She had recorded solo material before the divorce — a country-influenced album called Tina Turns the Country On! in 1974, and two albums on United Artists after the split, Rough in 1978 and Love Explosion in 1979. These did not chart. United Artists dropped her.
The solo material prior to the comeback is worth noting because the historical record sometimes elides it, treating 1984’s Private Dancer as her debut as a solo artist. It was not. She had been recording as a solo artist since 1974. The material didn’t find an audience, which is a different thing from not having been tried. The industry, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, did not know how to market a middle-aged Black woman from the R&B tradition as a solo commercial artist. The category did not exist in a form that matched what she was offering.
She starred as the Acid Queen in the film Tommy in 1975, in a role that drew directly on her stage persona and that introduced her to a broader rock audience. The performance was universally praised. But a well-reviewed film appearance did not solve the commercial problem of what to do with Tina Turner as a solo artist.
The years between 1978 and 1982 were years of continued work, of performing wherever the work was available, of maintaining the discipline and the craft in conditions that would have stopped many people. She did cabaret. She played Las Vegas. She played Australia and found an audience there. She kept her name in front of audiences even when the American music industry wasn’t sure what to do with her.