Every musician was influenced by at least one other artist before them, even if their music sounds nothing alike. Spiritbox vocalist Courtney LaPlante has named who her “rock god” is during a recent installment of BBC’s The Rock Show With Johnnie Walker, and you may not have expected her choice.
Though Spiritbox only have one full album under their belt, LaPlante and the rest of the band have undoubtedly made an impact on rock and metal over the last few years. Given their sound and style, one might assume that the singer would choose another heavy artist as her idol, but she actually picked the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll as her rock god.
“The artist I would like to choose as my rock god is the late, great, one-and-only Tina Turner,” LaPlante said during the segment. “I think she’s one of the most influential artists to ever live. Anyone can look to her career, and even if you remove the incredible music she created and performed, even if you were just to take that away, her career was so inspiring to anyone that wants to be an artist.”
LaPlante pointed out that Turner essentially had two different eras in her career — the first with Ike Turner, in which the duo famously covered Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary.”
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“And then there’s like this rebirth that she had in the ’80s,” LaPlante continued. “When Tina was, I believe 44 years old, she put out her album Private Dancer, which I think is just the epitome of that ’80s rock sound. And she had this second life of this incredible career. What is more rock ‘n’ roll than that?”
Check out the full episode here.
After releasing 10 studio albums as a solo artist, Turner died at the age of 83 in May. Her family’s statement said that she’d been battling a long illness, and a ton of fellow rockers took to social media to pay their respects to the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll, including The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood, Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler, Disturbed’s David Draiman, The Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan and many more, proving just how profound her impact on music as a whole really was.
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