August 12, 2020 • 31 mins
Leader of the Ronettes, voice behind “Be My Baby,” and the former wife of Phil Spector, Ronnie Spector peels back the curtain to expose the darker side of one of the most infamous couples of the 1960s. Ronnie’s life with Phil takes a nosedive from rubbing elbows with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones to being held prisoner in her own house.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Blood on the Tracks is the production of I Heart
Radio and Double Elvis. Phil Specter was a musical genius,
one of the most successful record producers of all time.
He's now sitting behind bars, serving a nineteen years to
life sentence for murder. This is his story told by
his so called friends. This is Special Agent Polomon with
(00:28):
the Federal Grew of Investigation, working case number double oh
four Dash one zero DAP seven four one nine case
subject of Specter, Philip Harvey. This information pertains to the
period end in December. Interview subject of Specter, Veronica Yvette.
Interview number seven dash zero five Dash three six Dash
six three Recall number one, February fourteenth, two thousand five.
(01:00):
As time went on, they started writing about him being
a genius. He'd say, yeah, I am a genius, and
then they'd say he's the mad genius. So he became
the mad genius. Anything they wrote about him became He's
a recluse, So he became a recluse. I think if
Phil hadn't read anything about himself, he'd still be the same.
(01:20):
But that's the story that he became a replicate of
everything he read about himself. I wouldn't say he's mad.
I think a lot of times he's pretending to be,
because I've seen him straight, and I've seen him act
with that way of his A lot of it may
be mad, but a lot of it is certainly intentional
(01:41):
to let people wonder what is this guy all about.
I think he's always wanted He's always wanted to be
an artist on his own. He just didn't have the
talent own or the voice. I think he's afraid to
go back in the studio, afraid that it won't be
a hit and that people would start saying he's not
such a genius. Wants to keep that title, and you
(02:03):
can't keep that title. We gont We have a little
bottle traps Chapter two. Phil Specter and Ronnie Specter m Oh, honey,
(02:51):
I knew them all the rolling Stones opened for us.
Keith Richards put his eyes on me, honey. He wished
his hands were on me too. When the Beatles came
to America for the first time, Ringo called me from
their hotel room. They were so green. Can you picture it?
(03:11):
Ringo star calling Veronica been at a girl from Spanish
Harlem calling Ronnie for a hot tip. From the first time,
Me and the girls put our hair up and beehives.
From the first time we walked down West forty with
thick eyeliner, dressed to the nines, we floated on air.
We glided real smooth, you see. From the first time, Honey,
(03:34):
it was go time. It was We stood in line
at the Peppermint Lounge, walked that walk. That walk got
us the nod. The bouncer thought we were the entertainment.
We took the Expressway to the front of that line.
From that first time, doors opened behind one door, Keith Richards,
(03:57):
behind another door, John Lennon behind doin number three, a
hit record like you wouldn't believe you couldn't walk half
a block in New York City in the summer of
nineteen sixty three and not here be my baby coming
out of some tenement window or a car stereo. So,
of course I thought that a life with Phil would
(04:19):
lead to more of the same. We'd be cut into
the front of every line, calling up the stars on
the phone, webbing elbows all that. Baby. But life with
Phil closed more doors than it opened, Honey. The only
door that Phil opened for me was the closet door,
(04:41):
and he shoved me in there. I am serious, honey.
The closets at the house unlock Collina were big, but
they weren't that big. He kept me in that house
like a prisoner. I have said it before and I'll
say it again. I was his prisoner. If I wanted
to leave, wanted to go anywhere, for a walk, for
(05:02):
a drive, go shopping, go see my friends, I had
to ask George Brand to let me out of my
own damn house. You see, I was treated like a child.
I was a prisoner. George lived in the basement. George
and his gun permit. Phil hired him as his latest bodyguard.
(05:26):
This was after Big Red, after a mill farcus bodyguard.
Though George was just another way of Phil justifying all
the ship he did made him feel like a big man.
Phil could tell you to fuck right off, and if
you didn't like it, George would appear from behind Phil's
shoulders to make sure there were no problems. Back to
(05:47):
this closet, though, He locked me in the damn closet upstairs, Honey.
He liked to shoot me away to the bedroom when
company came over. Make myself scarce like I was some
kept prize. Except he never wanted to show anyone his prize.
(06:07):
He wanted the prize so he could say he had
the prize, that he and no one else had it.
He had me, And there I was that night, locked
in the closet upstairs. He forced me inside, closed the door,
locked it with a pad lock or some ship. He
had even put a lock on our liquor cabinet around
(06:29):
this time. He said, I had been drinking too much.
But honey, I took a screwdriver to that lock and
busted it wide open. Wasn't my first rodeo. He put
a bigger lock on it, and I found a bigger screwdriver.
There wasn't much I could do from inside that closet.
I screamed, Oh I did, I yelled. I banged my
(06:52):
fist against the doors. This wasn't no live from the
Peppermint Lounge, Honey. I wasn't floating my way out from
between that rock in a hard place. With a beehive
and a smile, Phil went downstairs to shoot pool with
Don Krishner. They probably reminisced about the past, which Phil
was obsessed with, his past hits, his past success, his
(07:15):
past fame, all of which eluded him now and when
was this nineteen sixty nine. Probably. I mean, he's got
the singer of one of the biggest hits of the
sixties stuck in a closet on the second floor of
his twenty one room mansion in Beverly Hills. Is it
(07:37):
any wonder that fame eluded him? Fame is a fickle bitch.
Honey Manson had him paranoid and anxious wired. Why do
you think George was sleeping in the basement with loaded weapons.
