Cher Reflects on Visiting ‘Perfect Friend’ Tina Turner Before Her Death

Cher remembered her friend and fellow music legend Tina Turner and opened up about Turner’s final years in an interview following the singer’s death Wednesday at the age of 83.

“She’s one of the great artists in our generation,” Cher told MSNBC. “There was no other person like her. There was no other person who could even come close to who she was.”

Cher continued, “As a woman, she gave you lots of strength. And I’m sure she’s encouraged so many young people, but she gave me lots of strength sometimes, and I gave her lots of strength, too. I think we were perfect friends for each other, truthfully.”

Although separated by an ocean, Cher and Turner still kept in close contact during the latter’s final years, during which Turner quietly suffered through health problems.

“First, she fought this sickness for such a long time, and she was so strong as you would think she would be,” Cher said. “And then towards the end, I know that she told me once, she said, ‘I’m really ready. I just don’t want to put up with this anymore.’”

Cher also reminisced about the first time she ever saw Turner — onstage at San Francisco’s Cow Palace — and the last, during a visit to Turner’s Switzerland estate. 

“I started going to visit her because I thought, ‘I need to put this time into our friendship so she knows that we haven’t forgotten her,’” Cher said. “It made her happy… She was really happy.”

Cher added, “She was having a good time in spite of the fact that she was really sick, and not wanting people to know about it. She had her dialysis machine in her house. That’s how she was doing it.”

Following Turner’s death Wednesday following a long illness, the music world collectively paid tribute to the legendary singer, trailblazer, and Queen of Rock n’ Roll.