Speaker 1: Double Elvis. What were you doing thirty days ago? What
Speaker 1: did you eat? What did you listen to? Did you
Speaker 1: sing in the shower? Did you call your mom? Did
Speaker 1: you laugh? Did you cry? Do you even remember what
Speaker 1: day it was thirty days ago? Of course not, because
Speaker 1: thirty days is a long time, which is why CarMax
Speaker 1: gives you thirty long days to make sure you love
Speaker 1: your car, and if you don't love it, you can
Speaker 1: return it and get your money back the Carmacks thirty
Speaker 1: day money Back Guarantee. It's car buying reimagined carmacksmit see
Speaker 1: carmacks dot com for details. Technically, CarMax is a virtual
Speaker 1: reality company. You can shop the lot virtually online, or
Speaker 1: you can see the cars in reality on the lot,
Speaker 1: or you could have the best of both worlds. We
Speaker 1: give you the freedom to shop or buy however you need.
Speaker 1: Like we said, virtual reality don't come for us tech people.
Speaker 1: It's car buying reimagined. CarMax Spring it on with forty
Speaker 1: to off almost everything at gap Factory and gap factory
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Speaker 1: to shop at all through April twelve. Blood on the
Speaker 1: Tracks is a production of I Heart Radio and double Elvis.
Speaker 1: Phil Spector was a musical genius, one of the most
Speaker 1: successful record producers of all time. He's now sitting behind bars,
Speaker 1: serving a nineteen years to life sentence for murder. This
Speaker 1: is his story told by a so called friends. This
Speaker 1: is special Agent power moment the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Speaker 1: working case number double oh four dash one zero DAP
Speaker 1: seven case subject of Specter Philip Harvey. This information pertains
Speaker 1: to the period end in December fifteenth, nine four. Interview
Speaker 1: subject to Specter of Veronica Vette Interview number seven DAST
Speaker 1: zero five Dash three six dash six three Recall number one,
Speaker 1: February fourteenth, two thousand five. As time went on, they
Speaker 1: started writing about him being a genius. He'd said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I am a genius, and then they'd say he's the
Speaker 1: mad genius. So he became the mad genius. Anything they
Speaker 1: wrote about him became he's a recluse, So he became
Speaker 1: a recluse. I think if Phil hadn't read anything about himself,
Speaker 1: he'd still be the same. But that's the story that
Speaker 1: he became a replicat of everything he read about himself.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say he's mad. I think a lot of
Speaker 1: times he's pretending to be because I've seen him straight,
Speaker 1: and I've seen him act with that way of his
Speaker 1: A lot of it may be mad, but a lot
Speaker 1: of it is certainly intentional to let people wonder what
Speaker 1: is this guy all about. I think he's always wanted attention.
Speaker 1: He's always wanted to be an artist on his own.
Speaker 1: He just didn't have the talent or or the voice.
Speaker 1: I think he's afraid to go back in the studio,
Speaker 1: afraid that it won't be a hit and that people
Speaker 1: would start saying he's not such a genius. He wants
Speaker 1: to keep that title, and you can't keep that title
Speaker 1: without leaving a little blood on the tracks. M Chapter two,
Speaker 1: Phil Specter and Ronnie Specter. HM, oh, honey, I knew
Speaker 1: them all The Rolling Stones opened for us. Keith Richard
Speaker 1: put his eyes on me, honey. He wished his hands
Speaker 1: were on me too. When the Beatles came to America
Speaker 1: for the first time, Ringo called me from their hotel room.