We came home from a trip to Vegas that August.
Right after it happened, Phil went into a crisis mode.
(08:01):
Hollywood went into crisis mode. He installed a chain link fence,
barbed wire. He had some warning signs put around the place,
you know, no trespassing, that kind of thing. And then
you got a couple of dogs, attack dogs. I hated
those dogs. At this point, the point when I'm stuck
in this huge closet, I had already tried to start
(08:23):
the divorce process once we were not living the life
I had envisioned, And now I wondered why I had
dropped it. He had me caged like an enemy. Don
heard my screaming and my bang, and he came running
from downstairs. Pool could wait. Whatever story they were batting
(08:46):
around could wait. He could tell something was wrong, that
someone was in need of his help. Phil. Phil wouldn't
help nobody unless it helped him. Don through the closet
door open and pulled me out by my arm. He
led me all the way down the stairs, and and
he kept going. We walked fast, right past Phil, past
the antique French furniture, past the nineteenth century oil paintents,
(09:09):
passed the photos of me that he had plastered all
over the walls, next his Picasso, the Matador, past the
Steinway grand piano. Don kept walking until we were out
of that house, and then he asked me where I
wanted to go. He would take me anywhere but there,
and I let him. I don't remember where we wound
(09:32):
up going, but I do remember that it wasn't long
before I was back at that mansion and back with Phil.
(10:13):
It started real sweet, real innocent. He started with guitars
tuning up and drum sets pounding out a determined rhythm.
He started with the promise of two and a half
minute song, short but life changing. It started down an
alley off Santa Monica Boulevard near Vine Gold Star Recording Studios.
(10:34):
You'll be amazed just how much can be done with
nineteen sixty. Throughout was twenty Phil was three. I didn't
even know he was married. He would bring me by
his apartment and I'd ask him about all the women's
clothes that were on his floor, on the edge of
the bed, and he told me they belonged to his sister.
(10:58):
It was Darlene who told me he was married. He
was with a girl named Annette. They were newly weds, actually,
but at gold Star, at that tiny hole in the
wall studio that he loved. For whatever reason, it was
all me. He definitely favored me over a Stella Nedra.
He focused on me, doated on me, and I ain't
(11:19):
gonna lie, honey. I liked the attention. Pretty Soon he
had me come sit with him in the control room,
a smaller room within a small room, being a circle
inside a small circle. I felt bad leaving a Stella
Nedra behind, but what can I say? I thought I
could step on that pedestal he was offering without it
changing me. What was that Tina song? A fool in love?
(11:45):
He's got me smiling when I should be ashamed, got
me laughing. When my heart is in pain, Bhil started
throwing his weight around. He would put himself between me
and other men. I didn't want anyone else making eye
contact with me, didn't want anyone talking to me. He
was marking his territory, staking his claim. And though it
(12:11):
may have seemed so at first, it wasn't a fairy tale.
First off, he was married, newly married, you know the type.
And second he was unreasonable for a guy who was
stepping out on his brand new wife, he could be
awfully entitled. Before we were even official. He was pulling
(12:33):
power moves whenever I left golds Are without telling Phil,
even if I just walked out the door and into
the alley. Phil went from my lovable genius to he
got possessive, controlling, maniacal, even if it was just to
grab burgers down the street with Sonny Bono. Sonny was
(12:56):
a jack of all trades for Phil. Hold that prison,
this bangers, can't drive that car. Phil's cravings were routine,
expected a dog from Pinks Burger, from stands driving. He'd
send Sunny to grab burgers and bring them back to
gold Star. So one day Sunny runs out for burgers,
(13:16):
not because Phil asked him too, but because he wants
to burger l A burgers ain't nothing like him. They
come wrapped in these paper sleeves, self contained bliss with
a thick tomato slice in the middle. Sunny tells me
he's going to stands. I grabbed Nedra to run out with.
Keep him company, get some fresh air. That gold Star
(13:39):
air that got stale, Honey got stale real quick. Phil
must have flown off the handle when he realized I
had left. When we got back to gold Star with
the Burgers, it looked like a bomb had gone off.
Ship was knocked around, a chair upside down, Mike's hands
(14:00):
on the ground, papers scattered everywhere, Tape unspooled from the reels.
Phil was out of breath, his face was red. His
hair the rug he had started wearing to add some
depth to his hair he was losing, was must up.
He looked three seconds away from exploding. He called Sunny
Sonny Bozo. After that, Sunny's girl Share took me dancing
(14:24):
one night at the Purple Onion on the Strip, a
jazz joint that had dance contest nights. We went on
one of those dance nights, cut loose through the twist
and all of that, and here comes Phil, a bat
out of hell, straight in through the front door, across
the dance floor. He pulled my ass out of there
so fast made the twist seem like a slow waltz.
(14:48):
We kept our relationship secret for many years, even though
it was obvious to those who are around us the most.
I was a little embarrassed, not just that he was
still married, but for the way he treated me. But
I held out, held out for the promise that the
better days would outweigh the bad ones, that he would
(15:12):
be less unreasonable, less volatile. Once he split from a Net,
we would hold court with the princess and queens of
pop music and really be somebody. He got a Mexican
divorce in the mid sixties, around the time he moved
to la for good. He hated l A, the son,
(15:34):
the drugs, the people who would turned their noses up
at him when he was a kid kicking around the
Fairfax District. He was the least likely l A person
to be in l A. But he felt he could
bend the l A musicians to his will in a
way that New Yorkers never would. He had to be here.
