I was recording drum trax for Tina’s Foreign Affair album–my colleagues Jeff Bova and Eddie Martinez can corroborate this–and Tina would come in to do reference vocals to the rhythm trax. And I want to say…back in the day…Singers like Gladys, Aretha, Chaka, Barbara S. and Diva V. Williams would lay down reference trax with the rhythm section which kept it real. These women’s reference trax were keepers. I heard Tina lay down a reference track and I was like “well damn…what’s the ‘keeper’ gonna sound like?” Lol.
Now she didn’t show up every day, but when she did…the energy was different. One day we’re struggling with a track…couldn’t get it down…and she came in and said…in that ‘’Black country’’ twang that she uses when she wants to make a point…”Do I need to come in here in my leather mini and mink coat to get y’all to get this track?” And of course we all said…”PLEEEEZE your highness.’’ LOL.
And the next day, she did just that. TINA in the studio…I was in a twilight zone moment. I said to myself… “Wait a minute, that’s Tina, and I’m drumming”…lolol…Now here’s the story…
Her Highness came in and spent the day with us in studio…wearing her mini leather skirt…and we were listening to trax…and she sat down next to me in the control room…and I tried to stay cool…lol….and her legs were so friggin awesome…and she had this little scar on her thigh that I couldn’t NOT notice…I thought it was hot…but who knows where that scar came from…but she caught me staring….and she said: “JT…you’re too OLD for me honey’’…I was 30 somethin back then. LMAO…
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An Addendum (Per Twitter) @Marjon_Carlos: What I absolutely loved about Tina’s story is that she had this second act when she was in her 40s. You don’t know how important that is for creative women to know.