Speaker 1: They were so green. Can you picture it? Ringo Star
Speaker 1: calling Veronica? Been it? A girl from Spanish Harlem calling
Speaker 1: Ronnie for a hot tip. From the first time Me
Speaker 1: and the girls put our hair up and beehives. From
Speaker 1: the first time we walked down West forty with thick eyeliner,
Speaker 1: dressed to the nines, we floated on air. We glided
Speaker 1: real smooth, you see. From the first time, honey, it
Speaker 1: was go time. It was We stood in line at
Speaker 1: the Peppermint Lounge, walked that walk. That walk got us
Speaker 1: the nod. The bouncer thought we were the entertainment. We
Speaker 1: took the Expressway to the front of that line. From
Speaker 1: that first time, doors opened behind one door, Keith Richards,
Speaker 1: behind another door, John Lennon behind door number three, a
Speaker 1: hit record like you wouldn't believe you couldn't walk half
Speaker 1: a block in New York City in the summer of
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three and not here be my baby coming
Speaker 1: out of some tenement window or a car stereo. So,
Speaker 1: of course I thought that a life with Phil would
Speaker 1: lead to more of the same. We'd be cut into
Speaker 1: the front of every line, calling up the stars on
Speaker 1: the phone, webbing elbows all that. Baby. But life with
Speaker 1: Phil closed more doors than it opened, Honey. The only
Speaker 1: door that Phil opened for me was the closet door,
Speaker 1: and he shoved me in there. I am serious, Honey.
Speaker 1: The closets at the house Unlock Colina were big, but
Speaker 1: they weren't that big. He kept me in that house
Speaker 1: like a prisoner. I have said it before and I'll
Speaker 1: say it again. I was his prisoner. If I wanted
Speaker 1: to leave, if I wanted to go anywhere, or a walk,
Speaker 1: for a drive, go shopping, go see my friends, I
Speaker 1: had to ask George brand to let me out of
Speaker 1: my own damn house. You see, I was treated like
Speaker 1: a child. I was a prisoner. George lived in the
Speaker 1: basement George and his gun permit. Phil hired him as
Speaker 1: his latest bodyguard. This was after Big Red, after a
Speaker 1: mil Farcus bodyguard. Though George was just another way of
Speaker 1: Phil justifying all the ship he did made him feel
Speaker 1: like a big man. Phil. I could tell you to
Speaker 1: fuck right off, and if you didn't like it, George
Speaker 1: would appear from behind Phil's shoulders to make sure there
Speaker 1: were no problems. Back to this closet, though, he locked
Speaker 1: me in the damn closet upstairs, honey. He liked to
Speaker 1: shoot me away to the bedroom when company came over,
Speaker 1: make myself scarce like I was some kept prize. Except
Speaker 1: he never wanted to show anyone his prize. He wanted
Speaker 1: the prize so he could say he had the prize,
Speaker 1: that he and no one else had it. He had me,
Speaker 1: and there I was that night, locked in the closet upstairs.
Speaker 1: He forced me inside, closed the door, locked it with
Speaker 1: a pad lock or some ship. He had even put
Speaker 1: a lock on our liquor cabinet around this time. He said,
Speaker 1: I had been drinking too much. But honey, I took
Speaker 1: a screwdriver to that lock and busted it wide open.
Speaker 1: Wasn't my first rodeo. He put a bigger lock on it,
Speaker 1: and I found a bigger screw driver. There wasn't much
Speaker 1: I could do from inside that closet. I screamed, Oh
Speaker 1: I did, I yelled. I banged my fist against the doors.
Speaker 1: This wasn't no live from the Peppermint Lounge, Honey. I
Speaker 1: wasn't floating my way out from between that rock and
Speaker 1: a hard place. With a beehive and a smile, Phil
Speaker 1: went downstairs to shoot pool with Don Krishner. They probably
Speaker 1: reminisced about the past, which Phil was obsessed with, his
Speaker 1: past hits, his past success, his past fame, all of
Speaker 1: which eluded him. Now and when was this nineteen sixty nine. Probably.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's got the singer of one of the
Speaker 1: biggest hits of the sixties stuck in a closet on
Speaker 1: the second floor of his twenty one room mansion in
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills. Is it any wonder that Fame Aloud did him?
Speaker 1: Fame is a fickle bitch. Honey Manson had him paranoid
Speaker 1: and anxious wired. Why do you think George was sleeping
Speaker 1: in the basement with loaded weapons. We came home from
Speaker 1: a trip to Vegas that August. Right after it happened,
Speaker 1: Phil went into a crisis mode. Hollywood went into crisis mode.
Speaker 1: He installed a chain link fence, barbed wire. He had
Speaker 1: some warning signs put around in the place, you know,
Speaker 1: no trespassing, that kind of thing. And then you got
Speaker 1: a couple of dogs, attack dogs. I hated those dogs.