We got married in April nineteen. They shot after King
(16:00):
a few days before the wedding. Dr Martin Luther King,
he apostle of non violence civil rights, has been a
shot to death this gynesty. I thought my wedding was over.
We were all in shock over the news. Phil Phil
went somewhere dark, somewhere alone. Anything about him, the kid
(16:21):
he's He locked himself in the bedroom for days, brought
in a reel to reel with them, spools of Doctor
King's speeches, and he just listened to Dr King talk
for days on end. People. He told me that I
(16:51):
just married him for his money, for his fame, and
you know what baby moments like those, when he piled
on the anger and the insult, moments like those. Sure,
maybe I did it for the money and the fame
and the attention. I'd say I didn't like what he
had become, but it's fairly obvious that he had always
been that way. I wasn't going back down My Spanish
(17:18):
Harlem roots would snap back if they got bent. I
yelled back at him, told him he was washed up,
that he hadn't made a good record in years. Then
he came after me. I spent my wedding night, locked
in the bathroom at the mansion on lack Colina with
my mother. Bill banged on the door and he made
(17:38):
some heartfelt clean that he banged on the door again.
I didn't let him in all night. We'll be right
back after this word World, World, Look, honey, I'll be
(18:01):
the first to admit it. I was drinking too much.
I was drinking so much that I crashed the camaro.
This was the the white Camaro, the one Phil got
me for my twenty fifth birthday. My initials in silver
on the glove box. I'll remember the day I got it,
(18:23):
August nine, a white ribbon raft around it. That first sight,
I was in love. But there was a caveat with
that gift. There was always a caveat With Phil. He
boughted an inflatable man doll that I had to leave
in the passenger seat anytime I drove around town on
(18:46):
my own. His paranoia and his need to control me
were reaching a fever pitch in tandem. God forbid, someone
saw me driving around l A on my own. What
were they gonna do? Flag me down? Hop in the
car with me, make violent love to me right there
on the leather so I had too many drinks one day.
(19:06):
The more I thought about Phil, the more irritated I became.
He wasn't making new music with me. He was barely
making any music at all. I hadn't sunk on a
record in years. I had no social life. Film made
sure that I could barely think for myself at home
without asking Phil for mission first, so I had another
(19:29):
drink and another. Then I got behind the wheel of
the Camaro, stuck an unlit cigarette and the mouth of
the blow up doll, and put it in drive. New
safety features are standing, which scattered hours. The last thing
I remember was swerven to avoid noncoming tree, and then
I was out. The Camaro was hanging off the side
(19:52):
of a cliff. How I didn't fall off the side
of the cliff to plummet to my death as anyone's guess.
Maybe God was the it out for me that day,
or maybe he wasn't. He He did send me right
back into the arms of Phil Spector. After all. My
next birthday, my twenty six birthday, we were in Vegas
to see Elvis Presley. Immediately after the show, Phil couldn't
(20:15):
wait to ditch me for the King On my birthday, honey.
He barely said one word to me and pushed his
way through the crowd to get up close and personal
with Elvis. I went back to the hotel and got hammered.
It would be birthday to me, so let'sten. I adopted
Dante to Phil a hole. I thought being a mother
(20:39):
would give me something to focus on and not go
over the edge, like like I had driven over the
edge and the camaro. But Phil wanted people to think
I had actually given birth. See he told me to
stuff a pillow under my shirt when we had company,
and then he doubled down. On children, He tripled down.
He adopted the twins, Gary and Lewis without even telling me.
(21:02):
He didn't even tell me. We drove home one day
and there they were, blonde hair flowing in the wind
as they ran around the mansion. Merry Christmas, that's what
he said to me. The kids didn't stop me from
thinking about performing again. Seeing Elvis gave me the bug
and I couldn't shake it. I deserved to be on
(21:22):
the same stage as Elvis. I told Phil we needed
to do something. It was time. It was beyond time.
Phil had just worked with George Harrison on all things
must pass, and George told him. I think, oh boy,
a Beatle has a song for me. The next thing
I know, I'm signed up to Apple Records and phillis
(21:44):
telling everybody about my comeback album and we fly out
to London to Abbey Road Studios to cut a record
with a Beatle. So George gives me this song, try some,
buy some. I think, what is this shit? I had
no idea what that song was about, and it was
(22:04):
out of my range too. It was too high. I
just couldn't believe that this was a song to bring
my career back from the dead. It was mid tempo,
plotting and feel as usual, drenched it with an orchestra.
I just didn't get it, Honey, Maybe I was just
getting lost with the times. Well, the song was a flop.
(22:28):
Phil was depressed. How I was depressed. The comeback album
never happened. I never came back, so I continued to
hit the bottom. Whatever bottle I could find. Drinking gave
me an escape. When I had nowhere to escape too.
I was sent to doctors, to institutions. Eventually Phil had
(22:50):
me join a a So I played that game. Didn't
play it very well. It was a game I didn't
feel like playing. When I came back from a a
the mansion was locked every door. There wasn't a soul inside.
Philip kept me in, and now he was keeping me out.
I couldn't keep up. My mother was inside and heard
my screams to open the goddamn door. She left me
(23:13):
in the side entrance that the housekeeper and cook used,
and then phil was there in my face. He was drunk.
He had sent me to psychiatrists, into sanitariums, into a
a for being drunk, and now he was drunk. I mean, hello,
pot meat kettle. He was yelling like he always did,
(23:35):
told me I was a drunk, told me I must
be having an affair, told me to lowyer up. He
put his hands on me, in my face, tackled me
to the ground, told me he would have me killed
if I left the house. That he had already bought
a coffin for my funeral. It was solid gold. The
next morning I made my escape. I walked out the
(23:58):
front door, the same door he had locked on me,
so I couldn't get back in the same door I
hadn't been able to walk through on my own for years. Later.
