Musician Ike Turner dead at 76

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Famed rock 'n' roll musician Ike Turner has died at his home near San Diego at age 76.

The cause of death has not been disclosed, E! Online reported.

Turner began his music career in the 1940s as the bandleader of the Kings of Rhythm. In 1956, the group hired Annie Mae Bullock, a young singer who would later change her name and become Turner's wife, Tina.

Although the couple made enormously popular records like "River Deep-Mountain High," "I Want to Take You Higher" and the Grammy-winning "Proud Mary," Ike Turner's battle with drug addiction and his stormy personal relationship with Tina soon overshadowed their success.

She left him in 1976 and their tumultuous relationship was chronicled in her autobiography "I, Tina," and the 1993 film "What's Love Got to Do with It."

In his 2001 memoir, "Taking Back My Name," Ike Turner admitted there were "times when I punched her to the ground without thinking. But I never beat her."

Turner, in recent years, claimed he won his battle against drugs and he recorded the critically acclaimed "Here and Now" in 2001 and "Risin' with the Blues," a Grammy-winner in 2006.

He is survived by four children from his four marriages, E! Online said.