Speaker 1: At this point, the point when I'm stuck in this
Speaker 1: huge closet, I had already tried to start the divorce
Speaker 1: process once we were not living the life I had envisioned,
Speaker 1: And now I wondered why I had dropped it. He
Speaker 1: had me caged like an animal. On heard my screaming
Speaker 1: and my bang, and he came running from downstairs. Pool
Speaker 1: could wait. Whatever story they were batting around could wait.
Speaker 1: They could tell something was wrong, that someone was in
Speaker 1: need of his help. Phil. Phil wouldn't help nobody unless
Speaker 1: it helped him. Don through the closet door open and
Speaker 1: pulled me out by my arm. He led me all
Speaker 1: the way down the stairs, and then he kept going.
Speaker 1: We walked fast, right past Phil, past the antique French furniture,
Speaker 1: past the nineteenth century oil paintings, passed the photos of
Speaker 1: me that he had plastered all over the walls, next
Speaker 1: his Picasso, the Matador, past the Steinway grand piano. Don
Speaker 1: kept walking until we were out of that house, and
Speaker 1: then he asked me where I wanted to go. He
Speaker 1: would take me anywhere but there, and I let him.
Speaker 1: I don't remember where we wound up going, but I
Speaker 1: do remember that it wasn't long before I was back
Speaker 1: at that mansion and back with Phil. It started real sweet,
Speaker 1: real innocent. I started with guitars tuning up and drum
Speaker 1: sets pounding out a determined rhythm. I started with the
Speaker 1: promise of two and a half minute song, short but
Speaker 1: life changing. It started down an alley off Santa Monica
Speaker 1: Boulevard near Vine Gold Star Recording studios. You'll be amazed
Speaker 1: just how much can be done with sound. Nineteen sixty three.
Speaker 1: I was twenty, Phil was three. I didn't even know
Speaker 1: he was married. He would bring me by his apartment
Speaker 1: and I'd ask him about all the women's clothes that
Speaker 1: were on his floor, on the edge of the bed,
Speaker 1: and he told me they belonged to his sister. It
Speaker 1: was Darlene who told me that he was married. He
Speaker 1: was with a girl named Annette. They were newly weds, actually,
Speaker 1: but at gold Star, at that tiny hole in the
Speaker 1: wall studio that he loved. For whatever reason, it was
Speaker 1: all me. He definitely favored me over a Stella Nedra.
Speaker 1: He focused on me, doated on me, and I ain't
Speaker 1: gonna lie, honey. I liked the attention. Pretty Soon he
Speaker 1: had me come sit with him in the control room,
Speaker 1: a smaller room within a small room, being a circle
Speaker 1: inside a small circle. I felt bad leaving a Stella
Speaker 1: Nedra behind, But what can I say? I thought I
Speaker 1: could step on that pedestal he was offering without it
Speaker 1: change in me. What was that Tina song? A fool
Speaker 1: in love? He's got me smiling when I should be ashamed,
Speaker 1: got me laughing when my heart is in pain. Phil
Speaker 1: started throwing his weight around. He would put himself between
Speaker 1: me and other men. Didn't want anyone else making eye
Speaker 1: contact with me, didn't want anyone talking to me. He
Speaker 1: was marking his territory, staking his claim. And though it
Speaker 1: may have seemed so at first, it wasn't a fairy tale.
Speaker 1: First off, he was married, newly married, you know the type.
Speaker 1: And second he was unreasonable for a guy who was
Speaker 1: stepping out on his brand new wife, he could be
Speaker 1: awfully entitled. Before we were even official. He was pulling
Speaker 1: power moves whenever I left golds Are without telling Phil,
Speaker 1: even if I just walked out the door and into
Speaker 1: the alley. Phil went from my lovable genius to he
Speaker 1: got possessive, controlling, maniacal, even if it was just to
Speaker 1: grab burgers down the street with Sonny Bono. Sonny was
Speaker 1: a jack of all trades for Phil. Tell that Prisonnnny
Speaker 1: Banger's Kangari drive that car. Phil's cravings were routine, expected
Speaker 1: a dog from Pinks Burger from stands drive in. He'd
Speaker 1: send Sunny to grab burgers and bring them back to
Speaker 1: gold Star. So one day Sunny runs out for burgers,
Speaker 1: not because Phil asked him to, but because he wants
Speaker 1: a burger. L A burgers ain't nothing like them. They
Speaker 1: come wrapped in these paper sleeves, self contained bliss with
Speaker 1: a thick tomato slice in the middle. Sunny tells me
Speaker 1: he's going to stands. I grabbed Nedra to run out
Speaker 1: with them. Keep him company, get some fresh air. That
Speaker 1: old Star air that got stale. Honey got stale real quick.