He tracked me down and called me on the phone,
told me he threw out all my ship. That's what
he said. He said it was all stuft into a
garbage can on Las Siennago. He wouldn't tell me the
(24:20):
cross street. That was it, honey. That was the last
time I spoke to Phillis his wife. Took a few
more years before we were legally divorced. But from that
moment on, I was done. If I ever saw him
again after that moment, I've already forgotten. February two, New
(25:12):
York City, Ronnie Spector cashed another alimony check. She flipped
it over to endorse it and saw the same stamped
message that she had come to expect and faded black ink.
It read fuck you. Phil was still demeaning her through
his corrid ordered monthly payments, still jockeying for the upper
(25:33):
hand the last word, still imagining he could lord over
her from a top, high heeled shoes that ignored his
Napoleonic frame. The stamp that he put on the back
of every check gaslighted Ronnie in the same way. It
said that she had been the problem, not him. How
could a genius be the source of the problem, After all,
before the checks with the funk you stamps. There are
(25:54):
even more passive aggressive payouts. The second alimony payment he
ever made consisted entirely of Nichols, all fifty dollars. It
was delivered by armed guards with shotguns. Phil had it all.
The mansion of the children, the Camaro, the career. Ronnie
got a monthly payment from her ex husband, but she
didn't have much more than that. She had no label,
(26:16):
she had no producer. She didn't even hear her songs
coming out of car stereos on the streets of Spanish
Harlem anymore. When Ronnie thought of the things that gave
her comfort and joy, she noted that they had all
been taken away from her, her children, her freedom, her career,
her dignity, her sanity. When she thought of the things
that had seemed so easy seems second nature, things like
(26:38):
waltzing to the front of the line at the Peppermint Lounge,
or hearing the opening thundercrack on a playback of Walking
in the Rain with Phil in the control room, those
things seemed like a lifetime away. It had all been
so easy, and then it got unbelievably hard. She wanted
it to be easy again. But if she couldn't go
back in time. The least she could do is forget
(26:59):
about the present. She poured herself a glass of cognac
in bed and reclined. When she woke up, her pillow
was wet, and so was her signature beehive hair do.
The bottle of cognac had fallen over when she fell asleep.
Her bed was soaked. Frustrated that she was now out
of cognac and in a wet bed, she lit a cigarette.
(27:20):
She took a long, slow drag, started to think about
how she could make it easy again, and then she
drifted off. When she woke up for the second time,
there was smoke coming from her head, flames on the pillow.
She reached up to touch her beehive, and it was gone.
Everything was gone. Seventy five was a long way from
(27:41):
nineteen sixty four. In nineteen sixty four, when Ronnie, Estelle
and Nadre stepped off a plane in London, the talk
of the town on two continents, their entire lives and
careers ahead of them, the girl group to begin and
end all girl groups. The in sound from Spanish Harlemtown.
Ronnie was hounded by everyone, wanted by everyone, desired by everyone.
(28:02):
There wasn't one man who crossed your path who didn't
want to be your baby. Not least of all was
Keith Richards, who, despite Phil Specter's warning to the Stones
manager Andrew lock Oldham, developed a lump in the throat,
pain in the heart crush sean Ronnie that wasn't easily shaken.
Ronnie shook Keith to the core, shook him right out
of his bad boy pose and into one of a
(28:23):
love struck puppy. Oldham would tell him to knock at all,
and Phil Specter would tell him to watch himself. But
Keith didn't easily knock off. Keith wasn't easily watched. Keith
and Ronnie and Phil will be twisted up together in
nineteen sixty four and beyond, and Keith would have his
own secrets to keep in stories to tell, secrets and
stories from a time back before things soured with Ronnie
(28:46):
and Phil, back before Phil burrowed deeper into a life
of solitude, paranoia, and murder. All to keep that title,
that genius title, because you can't keep that title without
leaving a little blood on the tracks. This episode of
(29:14):
Blood on the Tracks is brought to you by twenty
seven Club, a podcast that I host on musicians who
died at the age of Season two featuring Jim Morrison
is now available, as is season one with twelve episodes
featuring Jimmy Hendrix. Subscribe to The twenty seven Club on
Apple podcast, I Heeart Radio app or wherever you get
your podcasts, and of course, this episode was also brought
(29:35):
to you by Disgrace Land, the award winning music and
true crime podcast also hosted by Yours Truly. Episodes on
The Rolling Stones, Jerry Lewis, Cardi b The Grateful Dead,
Jay Z Prince and many many more are all waiting
for you right now. Just search disgrace Land on Apple podcast,
the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your
podcast all right. This episode of Blood on the Tracks
(29:57):
was written by Zeth Lundi and scored in X by
Matt Boden, posted by me Jake Brennan. Additional music and
score elements by Ryan's Breaker and Henry Lunette. This episode
featured Lindsay cox Is Ronnie Specton. Blood on the Tracks
is produced by myself for Double Elvis and partnership with
I Heart Radio. Sources for this episode are available at
(30:18):
double Elvis dot Com on the Blood on the Tracks
series page. If you like when you're here, please be
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(30:39):
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As always, you can find me blabbing about other crazy
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you can talk to me per usual on Instagram and
Twitter at disgrace Land Rockam Dyke Granges or dand
Blood on the Tracks is the production of I Heart
Radio and Double Elvis. Phil Specter was a musical genius,
one of the most successful record producers of all time.
