Singer P.P. Arnold and former Ikette claims she was raped by Ike Turner in memoir
Arnold's book, 'Soul Survivor,' will be released on Thursday.
P.P. Arnold, a member of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, has accused Ike Turner of raping her in the 1960s. Arnold discloses the allegation in her upcoming memoir, “Soul Survivor.”
Arnold, now 75, was a former member of the Turner’s background singers, dubbed the Ikettes. In “Soul Survivor,” Arnold reveals that one night in the mid-1960s, Turner trapped her in a room and raped her, People reported. From then on, she “struggled with her anger at Turner,” who died in 2007.
“What can I say? It was awful. I despised Ike on that level, but I didn’t know how to express myself,” Arnold told The Telegraph. She also spoke of apprehension about going to Tina Turner.
Despite the alleged incident and her anger at Ike Turner, Arnold admitted that she was afraid to go home. “I was told Tina wanted to get rid of me because Ike was after me,” Arnold said. “If I had run to Tina or called my parents, it would have meant I would have [had] to come home.”
According to Arnold, leaving the group meant returning to a physically abusive husband. She stated that she was forced into the marriage after a botched abortion attempt. She was only 15 when she gave birth to her first son and 17 when she had her daughter.
Unfortunately, Arnold stated that her history of violence from men dates to her father, who also hit her during her childhood. “Sadly, it was the way it was back then,” Arnold said. “I think it’s a lot to do with slavery and how that affected the Black man’s psyche.”
According to People, citing her book, Arnold would eventually move on from the Ikettes after advice from Rolling Stones singer, Mick Jagger, with whom she would later have an affair. She stated that Jagger’s then-girlfriend, Marianne Faithfull, was also interested in her, making things uncomfortable.
“Mick was in heaven but Marianne was more interested in me,” Arnold writes. “I had always been a good kisser and so was she. I tried to let myself go but I was also uncomfortable … ultimately it was Mick that I was infatuated with, not her. There was a plantation feel about it, like I was a plaything.”
Arnold would go on to have solo success in the United Kingdom. She is best known for her 1967 hit, the Cat Stevens composition, “The First Cut is the Deepest,” famously covered later by Sheryl Crow in 2003. The following year, Arnold released a version of “Angel in the Morning,” a song that Shaggy interpolated into the No. 1 single, “Angel,” in 2000.
“Soul Survivor” will be released on July 7.
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