Speaker 1: Phil must have flown off the handle when he realized
Speaker 1: I had left. When we got back to gold Star
Speaker 1: with the burgers, it looked like a bomb had gone off.
Speaker 1: Ship was knocked around, a chair upside down, Mike stands
Speaker 1: on the ground, Papers scattered everywhere, Tape unspooled from the reels.
Speaker 1: Phil was out of breath, His face was red. His
Speaker 1: hair the rug he had started wearing to add some
Speaker 1: depth to his hair he was losing, was must up.
Speaker 1: He looked three seconds away from exploding. He called Sunny
Speaker 1: Sunny Bozo. After that, Sunny's girl Share took me dancing
Speaker 1: one night at the Purple Onion on the Strip, a
Speaker 1: jazz joint that had dance contest nights. We went on
Speaker 1: one of those dance nights, cut loose through the twist
Speaker 1: and all that, and here comes Phil, a bat out
Speaker 1: of hell, straight in through the front door, across the
Speaker 1: dance floor. He pulled my ass out of there so
Speaker 1: fast made the twist seem like a slow waltz. We
Speaker 1: kept our relationship secret for many years, even though it
Speaker 1: was obvious to those who are around us the most.
Speaker 1: I was a little embarrassed, not just that he was
Speaker 1: still married, but for the way he treated me. But
Speaker 1: I held out, held out for the promise that the
Speaker 1: better days would outweigh the bad ones, that he would
Speaker 1: be less unreasonable, less volatile. Once he split from a net,
Speaker 1: we would hold court with the princess and queens of
Speaker 1: pop music and really be somebody. He got a Mexican
Speaker 1: divorce in the mid sixties, around the time he moved
Speaker 1: to la for good. He hated l A, the soun,
Speaker 1: the drugs, the people who would turned their noses up
Speaker 1: at him when he was a kid kicking around the
Speaker 1: Fairfax District. He was the least likely l A person
Speaker 1: to be in l A. But he felt he could
Speaker 1: bend the l A musicians to his will in a
Speaker 1: way that New Yorkers never would. He had to be here.
Speaker 1: We got married in April nineteen. They shot Dr King
Speaker 1: a few days before the wedding. Dr Martin Luther King,
Speaker 1: he apostle of non violence civil rights, has been a
Speaker 1: shot to death dynasty. I thought my wedding was over.
Speaker 1: We were all in shock over the news. Phil Phil
Speaker 1: went somewhere dark, somewhere alone at him, the King. He
Speaker 1: locked himself in the bedroom for days, brought in a
Speaker 1: reel to reel with them spools of Doctor King's speeches
Speaker 1: that he just listened to Dr King talk for days
Speaker 1: on end. People. He told me that I just married
Speaker 1: him for his money, for his fame, and you know
Speaker 1: what baby moments like those, when he piled on the
Speaker 1: anger and the insults, moments like those. Sure, maybe I
Speaker 1: did it for the money and the fame and the attention.
Speaker 1: I'd say I didn't like what he had become, but
Speaker 1: it's fairly obvious that he had always been that way.
Speaker 1: I wasn't going back down my Spanish Harlem broots would
Speaker 1: snap back if they got bent. I yelled back at him,
Speaker 1: told him he was washed up, that he hadn't made
Speaker 1: a good record in years. Then he came after me.
Speaker 1: I spent my wedding night, locked in the bathroom at
Speaker 1: the mansion on Lack Colina with my mother still banged
Speaker 1: on the door and he made some heartfelt plea did
Speaker 1: he bang on the door again? I didn't let him
Speaker 1: in all night. We'll be right back after this world.
Speaker 1: World World. Technically, car Max is a virtual reality company.
