Tina Turner admits she ‘always had a crush on Mick Jagger’

Singer performed with the Rolling Stones frontman a number of times throughout her career

Tina Turner has admitted that she’s long had a soft spot for Mick Jagger.

Turner collaborated with the Rolling Stones frontman many times over the years, supporting the band on tour and performing with Jagger at festivals.

In a new interview with The Guardian, Turner was asked who her celebrity crush was.

“I always had a crush on Mick Jagger,” Turner responded. “I loved when we toured with the Rolling Stones.”

Early in her career, Turner and then-husband Ike (performing as Ike and Tina Turner) opened for the Stones on their 1966 British tour. They supported the band again on their US tour in 1969.

In 1981, Turner opened for the band on her own and, following her comeback in 1985, she performed with Jagger at the Live Aid Festival in Philadelphia.

During the Live Aid Festival performance, Jagger famously decided to rip off Turner’s skirt on stage.

Writing about the incident in her memoir, Turner recalled: “Mick and I could never just stand there and sing – that wasn’t us. We had to do something. He looked me over. I was wearing a tight-fitting black leather top and skirt and I could see a naughty idea forming.

Turner in 1978 (Getty Images)

“‘Does that skirt come off?’ he asked slyly. ‘What?’ was my startled reply... ‘I’m going to take your skirt off’. I asked him why, but it was too late to talk it through, Mick had already made his mind up to do it.”

She added: “It wasn’t as if some random guy pulled off my skirt. I was like a boy I knew did it. A very old boy.”

The pair would perform at each other’s concerts in Japan in 1988, and for the last time at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame ceremony the following year.

Turner has previously said that she taught Jagger his famous dance moves, but never received any “credit” for it.

“Mick wanted to dance – and I was a dancer – but he never gave me the credit!” she told The Daily Mail.

“He said his mother taught him how to dance. But we worked with him in the dressing room, me and the girls, and we taught him how to Pony.”