Original subtitles

[applause]

Well, here he is, the teenagers' king,

the man who produces all those records

that your youngsters are singing and dancing to.

Here is Mr. Phil Spector.

[cheers and applause]

[Mick Brown] You know, success can do strange things

for people, it can reassure people

or throw people completely off balance.

What's new in the record business?

Have you a brought a new sound to...

No new sound. I have a hard enough time

prevailing over the old one.

- Really? - That's right.

We leave the new sounds to everyone else.

And I think he was always slightly uneasy

with his success, as much as he rejoiced in it

and felt that he richly deserved it.

It allowed him to indulge some of his worst aspects,

and also brought with it a degree of paranoia.

What do you think, I'm some kind of an idiot or something?

You're trying to trap me like I'm some kind of a moe.

"What do you think of those songs?"

[Eartha Kitt] Well, if I were you, I wouldn't ask

- those kind of questions. - Here we go.

You're gonna hear it, they're gonna--

they're gonna start in with me now.

Don't you want me to talk to you, Phil?

No, that's quite all right.

Talk to antagonistic Eartha Kitt.

[Nedra Talley-Ross] I began to see things in him

that I didn't like.

I knew he had little man insecurities,

and that's when it began to be things

like we'd go out to lunch,

and he'd have a couple of bodyguards.

I have some friends backstage

who don't take kindly to that nonsense about...

- Who's backstage? - Never mind who's backstage.

You'll feel them as they come through the wall.

- Oh. - [laughter]

When somebody would start something with him,

then he'd say, "Go outside, come outside."

So, the two bodyguards would go outside.

He didn't go out, he wasn't gonna fight.

He seems to be terribly sensitive.

[Phil] Very sensitive, you have no idea.

I'm gonna knock the both of you right out into the street.

What are you sensitive about?

Ignorance-- oh, am I sensitive.

He knew full well that he wasn't well.

He knew full well what his mental condition was.

He's realizing that something is not quite right.

I mean, other people can clearly see it,

but he's also realizing it.

Come on, Eartha, tell me.

The only thing I can say is I believe in Socrates.

- You do? - Yes.

- Did he believe in you, though? - Give him--

give someone enough rope, and he always hangs himself.

Uh-oh, uh-oh.

[cheers and applause]

[music]

Daydreaming 'bout you

So glad I found you

I was lost without you

I'll sing a little louder

So glad I found you

I was lost without you

I'll sing a little louder

[male reporter] It starts like a Hollywood murder mystery.

The victim, a beautiful B-movie actress

named Lana Clarkson.

[female reporter] Lana Clarkson was a B-list movie actress.

[female reporter 2] A B-movie star turned up dead

in Phil Spector's mansion.

One of the most disheartening parts

of that whole situation

was they would always lead

with "The B-actress Lana Clarkson."

[male reporter] Lana Clarkson, tall, blonde, 40, B-movie star.

[male reporter 2] He meets struggling actress

Lana Clarkson.

[male reporter] She'd spent most of her life

hoping that she'd be famous too,

and now, ironically, was.

When people say that, what do you automatically think of?

Just some low-budget horrible actor, actress,

you know, in some movies that you never heard of before.

To me, it was a form of degradation.

Oh, man, I tell you.

Some of you might recognize me,

though you may not want to admit it.

No, sir, I did not do pornos.

[laughter]

That is horrible. That is horrible.

I would hope that people would not judge her.

People automatically assume that "A," I have no brain,

"B," I have fake breasts,

and "C," that I will, for cash and prizes,

give it all away.

The answer is "D," none of the above.

In fact, it's because I have "A"

and I don't have "B" that I don't do "C."

What are you trying to portray? What are you trying to say?

You know, she had act-- she made movies, you know.

She was in the Hollywood business.

And I've played probably every sexpot bimbo character

- you could imagine. - [laughter]

You name her, I've played her.

Flight attendant, showgirl, hooker,

uh, mistress, masseuse, hooker.

- Warrior. - [laughter]

You know, blah-blah, hooker.

Do we see like a theme here? [laughter]

You mustn't confuse the actress and her roles

with the woman though, okay? Basically.