He's now sitting behind bars, serving a nineteen years to
life sentence for murder. This is his story told by
his so called friends. This is Special Agent Polomon with
(00:28):
the Federal Grew of Investigation, working case number double oh
four Dash one zero DAP seven four one nine case
subject of Specter, Philip Harvey. This information pertains to the
period end in December. Interview subject of Specter, Veronica Yvette.
Interview number seven dash zero five Dash three six Dash
six three Recall number one, February fourteenth, two thousand five.
(01:00):
As time went on, they started writing about him being
a genius. He'd say, yeah, I am a genius, and
then they'd say he's the mad genius. So he became
the mad genius. Anything they wrote about him became He's
a recluse, So he became a recluse. I think if
Phil hadn't read anything about himself, he'd still be the same.
(01:20):
But that's the story that he became a replicate of
everything he read about himself. I wouldn't say he's mad.
I think a lot of times he's pretending to be,
because I've seen him straight, and I've seen him act
with that way of his A lot of it may
be mad, but a lot of it is certainly intentional
(01:41):
to let people wonder what is this guy all about.
I think he's always wanted He's always wanted to be
an artist on his own. He just didn't have the
talent own or the voice. I think he's afraid to
go back in the studio, afraid that it won't be
a hit and that people would start saying he's not
such a genius. Wants to keep that title, and you
(02:03):
can't keep that title. We gont We have a little
bottle traps Chapter two. Phil Specter and Ronnie Specter m Oh, honey,
(02:51):
I knew them all the rolling Stones opened for us.
Keith Richards put his eyes on me, honey. He wished
his hands were on me too. When the Beatles came
to America for the first time, Ringo called me from
their hotel room. They were so green. Can you picture it?
(03:11):
Ringo star calling Veronica been at a girl from Spanish
Harlem calling Ronnie for a hot tip. From the first time,
Me and the girls put our hair up and beehives.
From the first time we walked down West forty with
thick eyeliner, dressed to the nines, we floated on air.
We glided real smooth, you see. From the first time, Honey,
(03:34):
it was go time. It was We stood in line
at the Peppermint Lounge, walked that walk. That walk got
us the nod. The bouncer thought we were the entertainment.
We took the Expressway to the front of that line.
From that first time, doors opened behind one door, Keith Richards,
(03:57):
behind another door, John Lennon behind doin number three, a
hit record like you wouldn't believe you couldn't walk half
a block in New York City in the summer of
nineteen sixty three and not here be my baby coming
out of some tenement window or a car stereo. So,
of course I thought that a life with Phil would
(04:19):
lead to more of the same. We'd be cut into
the front of every line, calling up the stars on
the phone, webbing elbows all that. Baby. But life with
Phil closed more doors than it opened, Honey. The only
door that Phil opened for me was the closet door,
(04:41):
and he shoved me in there. I am serious, honey.
The closets at the house unlock Collina were big, but
they weren't that big. He kept me in that house
like a prisoner. I have said it before and I'll
say it again. I was his prisoner. If I wanted
to leave, wanted to go anywhere, for a walk, for
(05:02):
a drive, go shopping, go see my friends, I had
to ask George Brand to let me out of my
own damn house. You see, I was treated like a child.
I was a prisoner. George lived in the basement. George
and his gun permit. Phil hired him as his latest bodyguard.
(05:26):
This was after Big Red, after a mill farcus bodyguard.
Though George was just another way of Phil justifying all
the ship he did made him feel like a big man.
Phil could tell you to fuck right off, and if
you didn't like it, George would appear from behind Phil's
shoulders to make sure there were no problems. Back to
(05:47):
this closet, though, He locked me in the damn closet upstairs, Honey.
He liked to shoot me away to the bedroom when
company came over. Make myself scarce like I was some
kept prize. Except he never wanted to show anyone his prize.
(06:07):
He wanted the prize so he could say he had
the prize, that he and no one else had it.
He had me, And there I was that night, locked
in the closet upstairs. He forced me inside, closed the door,
locked it with a pad lock or some ship. He
had even put a lock on our liquor cabinet around
(06:29):
this time. He said, I had been drinking too much.
But honey, I took a screwdriver to that lock and
busted it wide open. Wasn't my first rodeo. He put
a bigger lock on it, and I found a bigger screwdriver.
There wasn't much I could do from inside that closet.
I screamed, Oh I did, I yelled. I banged my
(06:52):
fist against the doors. This wasn't no live from the
Peppermint Lounge, Honey. I wasn't floating my way out from
between that rock in a hard place. With a beehive
and a smile, Phil went downstairs to shoot pool with
Don Krishner. They probably reminisced about the past, which Phil
was obsessed with, his past hits, his past success, his
(07:15):
past fame, all of which eluded him now and when
was this nineteen sixty nine. Probably. I mean, he's got
the singer of one of the biggest hits of the
sixties stuck in a closet on the second floor of
his twenty one room mansion in Beverly Hills. Is it
(07:37):
any wonder that fame eluded him? Fame is a fickle bitch.
Honey Manson had him paranoid and anxious wired. Why do
you think George was sleeping in the basement with loaded weapons.
We came home from a trip to Vegas that August.
Right after it happened, Phil went into a crisis mode.
