Top 5 Artists Who Triumphed Over Adversity
1. Tina Turner
After overcoming a difficult childhood to earn success in the music business and the title “The Queen of Rock and Roll”, life didn’t necessarily improve for Turner, despite finding fame and fortune, and there is little that she hasn’t endured.
Her well-popularised marriage to Ike Turner (of Ike’s Kings of Rhythm) was defined by mental and physical abuse and multiple scandals and in 1976 she found the courage to leave him, after 16 years.
She has since found lasting love and happiness with Erwin Bach, whom she met in the mid-80s and has been with ever since, and
her inspirational career in music has seen her sell out arenas worldwide and be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Amidst all her success, life still hasn’t been plain sailing for Tina – she’s suffered illnesses including a stroke, underwent a kidney transplant in 2016 (with a donation from her beloved Erwin), and in 2018 she lost her 59-year-old son Craig to suicide.
Despite all of this, Tina continues to work, take part in honest interviews and share her story. In 2020, she released Happiness Becomes You: A Guide to Changing Your Life for Good. In this honest and deeply personal book, she shares her wisdom, explores her spirituality and longstanding faith in Buddhism and provides advice on finding happiness and overcoming life’s obstacles.
2. Keep a positive mindset
Eminem was born when his mother was 15 and he never met his father, who left when he was six months old. His childhood was blighted by poverty, allegations of abuse and violent bullying at several of the multiple schools he attended.
Despite dropping out of high school, he had a knack for words and began rapping as a child, pursuing it as a career from the age of 14. He made his debut in 1998 and has been active for over 20 years, winning over 150 awards including 15 Grammys and an Academy Award.
Despite an unstable home life and a chosen profession which is dominated by African American males, Eminem has managed to carve out a musical career as one of the most important, and at times, controversial rappers of all time, and there is no understating his contribution to rap and hip hop.
3. Billie Holiday
Born in 1915 to unwed teenage African-American parents, Billie Holiday had a difficult childhood and with her mother working away after her father left, she was often in the care of others for the first decade of her life. She dropped out of school at 11 and suffered an attempted rape aged 12. Her childhood years were blighted with battles with the law, drugs and alcoholism and after singing in Harlem clubs as a teen, she made her recording debut aged 18. Despite a hugely successful music career, her adult life was blighted by addiction and as a young black touring singer, she suffered racial abuse, often being described as ‘difficult’ if she spoke up or challenged those she worked with.
Holiday is recognised as one of the most influential vocalists in the history of music and has been called one of the greatest singers of all time, with artists as varied as Frank Sinatra citing her as an influence. Despite all this she lived what many have described as a miserable life and unable to overcome her addictions, she died aged 44 from cirrhosis of the liver, with just $1,000 to her name.
4. Jimi Hendrix
Born to a single mother and imprisoned father, Hendrix was raised mostly by family friends until his father returned at age three, wherein he began to drink heavily. As a child, Jimi underwent household violence, frequent house moves, poverty and alleged sexual abuse. This made him a shy and withdrawn child, traits he would retain even after becoming the legendary musical icon he is still remembered as today. Hendrix grew up playing guitar, imitating blues greats like Muddy Waters. He joined the army in 1959 but was honorably discharged in 1961 after an injury that exempted him from duty in Vietnam.
He then worked as a pickup guitarist, backing musicians including Little Richard, B.B. King, Ike and Tina Turner, and Sam Cooke. In 1964, he moved to New York, where he met bassist Bryan Chandler of the British group the Animals. Chandler arranged to manage Hendrix and brought him to London in 1966, where they founded the Jimi Hendrix Experience with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. The band’s first single, “Hey Joe,” hit No. 6 on the British pop charts, and the band became an instant sensation.
In 1967, the Jimi Hendrix Experience made its first U.S. appearance, at the Monterey Pop Festival. Hendrix made a splash by burning his guitar and was quickly established as a rock superstar. After the band dissolved, Hendrix made his famous appearance at Woodstock, playing his own version of “The Star Spangled Banner.”
After spending several years in London where he began recording new material, Hendrix died of an apparent overdose at what was then the Samarkand Hotel in Lansdowne Crescent, Notting Hill, on 18 September 1970.
Many of his friends came forward to highlight that his drug taking was no more exaggerated than that of his peers at the time, with others questioning his ability to play with such finesse if he was under the influence. Often cited as the world’s greatest guitarist ever, he remains a legend despite passing at such a young age.
5. Jonny Cash
Recognised as one of the greatest artists country music has ever produced, Jonny Cash’s personal life was chaotic but despite it all, the child who grew up picking cotton won the hearts of millions of fans.
Johnny Cash was born in 1932, the fourth of seven children. His family were very poor and were hit hard by the Depression. When they joined a federal farming program, Jonny worked with them in the fields aged just 5 years old.
Aged 12 he lost his older brother Jack in a tragic accident and said of the tragedy, “I felt that I’d died too.”
His legacy as a singer and songwriter and country music star is unquestioned but with a life blighted by addiction, legal issues and domestic chaos, Cash often hit the headlines for other reasons.
