 recording sessions at T.T.G. INC. in Los Angeles engineer Angel Balestier recalled: 3
"Ike Turner came by, and while he didn`t jam, Jimi was very pleased to see him"

So even though Tina Turner didn't remember it Jimi did, according to himself and Ike Turner, play in the band - although probably for a very short period, perhaps for just for a few nights. And Jimi kept retelling the story at least until 1968.




SOURCES:
1 https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2004/09/08/Ike-Turners-Hendrix-guitar-stolen/89541094670378/

2 Note that the original 1967 article is in Dutch, the English language translation quoted here was published in the book "Foxy Papers #1" compiled by Ben Valkhoff - so the quote is twice removed from being a direct quote of what Jimi originally said.

3 Ultimate Hendrix by John McDermott with Eddie Kramer and Billy Cox, page 120.