She was an actress.

And let's take it a step further,

she was just a person.

And I really-- whenever I would hear that,

I literally would cringe.

I could stand up here all night and do characters,

but I thought tonight I would just stick

to the hardest character of them all to play, Lana.

[laughter]

[Paul Fournier] As a detective, the very first,

and I think the most important thing,

is to handle the actual collection of evidence.

Right next to Lana was a desk,

and the drawer was partially open.

Inside the desk was a holster that matched the gun

that was found by her foot.

Some of the key things certainly was the gun,

the gun that was ultimately used in the case.

[Richard] The handgun used to kill Lana Clarkson

was a .38-caliber revolver.

There were multiple weapons that were ultimately recovered

inside his residence through various parts of the house.

[Richard] In his bedroom he had over five or six

different type of handguns, and rifles, and shotguns.

[Paul] There was ammunition found, again,

through several areas throughout the mansion.

And then, you take the next step.

We need to try to determine whether or not

he had any similar incidents,

and if in fact there was, a pattern that he has.

All these years that we worked together,

I was hearing about all these things

that he's doing, and I'm going, "Phil?

"You know, I know he's kinda crazy,

"but what guns, what are you talking about?

I've never seen Phil Spector pull out a gun."

One particular time I was on my way

to do a session with Phil,

and everybody was running out of the studio.

And I'm going, what's up, what's going on?

"Man, Phil's in there with his guns out."

I said, "What do you mean he's in there?

"This is a Darlene Love session.

What do you mean he's in there pulling guns?"

And they told me that he was in there joking around,

you know, with his gun in his hand.

I said, "Well, y'all the ones crazy.

"Y'all in there with him

and you allowing him to do that."

The people in the studios

let him act crazy with guns and things.

You know, that just gave him a right to be able to do it,

'cause nobody said anything, "Nobody tried to stop me."

You know, and I'm not gonna be the one

to try to stop nobody with no gun.

[Carol Connors] Phil became out of control,

and his bad behavior

became even worse.

It was almost like he was, you know,

rewarded for that.

You know, the badder you are, the more successful you are.

You gotta remember, his success, he was very young.

Very young, you know?

And he had a lot of emotional issues

and, you know, things--

psychological issues and things

that I guess started to fester

and got worse.

I was a teenager hitchhiking to Hollywood,

and I went to Gold Star.

Somebody told me about sneaking in the back door

in the alley.

I'd sit on whatever sessions I was allowed to,

and I ended up witnessing these Phil Spector sessions.

Phil was producing a record,

and Dave Gold, one of the owners of Gold Star, was the engineer.

And I see Dave Gold punch in,

and then I see this look on his face

that was like this look of horror.

And he looks at Phil and he says, "Phil,"

he says, "I just erased a track."

Phil said, "What?" "Yeah, I just erased the choir."

Now, the choir was the most expensive session,

because you got 20 people getting paid scale,

you know what I mean, it's like, pfft.

Phil has this incredulous look on his face,

and then he just dives under the console.

He gets into like a fetal position,

and he's under there sobbing,

like vocally, like, you know, loud.

I mean, and I'm like... [laughing]

I thought, well, this is my cue

to leave the room, you know what I mean?

But later, Dave told me, you know,

that he stayed under there for four hours, right?

He wouldn't come out, right?

He was just down there crawled in a ball

underneath the console sobbing.

I saw Phil sort of break down mentally, '64.

[Mick] In 1964 Phil goes to the UK for the first time.

He makes a connection to the Beatles.

Of course, they were all enormous fans

of the Crystals, and the Ronettes,

and those records.

This sort of, again, this extraordinary moment

in history where you've got the Beatles, the Stones,

the Ronettes, and Phil Spector

all together in this sort of melting pot.

[Nedra] We were in England,

and so we've got this big-time producer.

And he came over looking nervous and anxious,

speaking in a false voice,

like, up-in-the-air voice.

And people were saying, "What's up with him?"

This is our producer.

He's cracked up in some way.

There's almost a sort of sense

of some sort of transfer of power going on here.