Speaker 1: You can shop the lot virtually online, or you can
Speaker 1: see the cars in reality on the lot, or you
Speaker 1: could have the best of both worlds. We give you
Speaker 1: the freedom to shop or buy however you need. Like
Speaker 1: we said, virtual reality don't come for us tech people.
Speaker 1: It's car buying reimagined Carmacks. What were you doing thirty
Speaker 1: days ago? What did you eat? What did you listen to?
Speaker 1: Did you sing in the shower? Did you call your mom?
Speaker 1: Did you laugh? Did you cry? Do you even remember
Speaker 1: what day it was? Third days ago? Of course not,
Speaker 1: because thirty days is a long time, which is why
Speaker 1: CarMax gives you thirty long days to make sure you
Speaker 1: love your car, and if you don't love it, you
Speaker 1: can return it and get your money back the Carmacks
Speaker 1: thirty day money back guarantee. It's car buying reimagined CARMACKSMIT
Speaker 1: see CarMax dot com for details launch greeting the Lens.
Speaker 1: I'm Emily Stefan and I'm Jeminy Hernandez. Where your resident weirdos,
Speaker 1: artists of all trades and multicultural couple and we have
Speaker 1: a classified secret to share with you. We're aliens, Okay,
Speaker 1: just kidding. We're human unfortunately, but sometimes when we look around,
Speaker 1: we really do feel like we came from a different
Speaker 1: time or galaxy. So we created a space for all
Speaker 1: of us who wonder if we're in the right place,
Speaker 1: in the form of a podcast called In Our Own World.
Speaker 1: And this is your official invitation to join us on
Speaker 1: our new planet, I mean podcast. Strap in for the ride.
Speaker 1: Warning it might get bumpy. We'll voyage through conversations about
Speaker 1: every everything under the stars and maybe even pick up
Speaker 1: a few passengers along the way. Listen to In Our
Speaker 1: Own World starting April as part of the Michael Douta
Speaker 1: podcast network, available on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts. Look, honey, I'll be
Speaker 1: the first to admit it. I was drinking too much.
Speaker 1: I was drinking so much that I crashed the Camaro.
Speaker 1: This was the the White Camaro, the one Phil got
Speaker 1: me for my twenty five birthday. My initials in silver
Speaker 1: on the glove box. I'll remember the day I got it,
Speaker 1: August t n a white ribbon rafted around it. That
Speaker 1: first sight, I was in love. But there was a
Speaker 1: caveat with that gift. There was always a caveat with Phil.
Speaker 1: He bought an inflatable man doll that I had to
Speaker 1: leave in the passenger seat anytime I drove around town
Speaker 1: on my own. His paranoia and his need to control
Speaker 1: me were reaching a fever pitch and in tandem. God forbid,
Speaker 1: someone saw me driving around l A on my own,
Speaker 1: What were they gonna do? Flag me down, hopping the
Speaker 1: car with me, make violent love to me right there
Speaker 1: on the leather. So I had too many drinks one day.
Speaker 1: The more I thought about Phil, the more irritated I became.
Speaker 1: He wasn't making new music with me. He was barely
Speaker 1: making any music at all. I hadn't sung on a
Speaker 1: record of years, I had no social life. Film made
Speaker 1: sure that I could barely think for myself at home
Speaker 1: without asking Phil for mission. First, so I had another
Speaker 1: drink and another. Then I got behind the wheel of
Speaker 1: the Camaro, stuck an unlit cigarette and the mouth and
Speaker 1: the blow up doll and put it in drive. New
Speaker 1: safety features are standing hours. The last thing I remember
Speaker 1: was swerving to avoid noncoming tree and then I was out.
Speaker 1: The Camaro was hanging off the side of a cliff.
Speaker 1: How I didn't fall off the side of the cliff
Speaker 1: to plummet to my death as anyone's guests. Maybe God
Speaker 1: was looking out for me that day, or maybe he
Speaker 1: wasn't He He did send me right back into the
Speaker 1: arms of Phil Specter after all. My next birthday, my
Speaker 1: twenty six birthday, we were in Vaguas to see Elvis Presley.
