I came across Tina at an early age, because my granny Kay was a huge fan of hers growing up, and her music would always have been on around the house.

She used to show me any articles that were in newspapers and magazines about her as well.

Tina was born Anna Mae Bullock in 1939 in Tennessee, and she came from very humble beginnings. Her father was quite an abusive man and he left the family, and then her mother also left, so Tina lived with her grandmother for a while. So she was kind of left to fend for herself from an early age.

She moved to live with her mother in St Louis after her grandmother died, where she met Ike Turner, and started working with him in 1958. They were married in 1962, but the marriage was a difficult one.

Ike changed her name to Tina after because Ike owned the rights to it all, including the Ike and Tina stuff. All she wanted to keep was her stage name, so she could go out and forge her own career.

She walked away and gave it all up, and instead of crumbling, she said, "Screw that, I'm going to get it all back and do it for me." To turn that situation around and not let it destroy her, shows that she had an unbelievable attitude, and I think it's something we can all learn from.

I think for Tina to go on and become a true rock and roll legend after that was phenomenal. She is the most successful female rock artist of all time, with 11 Grammies and record sales in excess of 180 million albums. She has had chart success for a period spanning over 44 years, and has sold more concert tickets than any other solo performer in history.

It was in 1984 that she had her biggest success, with her fifth solo album, Private Dancer. It had five hit singles, and remains one of the best-selling albums of all times.

She had a number-one hit with the song, 'What's Love Got To Do With It', which won Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal at the 1985 Grammy Awards.

Tina always, always looked amazing, and she does even now, aged 68. I really don't think you can knock her. Her legs are still among the most famous in show business. She announced her plans to retire from touring at the end of her 116date 2000 tour, which was the topgrossing concert tour that year with $80.2 million in ticket sales. She released a hugely successful hits collection in 2005, which included three new songs, one of which, 'Open Arms', topped the UK charts.

Tina now lives between Switzerland and France with her partner Erwin Bach, a German record company executive that she started dating in 1986. She has two sons, Ronnie, from her relationship with Ike, and Craig, her son with saxophone player Raymond Hill. She is also a grandmother and great-grandmother, and is a devoted Buddhist.

She had a real do-or-die attitude, and this has had an influence on me.

I've changed careers so many times in my life, and even when something is going well, I'd take a risk and follow my heart if there was something I really want to do.

The attitude I take to a lot of things now is that if there is no safety net, you won't allow yourself to fall.

What I find inspirational, is Tina's assertion that you should never settle for anything less than everything.

Sometimes, people find themselves in situations where they're not happy for whatever reason, but they will stay where they are because it's easier. The easiest life isn't always the most fulfilling one, and the most important thing is to feel that you've taken the risk for you, rather than relying on something that isn't making you smile every day.

We all have times in our lives when we're knocked back, or we feel we can't do what it is we want to do, and having somebody like Tina as an example can encourage us not to wallow in self-pity or self-doubt. The main lesson she taught me is that if you've nothing to fall back on, you just won't fall back.

Graham Cruz will be co-presenting a onehour special documentary on the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council's 'Festival of World Cultures' tonight at 11pm on RTE Two.