Claudia Lennear

Claudia Lennear (born Claudia Joy Offley; 1946) is an American soul singer and educator. Lennear began her performing with the Superbs before becoming an Ikette in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. She was also a background vocalist for various acts, including Joe Cocker, Leon Russell, and Freddie King. She released her only solo album in 1973. Lennear was featured in the 2013 Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom. She grew up in different neighborhoods in Providence. Although raised a Catholic, her grandmother taught her to sing gospel songs as a child.

Career After graduating from high school, Lennear enrolled in college and began fronting the Los Angeles-based soul group The Superbs.

The Ikettes Through her friend, singer Sherlie Matthews, Lennear landed an audition with bandleader Ike Turner in 1968. Lennear was with Ike & Tina Turner for a few years until she had a spat with Tina Turner. Nonetheless, Lennear recalled her time with the Turners fondly, telling The Providence Journal: quote|Without Ike and Tina, I'd probably be 20 miles from stardom, not 20 feet ... they taught me how to perform, how to work with other singers and musicians. Ike taught me how to support Tina on stage. And Tina taught me how to present myself... . During the three years I was an Ikette, I never witnessed any physical abuse.

Lennear was one of Leon Russell's Shelter People. She sang back-up vocals on Joe Cocker's 1970 Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour and live album, on Leon Russell and the Shelter People (1971), and on George Harrison's The Concert for Bangla Desh (1971).

In 1973, Lennear released her first and only solo album for Warner Bros. Records entitled Phew! She had a bit part in the film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), playing the secretary who asks Clint Eastwood's character for his Social Security number. Lennear appeared in the August 1974 issue of Playboy magazine in a pictorial entitled "Brown Sugar". After the success of the film, David Bowie contacted Lennear and offered to write songs for her next project.

Since 2014, Lennear has performed and recorded in Los Angeles with The New Ash Grove Players with S S Jones & Claudia Lennear. They have performed at the McCabes Guitar Shop, The Coffee Gallery, the Pasadena Pavilion for the Performing Arts, and The Improv.

At the Lockn' Festival on September 11, 2015, Lennear performed with the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Rita Coolidge, Leon Russell, and other alumni from the 1970 Joe Cocker Mad Dogs and Englishmen Tour in a memorial concert for Cocker.

Academic career In 2006, Lennear received degrees in French literature and art history from Pitzer College.

Lennear began teaching first in high school and then at Mt. San Antonio College, where she has been teaching French, Spanish, English, and remedial math.

Accolades In 2019, Lennear was inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame.

Personal life In 1969, Lennear dated Mick Jagger when Ike & Tina Turner were the opening act for the Rolling Stones on their American tour. Lennear's relationships with Mick Jagger and David Bowie are often cited as inspiration for The Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar" (1971) and Bowie's "Lady Grinning Soul" (1973). NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray noted in 1981 that she was "yet to reply in song to either Mick or David."

Discography Singles

Albums As a solo artist

As an Ikette

With other artists

Filmography/TV appearances