Speaker 1: Immediately after the show, Phil couldn't wait to ditch me
Speaker 1: for the King on my birthday, Honey. He barely said
Speaker 1: one word to me and pushed his way through the
Speaker 1: crowd to get up close and personal with Elvis. I
Speaker 1: went back to the hotel and got hammered. It would
Speaker 1: be birthday to me, so let'sten. I adopted Dante to
Speaker 1: Phil a hole. I thought being a mother would give
Speaker 1: me something to focus on and not go over the edge,
Speaker 1: like like I had driven over the edge in the Camaro.
Speaker 1: But Phil wanted people to think I had actually given birth. See,
Speaker 1: he told me to stuff a pillow under my shirt
Speaker 1: when we had company, and then he doubled down. On children,
Speaker 1: he tripled down. He adopted the twins, Gary and Lewis
Speaker 1: without even telling me. He didn't even tell me. We
Speaker 1: drove home one day and there they were, blonde hair
Speaker 1: flowing in the wind as they ran around the mansion.
Speaker 1: Merry Christmas, That's what he said to me. The kids
Speaker 1: didn't stop me from thinking about performing again. Seeing Elvis
Speaker 1: gave me the bug and I couldn't shake it. I
Speaker 1: deserved to be on the same stage as Elvis. I
Speaker 1: told Phil we needed to do something. It was time,
Speaker 1: it was beyond time. Phil had just worked with George
Speaker 1: Harrison on All Things Must Pass, and George told him,
Speaker 1: I think, oh boy, a Beatle has a song for me.
Speaker 1: The next thing I know, I'm signed up to Apple
Speaker 1: Records and phillis telling everybody about my comeback album and
Speaker 1: we fly out to Lundon to Abbey Road Studios to
Speaker 1: cut a record with a beatle. So George gives me
Speaker 1: this song, try something, buy some and I think, what
Speaker 1: is this shit? I had no idea what that song
Speaker 1: was about, and it was out of my range. Too.
Speaker 1: It was too high. I just couldn't believe that this
Speaker 1: was a song to bring my career back from the dead.
Speaker 1: It was mid tempo, plotting and feel as usual, drenched
Speaker 1: it with an orchestra. I just didn't get it, Honey,
Speaker 1: Maybe I was just getting lost with the times. Well,
Speaker 1: the song was a flop. Phil was depressed, how I
Speaker 1: was depressed. The comeback album never happened. I never came back,
Speaker 1: so I continued to hit the bottom whatever bottle I
Speaker 1: could find. Ye drinking gave me an escape when I
Speaker 1: had nowhere to escape to. I was sent to doctors,
Speaker 1: to institutions. Eventually, Phil had me join a A. So
Speaker 1: I played that game. Didn't play it very well. It
Speaker 1: was a game I didn't feel like playing. When I
Speaker 1: came back from a A, the mansion was locked every door.
Speaker 1: There wasn't a soul inside. Philip kept me in, and
Speaker 1: now he was keeping me out. I couldn't keep up.
Speaker 1: My mother was inside and heard my screams to open
Speaker 1: the goddamn door. She left me in the side entrance
Speaker 1: that the housekeeper and cook used, and then Phil was
Speaker 1: there in my face. He was drunk. He had sent
Speaker 1: me to psychiatrists into sanitariums into a a for being drunk,
Speaker 1: And now he was drunk. I mean, hello, pot meat kettle.
Speaker 1: He was yelling like he always did, told me I
Speaker 1: was a drunk, told me I must be having an affair,
Speaker 1: told me the lawyer up. He put his hands on me,
Speaker 1: in my face, tackled me to the ground, told me
Speaker 1: he would have me killed if I left the house,
Speaker 1: that he had already bought a coffin for my funeral.
Speaker 1: It was solid gold. The next morning I made my escape.
Speaker 1: I walked out the front door, the same door he
Speaker 1: had locked on me, so I couldn't get back in
Speaker 1: the same door I hadn't been able to walk through
Speaker 1: on my own for years. Later, he tracked me down
Speaker 1: and called me on the phone. Told me he threw
Speaker 1: out all my ship. That's what he said. He said,
Speaker 1: it was all stuft into a garbage can on last Siennago.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't tell me the cross street. That was it, honey.
Speaker 1: That was the last time I spoke to phill Us.
Speaker 1: His wife took a few more years before we were
Speaker 1: legally divorced, but from that moment on, I was done.