(08:01):
Hollywood went into crisis mode. He installed a chain link fence,
barbed wire. He had some warning signs put around the place,
you know, no trespassing, that kind of thing. And then
you got a couple of dogs, attack dogs. I hated
those dogs. At this point, the point when I'm stuck
in this huge closet, I had already tried to start
(08:23):
the divorce process once we were not living the life
I had envisioned, And now I wondered why I had
dropped it. He had me caged like an enemy. Don
heard my screaming and my bang, and he came running
from downstairs. Pool could wait. Whatever story they were batting
(08:46):
around could wait. He could tell something was wrong, that
someone was in need of his help. Phil. Phil wouldn't
help nobody unless it helped him. Don through the closet
door open and pulled me out by my arm. He
led me all the way down the stairs, and and
he kept going. We walked fast, right past Phil, past
the antique French furniture, past the nineteenth century oil paintents,
(09:09):
passed the photos of me that he had plastered all
over the walls, next his Picasso, the Matador, past the
Steinway grand piano. Don kept walking until we were out
of that house, and then he asked me where I
wanted to go. He would take me anywhere but there,
and I let him. I don't remember where we wound
(09:32):
up going, but I do remember that it wasn't long
before I was back at that mansion and back with Phil.
(10:13):
It started real sweet, real innocent. He started with guitars
tuning up and drum sets pounding out a determined rhythm.
He started with the promise of two and a half
minute song, short but life changing. It started down an
alley off Santa Monica Boulevard near Vine Gold Star Recording Studios.
(10:34):
You'll be amazed just how much can be done with
nineteen sixty. Throughout was twenty Phil was three. I didn't
even know he was married. He would bring me by
his apartment and I'd ask him about all the women's
clothes that were on his floor, on the edge of
the bed, and he told me they belonged to his sister.
(10:58):
It was Darlene who told me he was married. He
was with a girl named Annette. They were newly weds, actually,
but at gold Star, at that tiny hole in the
wall studio that he loved. For whatever reason, it was
all me. He definitely favored me over a Stella Nedra.
He focused on me, doated on me, and I ain't
(11:19):
gonna lie, honey. I liked the attention. Pretty Soon he
had me come sit with him in the control room,
a smaller room within a small room, being a circle
inside a small circle. I felt bad leaving a Stella
Nedra behind, but what can I say? I thought I
could step on that pedestal he was offering without it
changing me. What was that Tina song? A fool in love?
(11:45):
He's got me smiling when I should be ashamed, got
me laughing. When my heart is in pain, Bhil started
throwing his weight around. He would put himself between me
and other men. I didn't want anyone else making eye
contact with me, didn't want anyone talking to me. He
was marking his territory, staking his claim. And though it
(12:11):
may have seemed so at first, it wasn't a fairy tale.
First off, he was married, newly married, you know the type.
And second he was unreasonable for a guy who was
stepping out on his brand new wife, he could be
awfully entitled. Before we were even official. He was pulling
(12:33):
power moves whenever I left golds Are without telling Phil,
even if I just walked out the door and into
the alley. Phil went from my lovable genius to he
got possessive, controlling, maniacal, even if it was just to
grab burgers down the street with Sonny Bono. Sonny was
(12:56):
a jack of all trades for Phil. Hold that prison,
this bangers, can't drive that car. Phil's cravings were routine,
expected a dog from Pinks Burger, from stands driving. He'd
send Sunny to grab burgers and bring them back to
gold Star. So one day Sunny runs out for burgers,
(13:16):
not because Phil asked him too, but because he wants
to burger l A burgers ain't nothing like him. They
come wrapped in these paper sleeves, self contained bliss with
a thick tomato slice in the middle. Sunny tells me
he's going to stands. I grabbed Nedra to run out with.
Keep him company, get some fresh air. That gold Star
(13:39):
air that got stale, Honey got stale real quick. Phil
must have flown off the handle when he realized I
had left. When we got back to gold Star with
the Burgers, it looked like a bomb had gone off.
Ship was knocked around, a chair upside down, Mike's hands
(14:00):
on the ground, papers scattered everywhere, Tape unspooled from the reels.
Phil was out of breath, his face was red. His
hair the rug he had started wearing to add some
depth to his hair he was losing, was must up.
He looked three seconds away from exploding. He called Sunny
Sonny Bozo. After that, Sunny's girl Share took me dancing
(14:24):
one night at the Purple Onion on the Strip, a
jazz joint that had dance contest nights. We went on
one of those dance nights, cut loose through the twist
and all of that, and here comes Phil, a bat
out of hell, straight in through the front door, across
the dance floor. He pulled my ass out of there
so fast made the twist seem like a slow waltz.
(14:48):
We kept our relationship secret for many years, even though
it was obvious to those who are around us the most.
I was a little embarrassed, not just that he was
still married, but for the way he treated me. But
I held out, held out for the promise that the
better days would outweigh the bad ones, that he would
(15:12):
be less unreasonable, less volatile. Once he split from a Net,
we would hold court with the princess and queens of
pop music and really be somebody. He got a Mexican
divorce in the mid sixties, around the time he moved
to la for good. He hated l A, the son,
(15:34):
the drugs, the people who would turned their noses up
at him when he was a kid kicking around the
Fairfax District. He was the least likely l A person
to be in l A. But he felt he could
bend the l A musicians to his will in a
way that New Yorkers never would. He had to be here.
We got married in April nineteen. They shot after King
(16:00):
a few days before the wedding. Dr Martin Luther King,
he apostle of non violence civil rights, has been a
shot to death this gynesty. I thought my wedding was over.
