“He was fucking nuts”: Blondie on their harrowing ordeal with a gun-wielding Phil Spector
Lots of artists have a Phil Spector story to tell. While some of them are positive accounts of working with him and witnessing his revolutionary approaches to production in action, others will tell you that he was a man who needed to be kept at arm’s length. It’s all very well being one of the most inventive and world-changing producers of all time, but it’s probably a good idea to keep that as what you’re remembered for most, as opposed to your violent outbursts of insanity.
Many people are aware of the fact that Spector died while serving time in prison for the 2003 murder of actor Lana Clarkson, whom he fatally shot in the mouth in his California mansion. This now overshadows and undoes all of the spectacular work he did to reshape the sound of popular music in the decades prior, but it’s also far from his only disgusting and depraved act.
According to his family, Spector was an abusive, controlling and manipulative figure, with his children saying that their familial dysfunction was largely down to the unpredictable outbursts and reign of terror that Spector imposed upon them. It wasn’t just family members who spoke of his manic tendencies, either, and many high-profile people within the music industry will be able to tell you of their experiences of Spector being a danger to himself and those around him.
Long before the incident that saw him incarcerated for the last 12 years of his life, Spector had been wantonly brandishing firearms in front of friends, family and clients, and luckily, there are plenty who have lived to tell the tale of their frightening brushes with the gun-toting producer. While John Lennon and Dee Dee Ramone both have their own tales of how Spector pulled a gun on them, one group that was significantly perturbed by their encounter with the ‘Wall of Sound’ creator was Blondie.
In 1977, while backstage at Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, Spector allegedly knocked on the dressing room door of the group prior to their appearance on stage, accompanied by two bodyguards. A dishevelled-looking Spector invited himself into their space, and according to bassist Gary Valentine, “practically locked us in the dressing room and sort of lectured us at length,” according to an interview with Mojo.
Other members of the group were quick to note how this wasn’t unexpected behaviour from Spector, and that they were aware of his previous encounters with other musicians. “He was fucking nuts,” claimed guitarist Chris Stein, who then told the publication of how he attempted to invite singer Debbie Harry back to his mansion, which the rest of the band chose to accompany her for out of the fear that he might pull one of his unhinged stunts on her.
Of course, the band were greeted by Spector in style at his mansion. “He answered the door to his house with a [Colt] .45 in one hand and a bottle of Manischewitz wine in the other hand,” Stein recounted of their encounter. “The whole time he spoke in a WC Fields voice.” Not only that, but he supposedly pointed his gun at Harry’s boots at one point, miming a firing action and adding to the intimidating atmosphere. Spector had, of course, offered his production services to the shellshocked group, which they politely declined.
“We’re really lucky we avoided Phil,” Stein asserted. Close shaves don’t really come much closer than this.