Speaker 1: If I ever saw him again after that moment, I've
Speaker 1: already forgotten. February two, New York City, Ronnie Spector cashed
Speaker 1: another alimony check. She flipped it over to endorse it
Speaker 1: and saw the same stamped message that she had come
Speaker 1: to expect and faded black ink it read fuck you.
Speaker 1: Phil was still demeaning her through his corri ordered monthly payments,
Speaker 1: still jockeying for the upper hand the last word, still
Speaker 1: imagining he could lord over her from a top, high
Speaker 1: heeled shoes that ignored his Napoleonic frame. The stamp that
Speaker 1: he put on the back of every check gaslighted Ronnie
Speaker 1: in the same way. It said that she had been
Speaker 1: the problem, not him. How could a genius be the
Speaker 1: source of the problem. After all, before the checks with
Speaker 1: the funk you stamps, there are even more passive aggressive payouts.
Speaker 1: The second alimony payment he ever made consisted entirely of Nichols,
Speaker 1: all fifty dollars. It was delivered by armed guards with shotguns.
Speaker 1: Phil had it all, the mansion, the children, the camaro,
Speaker 1: the career. Ronnie got a monthly payment from her ex husband,
Speaker 1: but she didn't have much more than that. She had
Speaker 1: no label, she had no producer. She didn't even hear
Speaker 1: her songs coming out of car stereos on the streets
Speaker 1: of Spanish Harlem. Anymore, when Ronnie thought of the things
Speaker 1: that gave her comfort and joy, she noted that they
Speaker 1: had all been taken away from her, her children, her freedom,
Speaker 1: her career, her dignity, her sanity. When she thought of
Speaker 1: the things that had seemed so easy seems second nature,
Speaker 1: things like waltzing to the front of the line at
Speaker 1: the Peppermint Lounge, or hearing the opening thundercrack on a
Speaker 1: way back, of walking in the rain with Phil in
Speaker 1: the control room, those things seemed like a lifetime away.
Speaker 1: It had all been so easy, and then it got
Speaker 1: unbelievably hard. She wanted it to be easy again. But
Speaker 1: if she couldn't go back in time, the least she
Speaker 1: could do was forget about the present. She poured herself
Speaker 1: a glass of cognac in bed and reclined. When she
Speaker 1: woke up, her pillow was wet, and so was her
Speaker 1: signature beehive hair to the bottle of cognac had fallen
Speaker 1: over when she fell asleep, her bed was soaked. Frustrated
Speaker 1: that she was now out of cognac and in a
Speaker 1: wet bed, she lit a cigarette. She took a long,
Speaker 1: slow drag, started to think about how she could make
Speaker 1: it easy again, and then she drifted off. When she
Speaker 1: woke up for the second time, there was smoke coming
Speaker 1: from her head, flames on the pillow. She reached up
Speaker 1: to touch her beehive, and it was gone. Everything was gone.
Speaker 1: Seventy five was a long way from nineteen sixty four.
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty four, when Ronnie, Estelle and Nadre stepped
Speaker 1: off a plane in London, the talk of the town
Speaker 1: on two continents, their entire lives and careers ahead of them,
Speaker 1: the girl group to begin and end all girl groups.
Speaker 1: The in sound from Spanish Harlemtown. Ronnie was hounded by everyone,
Speaker 1: wanted by everyone, desired by everyone. There wasn't one man
Speaker 1: who crossed her path who didn't want to be her baby,
Speaker 1: not least of all was Keith Richards, who, despite Phil
Speaker 1: Specter's warning to the Stones manager Andrew lock Oldham, developed
Speaker 1: a lump in the throat, pain in the heart crush
Speaker 1: on Ronnie that wasn't easily shaken. Ronnie shook Keith to
Speaker 1: the core, shook him right out of his bad boy
Speaker 1: pose and into one of a love struck puppy. Oldham
Speaker 1: would tell him to knock at all, and Phil Specter
Speaker 1: would tell him to watch himself. But Keith didn't easily
Speaker 1: knock off. Keith wasn't easily watched. Keith and Ronnie and
Speaker 1: Phil will be twisted up together in nineteen sixty four
Speaker 1: and beyond, and Keith would have his own secrets to
Speaker 1: keep in stories to tell, see grits and stories from
Speaker 1: a time back before things soured with Ronnie and Phil,
Speaker 1: back before Phil borrowed deeper into a life of solitude,
Speaker 1: paranoia and murder. All to keep that title, that genius title,
Speaker 1: because you can't keep that title without leaving a little
Speaker 1: blood on the tracks. This episode of Blood on the
Speaker 1: Tracks is brought to you by twenty seven Club, a
Speaker 1: podcast that I host on musicians who died at the
Speaker 1: age of seven. Season two, featuring Jim Morrison, is now available,
Speaker 1: as is season one with twelve episodes featuring Jimmy Hendrix.