We were all in shock over the news. Phil Phil
went somewhere dark, somewhere alone. Anything about him, the kid
(16:21):
he's He locked himself in the bedroom for days, brought
in a reel to reel with them, spools of Doctor
King's speeches, and he just listened to Dr King talk
for days on end. People. He told me that I
(16:51):
just married him for his money, for his fame, and
you know what baby moments like those, when he piled
on the anger and the insult, moments like those. Sure,
maybe I did it for the money and the fame
and the attention. I'd say I didn't like what he
had become, but it's fairly obvious that he had always
been that way. I wasn't going back down My Spanish
(17:18):
Harlem roots would snap back if they got bent. I
yelled back at him, told him he was washed up,
that he hadn't made a good record in years. Then
he came after me. I spent my wedding night, locked
in the bathroom at the mansion on lack Colina with
my mother. Bill banged on the door and he made
(17:38):
some heartfelt clean that he banged on the door again.
I didn't let him in all night. We'll be right
back after this word World, World, Look, honey, I'll be
(18:01):
the first to admit it. I was drinking too much.
I was drinking so much that I crashed the camaro.
This was the the white Camaro, the one Phil got
me for my twenty fifth birthday. My initials in silver
on the glove box. I'll remember the day I got it,
(18:23):
August nine, a white ribbon raft around it. That first sight,
I was in love. But there was a caveat with
that gift. There was always a caveat With Phil. He
boughted an inflatable man doll that I had to leave
in the passenger seat anytime I drove around town on
(18:46):
my own. His paranoia and his need to control me
were reaching a fever pitch in tandem. God forbid, someone
saw me driving around l A on my own. What
were they gonna do? Flag me down? Hop in the
car with me, make violent love to me right there
on the leather so I had too many drinks one day.
(19:06):
The more I thought about Phil, the more irritated I became.
He wasn't making new music with me. He was barely
making any music at all. I hadn't sunk on a
record in years. I had no social life. Film made
sure that I could barely think for myself at home
without asking Phil for mission first, so I had another
(19:29):
drink and another. Then I got behind the wheel of
the Camaro, stuck an unlit cigarette and the mouth of
the blow up doll, and put it in drive. New
safety features are standing, which scattered hours. The last thing
I remember was swerven to avoid noncoming tree, and then
I was out. The Camaro was hanging off the side
(19:52):
of a cliff. How I didn't fall off the side
of the cliff to plummet to my death as anyone's guess.
Maybe God was the it out for me that day,
or maybe he wasn't. He He did send me right
back into the arms of Phil Spector. After all. My
next birthday, my twenty six birthday, we were in Vegas
to see Elvis Presley. Immediately after the show, Phil couldn't
(20:15):
wait to ditch me for the King On my birthday, honey.
He barely said one word to me and pushed his
way through the crowd to get up close and personal
with Elvis. I went back to the hotel and got hammered.
It would be birthday to me, so let'sten. I adopted
Dante to Phil a hole. I thought being a mother
(20:39):
would give me something to focus on and not go
over the edge, like like I had driven over the
edge and the camaro. But Phil wanted people to think
I had actually given birth. See he told me to
stuff a pillow under my shirt when we had company,
and then he doubled down. On children, He tripled down.
He adopted the twins, Gary and Lewis without even telling me.
(21:02):
He didn't even tell me. We drove home one day
and there they were, blonde hair flowing in the wind
as they ran around the mansion. Merry Christmas, that's what
he said to me. The kids didn't stop me from
thinking about performing again. Seeing Elvis gave me the bug
and I couldn't shake it. I deserved to be on
(21:22):
the same stage as Elvis. I told Phil we needed
to do something. It was time. It was beyond time.
Phil had just worked with George Harrison on all things
must pass, and George told him. I think, oh boy,
a Beatle has a song for me. The next thing
I know, I'm signed up to Apple Records and phillis
(21:44):
telling everybody about my comeback album and we fly out
to London to Abbey Road Studios to cut a record
with a Beatle. So George gives me this song, try some,
buy some. I think, what is this shit? I had
no idea what that song was about, and it was
(22:04):
out of my range too. It was too high. I
just couldn't believe that this was a song to bring
my career back from the dead. It was mid tempo,
plotting and feel as usual, drenched it with an orchestra.
I just didn't get it, Honey, Maybe I was just
getting lost with the times. Well, the song was a flop.
(22:28):
Phil was depressed. How I was depressed. The comeback album
never happened. I never came back, so I continued to
hit the bottom. Whatever bottle I could find. Drinking gave
me an escape. When I had nowhere to escape too.
I was sent to doctors, to institutions. Eventually Phil had
(22:50):
me join a a So I played that game. Didn't
play it very well. It was a game I didn't
feel like playing. When I came back from a a
the mansion was locked every door. There wasn't a soul inside.
Philip kept me in, and now he was keeping me out.
I couldn't keep up. My mother was inside and heard
my screams to open the goddamn door. She left me
(23:13):
in the side entrance that the housekeeper and cook used,
and then phil was there in my face. He was drunk.
He had sent me to psychiatrists, into sanitariums, into a
a for being drunk, and now he was drunk. I mean, hello,
pot meat kettle. He was yelling like he always did,
(23:35):
told me I was a drunk, told me I must
be having an affair, told me to lowyer up. He
put his hands on me, in my face, tackled me
to the ground, told me he would have me killed
if I left the house. That he had already bought
a coffin for my funeral. It was solid gold. The
next morning I made my escape. I walked out the
(23:58):
front door, the same door he had locked on me,
so I couldn't get back in the same door I
hadn't been able to walk through on my own for years. Later.
