Looking back on the nights Tina Turner rocked the Worcester Centrum

A singer. A survivor. A sex symbol. A showstopper. Armed with the most celebrated legs in the music business, Tina Turner was simply the best, as far as her rock 'n' roll peers - including Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Diana Ross, Elton John, Ringo Starr and Bryan Adams, all of whom expressed their condolences on social media - and her fans all around the world are concerned.On July 21, 1985, at the height of her popularity, Tina Turner opened her American “Private Dancer” tour with two sold-out shows at the Centrum in Worcester, now the DCU Center.

The tour was in support of an album that won three Grammys and featured Turner's first and only No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 single, "What's Love Got to Do With It."

More:Tina Turner, queen of rock 'n' roll, dies after long illness

Armed with arguably the most celebrated legs in the music business — in addition to her spider plant-style hairdo, prize-winning smile and, yes, killer voice — Turner sang and strutted in fine form as she bridged the gap between her Nutbush, Tennessee, roots and Worcester's middle-of-the-road crowd.

Touring behind her triumphant, triple-platinum comeback album “Private Dancer,” Turner (46 at the time of her Centrum gig) delivered a slick 17-song, 95-minute set that covered her early days as part of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, to her '80s comeback/pop icon status.

Clad in white and wearing stiletto-heeled, lizard-skin pumps, Turner opened with “Show Some Respect,” the first of nine songs from “Private Dancer.” Mixing things up early, she dipped into her past to do a gospel-tinged but still rocking "River Deep - Mountain High" and "Nutbush City Limits."

In addition to anthemic crowd-pleasers “Better Be Good to Me,” “What’s Love Got to Do With It” and “We Don’t Need Another Hero” (the latter from the soundtrack of “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome,” which she starred in opposite Mel Gibson), Turner delivered a scorching rendition of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” and a tongue-in-cheek cover of ZZ Top’s “Legs.”

During the evening’s sweaty standout “Proud Mary,” Turner turned to the audience and said, “People ask me when am I gonna slow down. You know what I tell them? Just stand aside.”

Former Worcester resident joins Turner's band

On Jan. 24, 1987, with only 24 hours' notice, former Worcester resident Deric Dyer was to audition for Turner to be her new sax player for her “Break Every Rule World Tour.”

“It was a very intense but a really fun audition. Tina’s dancing around me, singing in my ear,” Dyer said. “When we were done playing, then she started asking me questions … ‘What sign are you?' I said, ‘Well, I’m a Sag (as in Sagittarius).’ And Tina just stopped and said, ‘OK, what date?’ I said, ‘November 28.’ And she said, ‘Wow, I’m the 26th. I guess I’m gonna have to give you the gig.’ ”

Dyer launched into a month of rehearsals in Los Angeles, followed by two weeks of high-tech production in Munich, and then going on tour with Turner for the next year and a half, playing to over 5 million people and performing 250-plus concerts worldwide.

“Tina’s a fireball. She’s unbelievably demanding and tough but she didn’t expect anything from anybody that she didn’t expect from herself,” Dyer told the Telegram & Gazette in 2019. “If you messed up, you were going to get called into the dressing room, and you didn’t want to get called into the dressing room.”

Dyer was called into Tina’s dressing room only once.

“I just changed the phrasing at the beginning of 'Private Dancer' a little,' Dyer said. "I got called in. I walked into her dressing room. I said, ‘I know why I’m here. Don’t worry. I won’t ever do it again.’ Tina laughed and said ‘OK.’ ”

Reached Wednesday afternoon, Dyer was deeply saddened by news of Turner's death.

“They don’t come any better than Tina. They don’t come any better,” Dyer said. “Tina was a trailblazer in many, many ways and a wonderful person. She changed my life.

"I just can’t never say enough good things about her.”

Although it happened three years before he joined the band, Dyer said Turner embarked on one of the greatest comebacks in rock ‘n’ roll history with the release of “Private Dancer,” which sold 10 million copies worldwide.

“Tina recreated herself in that point in her life to become the biggest artist in the world at that time,” Dyer said Wednesday. “Tina treated me like the rest of the guys that have been with her for a long time. I just can’t never say enough good things about her.”

On Oct. 3, 1970, the Ike and Tina Turner Revue performed two shows, 8 and 10 p.m., in the Harrington Auditorium at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Ike Turner’s band, the Kings of Rhythm, and backing vocalists the Ikettes also performed with the R&B duo at WPI. Selections performed include “River Deep – Mountain High,” Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary,” Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” and Sly and the Family Stone’s “I Want to Take You Higher,” as well as soul-infused rearrangements of the Beatles’ “Come Together” and the Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Woman.”

In the mid-70s, Joseph J. Tortorelli, owner of Worcester Sound and Lights, fondly recalls doing the sound for Tina Turner at Holden Hills Country Club and Lakeview Ballroom in Mendon. The two shows took place after she filed for divorce from Ike in the summer of 1976.

“She just got divorced. I remember that because that’s what they were talking about,” Tortorelli said Wednesday. “That’s why she was (performing) all alone.”

Tortorelli said Worcester Sound and Lights scored the Turner gigs because the promoter was looking for an elite sound system with wireless mikes.

“They needed the wireless mikes because she moves around. She doesn’t stay still,” Tortorelli said. “She was very, very, very polite and very soft-spoken when I gave her the wireless mike. And I told her how to handle it. And she said, 'I’ll hold onto it with my life.' ”

Despite being on her first solo tour, Tortorelli said Turner performing at Holden Hills outdoors was a big deal. “That had it in the parking lot and Tina Turner would jump on top of the cars with the wireless mike,” Tortorelli recalled. “She was singing and dancing on top of the automobiles at the same time. She must have climbed on about a dozen cars, going back and forth. She was moving like she was a teenager. And she hasn’t changed in all these years. Her appearance, she never looked her age. She was unbelievable.”