Speaker 1: Subscribe to The seven Club on Apple podcast, I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts, and of course,
Speaker 1: this episode was also brought to you by disgrace Land,
Speaker 1: the award winning music and true crime podcast also hosted
Speaker 1: by Yours Truly. Episodes on the Rolling Stones, Jerry Lewis,
Speaker 1: Hardy Be, The Grateful Dead, j Z Prince and many
Speaker 1: many more are all waiting for you right now. Just
Speaker 1: search Disgrace Land on Apple Podcast, the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcast all right. This episode
Speaker 1: of Blood on the Tracks was written by Zeth Lundi
Speaker 1: and scored in mixed by Matt Boden, Posted by me
Speaker 1: Jake Brennan. Additional music and score elements by Ryan's Breaker
Speaker 1: and Henry Juneta. This episode featured Lindsay cox Is Ronnie Specton.
Speaker 1: Blood on the Tracks is produced by myself for Double
Speaker 1: Elness and partnership with I Heart Radio. Sources for this
Speaker 1: episode are available at Double Elvis dot com on the
Speaker 1: Blood on the Track series page. If you like when
Speaker 1: you hear, please be sure to subscribe the Blood on
Speaker 1: the Tracks on Apple podcast, I Heart Radio app, wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, and if you'd like to win
Speaker 1: a free Blood on the Tracks poster designed by Nate
Speaker 1: Gonzalez and leave a review for Blood on the Tracks
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcast, you can hashtag Blood on the Tracks
Speaker 1: on social media. Leave your review there and we'll pick
Speaker 1: two winners each week and announce them on the Double
Speaker 1: Elvis Instagram page that's at double Elvis. Go ahead and
Speaker 1: give that a farm alright. As always, you can find
Speaker 1: me blabbing about other crazy rock stars on disgrace Land
Speaker 1: and seven Club, and you can talk to me per
Speaker 1: usual on Instagram and Twitter at Disgrace Land Park Rock Again.
Speaker 1: History is littered with tragic stories from which we could
Speaker 1: all learn lessons. The spectacular Broadway show that flopped, the
Speaker 1: autopilot that helped crash a plane. The heat wave that
Speaker 1: killed some city residents but not their neighbors. I'm Tim Harford,
Speaker 1: host of Cautionary Tales, the podcast that looks for the
Speaker 1: valuable lessons in the greatest mistakes, disasters, and fiascos of
Speaker 1: the past. Listen to Cautionary Tales on the I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or where if you get your podcasts. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Elliott Kalin, comedian, author, history buff and host of
Speaker 1: the Who Was Podcast, a history quiz show based on
Speaker 1: the best selling Penguin book series where kid contestants go
Speaker 1: toe to toe for a chance to win fantastic prizes
Speaker 1: from Alexander the Great to Aretha Franklin. We ask only
Speaker 1: important history questions like would Genghis Khan shop at hot topic?
Speaker 1: And did frieda callo like soup? Buckle up your brain.
Speaker 1: Listen to the Who Was podcast on the I Heart
Speaker 1: radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sir,
Speaker 1: we got your test results back and give it to
Speaker 1: me straight doc. You have to listen to the podcast
Speaker 1: Ridiculous News, hosted by comedians Bill Whorley and Mark Kendall.
Speaker 1: I know them. They talk about the news, but not
Speaker 1: like in a depressing way, you know what I mean.
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Speaker 1: We'll get it wherever you find podcasts, Oh, like in
Speaker 1: a cereal box. Well, no, that's not where you find
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Speaker 1: like in the middle of a tree? Absolutely mad? Are
Speaker 1: you sure? Yes,