He tracked me down and called me on the phone,
told me he threw out all my ship. That's what
he said. He said it was all stuft into a
garbage can on Las Siennago. He wouldn't tell me the
(24:20):
cross street. That was it, honey. That was the last
time I spoke to Phillis his wife. Took a few
more years before we were legally divorced. But from that
moment on, I was done. If I ever saw him
again after that moment, I've already forgotten. February two, New
(25:12):
York City, Ronnie Spector cashed another alimony check. She flipped
it over to endorse it and saw the same stamped
message that she had come to expect and faded black ink.
It read fuck you. Phil was still demeaning her through
his corrid ordered monthly payments, still jockeying for the upper
(25:33):
hand the last word, still imagining he could lord over
her from a top, high heeled shoes that ignored his
Napoleonic frame. The stamp that he put on the back
of every check gaslighted Ronnie in the same way. It
said that she had been the problem, not him. How
could a genius be the source of the problem, After all,
before the checks with the funk you stamps. There are
(25:54):
even more passive aggressive payouts. The second alimony payment he
ever made consisted entirely of Nichols, all fifty dollars. It
was delivered by armed guards with shotguns. Phil had it all.
The mansion of the children, the Camaro, the career. Ronnie
got a monthly payment from her ex husband, but she
didn't have much more than that. She had no label,
(26:16):
she had no producer. She didn't even hear her songs
coming out of car stereos on the streets of Spanish
Harlem anymore. When Ronnie thought of the things that gave
her comfort and joy, she noted that they had all
been taken away from her, her children, her freedom, her career,
her dignity, her sanity. When she thought of the things
that had seemed so easy seems second nature, things like
(26:38):
waltzing to the front of the line at the Peppermint Lounge,
or hearing the opening thundercrack on a playback of Walking
in the Rain with Phil in the control room, those
things seemed like a lifetime away. It had all been
so easy, and then it got unbelievably hard. She wanted
it to be easy again. But if she couldn't go
back in time. The least she could do is forget
(26:59):
about the present. She poured herself a glass of cognac
in bed and reclined. When she woke up, her pillow
was wet, and so was her signature beehive hair do.
The bottle of cognac had fallen over when she fell asleep.
Her bed was soaked. Frustrated that she was now out
of cognac and in a wet bed, she lit a cigarette.
(27:20):
She took a long, slow drag, started to think about
how she could make it easy again, and then she
drifted off. When she woke up for the second time,
there was smoke coming from her head, flames on the pillow.
She reached up to touch her beehive, and it was gone.
Everything was gone. Seventy five was a long way from
(27:41):
nineteen sixty four. In nineteen sixty four, when Ronnie, Estelle
and Nadre stepped off a plane in London, the talk
of the town on two continents, their entire lives and
careers ahead of them, the girl group to begin and
end all girl groups. The in sound from Spanish Harlemtown.
Ronnie was hounded by everyone, wanted by everyone, desired by everyone.
(28:02):
There wasn't one man who crossed your path who didn't
want to be your baby. Not least of all was
Keith Richards, who, despite Phil Specter's warning to the Stones
manager Andrew lock Oldham, developed a lump in the throat,
pain in the heart crush sean Ronnie that wasn't easily shaken.
Ronnie shook Keith to the core, shook him right out
of his bad boy pose and into one of a
(28:23):
love struck puppy. Oldham would tell him to knock at all,
and Phil Specter would tell him to watch himself. But
Keith didn't easily knock off. Keith wasn't easily watched. Keith
and Ronnie and Phil will be twisted up together in
nineteen sixty four and beyond, and Keith would have his
own secrets to keep in stories to tell, secrets and
stories from a time back before things soured with Ronnie
(28:46):
and Phil, back before Phil burrowed deeper into a life
of solitude, paranoia, and murder. All to keep that title,
that genius title, because you can't keep that title without
leaving a little blood on the tracks. This episode of
(29:14):
Blood on the Tracks is brought to you by twenty
seven Club, a podcast that I host on musicians who
died at the age of Season two featuring Jim Morrison
is now available, as is season one with twelve episodes
featuring Jimmy Hendrix. Subscribe to The twenty seven Club on
Apple podcast, I Heeart Radio app or wherever you get
your podcasts, and of course, this episode was also brought
(29:35):
to you by Disgrace Land, the award winning music and
true crime podcast also hosted by Yours Truly. Episodes on
The Rolling Stones, Jerry Lewis, Cardi b The Grateful Dead,
Jay Z Prince and many many more are all waiting
for you right now. Just search disgrace Land on Apple podcast,
the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your
podcast all right. This episode of Blood on the Tracks
(29:57):
was written by Zeth Lundi and scored in X by
Matt Boden, posted by me Jake Brennan. Additional music and
score elements by Ryan's Breaker and Henry Lunette. This episode
featured Lindsay cox Is Ronnie Specton. Blood on the Tracks
is produced by myself for Double Elvis and partnership with
I Heart Radio. Sources for this episode are available at
(30:18):
double Elvis dot Com on the Blood on the Tracks
series page. If you like when you're here, please be
sure to subscribe the Blood on the Tracks on Apple podcast,
I Heart Radio app wherever you get your podcasts. And
if you'd like to win a free Blood on the
Tracks poster designed by Nate Gonzalez and leave a review
for Blood on the Tracks on Apple Podcast, you can
hashtag Blood on the Tracks on social media. Leave your
(30:39):
review there and we'll pick two winners each week and
announce them on the Double Elvis Instagram page that's at
Double Elvis. Go ahead and give that a followup alright.
As always, you can find me blabbing about other crazy
rock stars on disgrace Land and twenty seven Club, and
you can talk to me per usual on Instagram and
Twitter at disgrace Land Rockam Dyke Granges or dand
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