Queen Turner: The Soul Train Icon Who Ran Away At 14 & Never Looked Back | I Was A Soul Train Dancer

0:00 Hi there and welcome aboard.

0:01 You're right on time for another beautiful ride on the Soul Train.

0:06 My name is Queen Turner and I was a Soul Train dancer from 1973 to 1979.

0:23 I was born in a little city called Royal Oak Rapids, North Carolina.

0:28 And I was raised in the DMV area, which stands for DC, Maryland, and Virginia.

0:34 I had a fantastic childhood for for poor little black girl.

0:40 My dad worked three jobs to make sure that we

0:42 had everything we needed and most of what we wanted.

0:46 Who inspired me to dance was my parents and James Brown.

0:51 I had teenage parents, so they like to dance and they love James Brown.

0:56 So that's what I grew up on, watching James Brown dance.

1:02 I was mature for my age.

1:04 I wanted to be adventurous.

1:06 So I figured I couldn't do that in that little DMV area.

1:10 So I just left.

1:12 I ran away from home at 14 and I went to uh Memphis,

1:16 Tennessee and got a job with Isaac Hayes cuz I had an uncle

1:20 that was one of the barca decided he was going to stop performing.

1:26 I told him I can't go home.

1:28 I'm a runaway.

1:29 So he sent me to California to Don Cornelius cuz I knew Don already.

1:35 I met Don Cornelius doing the push expo for Jesse Jackson.

1:39 When Isaac got in touch with Don Canelius and told

1:43 him that I was going to be coming to California,

1:46 well, Don said for me to come down.

1:49 I didn't have to audition, so I just showed up on the set.

1:59 It was wonderful.

2:00 The Soul Train Gang, we were all just one big tight-knit family.

2:05 My dance style was a little different.

2:07 I had a little go- go and then a little Memphis

2:12 in there and Confunction and I were in Memphis at the same time.

2:19 So when they performed before they became big,

2:22 we would perform at clubs and we had a dance called the toy land.

2:28 We incorporated that with the go- go.

2:31 So I brought it to LA when I came.

2:34 The toy land was a dance that you cross your legs and you

2:38 move with a crisscross along with whacking that Tyrone Proctor was teaching.

2:44 So I incorporated all of that in in my dance moves.

2:57 I had several dance partners on the show.

2:59 I had Chris Benaby, may he rest in peace.

3:03 I had Daryl Mitchell, may he rest in peace.

3:06 I had Eddie Franklin, Artha Franklin's son.

3:10 And I had Darnell Williams,

3:11 who left me to go to New York to become Jesse on All My Children.

3:16 And then my last dance partner was Fred Mace.

3:23 My fashion sense was out the roof.

3:26 My designer was Claire Anard.

3:29 And Claire Anard was also the designer of Shaka Khan.

3:33 I wore a lot of leather and suede outfits with feathers.

3:37 So that's uh that's who dressed me my soul training career.

3:45 My most memorable moment was when Leel came and Iina Turner.

3:53 Those were the two that I was really impressed by.

3:57 Barry White also, but mainly Lel and I can see.

4:09 I love their their outfits because they were different.

4:13 You know, they didn't dress like everybody else

4:15 on stage at that time except for Parliament Funkadela.

4:18 She's got long black hair hanging down her back,

4:23 long black pretty legs, and she walks just like a cat.

4:28 Tina had the energy.

4:29 She could move like no other.

4:31 And Ike, he was just too cool for words.

4:34 You know, when I met them on the show,

4:37 Ike had given me his card and told me to come by the studio.

4:41 He had a studio called Balic Sounds in Englewood at the time.

4:45 So, one day I went by there.

4:46 They were recording.

4:47 and they had stopped to take a break and we were just sitting around talking.

4:50 Ike was a person that liked to trace family roots.

4:54 So, he was asking me where I was from and so forth cuz my last name was Turner

4:58 and my grandfather's name came up and it was

5:02 like that's my cousin and I was like no,

5:07 you know, so that's how we ended up finding out we we were related.

5:21 Everybody wanted to see that soul train line.

5:26 Don't get me wrong, the entertainers were phenomenal,

5:31 but they still looked for that soul train line.

5:35 It was it was very impactful.

5:37 Well, my favorite moment was I had shaved all

5:41 of my hair off and Don wasn't really ready for that.

5:46 So, I went and bought a wig as fate would have it.

5:52 We had to keep doing retake after retake

5:54 and those lights were hotter than fish grease.

5:58 I had just about had enough and I came down the soul

6:02 train line and snatched the whole wig off and he went into convulsions.

6:09 The producer upstairs, he said,

6:12 "Let it ride." I left in 79 because I had tours to do.

6:21 I had um tours in Japan, Australia,

6:25 and I even set up u residency in Canada for a few years.

6:30 So I um I was about that money.

6:34 I had to go where where the money calls.

6:37 So yes, Soul Train opened a lot of doors for not just me, but quite a few of us.

6:44 I've danced for Parliament, Funkadeli.

6:46 I performed with Billy Preston.

6:49 Billy Preston and I had a show we would

6:51 do at the O little Club in Beverly Hills.

6:54 The club was owned by Joan Rivers

6:57 and her husband and uh we performed there every week.

7:01 Then I went to Canada with 24 karat gold and I toured with raw silk.

7:10 I toured up until the late 80s and I went to college

7:16 and got a degree in mortuary science and became a mortician.

7:20 So I went from live entertainment to deceased entertainment.

7:26 I got married at 16 and I've had 10 husbands since.

7:32 Marriage is a beast all in its own self.

7:37 Some people are not meant to be married and I'm one of them.

7:40 And I' I've accepted that.

7:41 I live with that.

7:42 And it's okay.

7:44 I have a 53 year old daughter, a 50year-old daughter.

7:50 I have a 45year-old son.

7:52 I have a 36 year old son and I have a 38-year-old adopted daughter.

7:58 And the 45-year-old son, he followed in my footsteps.

8:01 He was a rapper and a dancer.

8:03 Don let him dance on Soul Train.

8:06 He danced in the early 90s.

8:08 I retired from being a mortician cuz my back became too bad.

8:12 And now I have a clothing store in Palmdale, California.

8:16 And I have a book out now called I

8:19 Am My Sister's Keeper along with 14 other authors.

8:22 We all have a chapter and I'm almost

8:26 through with my autobiography, Queen of the Crop.

8:29 So I have quite a few things in the work.

8:35 Soul Train.

8:36 It was one of the most wonderful times of my life.

8:39 I met a lot of good entertainers.

8:42 Some I'm still friends to this day with.

8:45 It was one of the greatest things that's ever happened.