Claudia Lennear

Through her friend, singer Sherlie Matthews, Lennear landed an audition with bandleader Ike Turner in 1968.[2][5] She passed the audition and left the Superbs to become an Ikette. "He [Ike Turner] was a terrific business person, very disciplined, and he was a visionary," she said.[7] Lennear was with Ike & Tina Turner for a few years until she had a spat with Tina Turner.[8] However, Lennear recalls her time with the Turners fondly, telling The Providence Journal: "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."[3]

After leaving the Ikettes in 1970, Lennear worked with many acts including Humble Pie and Joe Cocker. She was part of a trio of backup singers for Delaney and Bonnie, that also included Rita Coolidge.

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, released in 1971 and on George Harrison's The Concert for Bangla Desh.[3] Her lead vocal live recording of "Let It Be" from the Mad Dogs and Englishmen movie was the B side of Leon Russell's "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" single on A&M Records in 1971.

In 1973, Lennear released her first and only solo album for Warner Bros. Records entitled Phew!.[3][9] She had a bit part in the 1974 film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, 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."[3]

Lennear appeared in the Academy Award-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom (2013), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.[5] After the success of the film, David Bowie contacted Lennear and offered to write songs for her next project.[10]

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[11] 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.[12][13]

Lennear received degrees in French literature and art history from Pitzer College. She began teaching first in high school and then at Mt. San Antonio College, where she teaches French, Spanish, English and remedial math.[3][14]

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