Phil actually flies back to New York

on the same plane as the Beatles,

and this seems very powerfully symbolic somehow.

And there's some rather poignant photographs, film,

of the Beatles coming down the stairs

from the steps on the aircraft,

being greeted by sort of screaming hordes of fans

over in the terminal.

And then, stumbling along behind,

anonymous and overlooked, is the figure of Phil Spector

in this sort of Beatle camp.

Phil at that point realizes

that the writing is on the wall, as it were,

for the wall of sound.

But he's at something of a loss to know

quite what to do about this,

and quite where he should be going with this.

And there's these two singers called the Righteous Brothers,

fantastic voices, terrific voices.

And Phil saw them and saw something in them,

and wanted to record them.

Phil was very excited because he knew how great they were,

and he appreciated them very much,

especially in the beginning.

You never close your eyes

[Mick] He realizes that he needs a fantastic song

to launch the Righteous Brothers with.

And they come up with

"You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'."

So don't, don't...

And it becomes his biggest record,

certainly since "He's a Rebel," you know, four years earlier,

and really gives him this second lease of life, really.

Baby, baby, baby, baby

[Phil] It surpassed "Yesterday,"

it surpassed "Always" by Irving Berlin.

It surpassed everything. It's won every award.

This song is the most played song

in the history of music.

"You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'."

Bring back that loving feeling

Whoa, that loving feeling

Bring back that loving feeling

[Mick] And it's around this time as well that we begin

to see Phil appear on television talk shows and things.

Look, I'm ordering 100,000 records,

and that's just the beginning.

Excuse me, are you Mr. Phil Spector?

Look, it's been a real bad day.

Would you come back in April?

[Mick] And then Phil made this rather extraordinary appearance

in "Easy Rider" with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper.

At this point Phil is becoming a celebrity in his own right.

The character of Phil Spector begins to grow.

No other producer in the record business

has this ever happened to, and it's likely

that no other producer in the record business

will this ever happen to, and so in that sense,

he reached the absolute, absolute summit.

But I think, you know, this was to some detriment

to his mental well-being.

And you know, success didn't sit well with him, really.

[Phil] You're never gonna be successful

if people don't hate you,

and that's what everybody hates about me.

If you come down to what really people

hate about Phil Spector, is he's--

he controls everything, and that's too fucking bad.

But 40 years later you're still singing

the same fucking songs you were 40 years ago.

How 'bout that?

Phil has dominated the American record scene

through 1963 up to 1964.

But you get the sense that he really needs

to reinvent himself in some way.

He wanted the next Phil Spector record.

[cheers and applause]

Now, let's go with Ike and Tina Turner!

[cheers and applause]

[Phil] I went to see her, and the show was mesmerizing.

And I said gosh, if I could make a number-one record with her,

she could go on and sell--

she could go to Las Vegas,

she could break the color barrier.

She could really-- they could really do it.

Phil, who idolized soulful voices,

idolized Black voices,

and was just completely blown away by Tina Turner

and wanted to record her.

The only obstacle to doing this was Ike Turner,

who, if Phil Spector was proprietorial

of his wife and girlfriends,

Ike Turner was even more proprietorial.

They were inseparable as a unit,

and Ike had a bit of a reputation

for being a tough guy, and a guy that carried guns

and didn't tolerate much nonsense.

And so, Phil had the task of going to see Ike Turner

to try and persuade him to let him record his wife.

[Ike] And would I agree to let him do it

the way he wanted to do it without any interference.

I said, man, with your reputation,

you know, why should I interfere?

You know, like, if you think you can do it, take the shot.

I agreed to let him have full control of it,

and then I agreed to let--

Tina would go to his house daily for rehearsals.

[Mick] Phil came up with a song

called "River Deep Mountain High."

When I was a little girl, I had a rag doll

The only doll I've ever owned

The energy of it, it just surged in here.

You know, it was so big,

and my voice sounded so different, you know,

standing on top of all that music.

We were impressed, Ike and myself.

Let me say

It gets higher day by day

And do I love you, my, oh my

Yeah, river deep mountain high

Yeah, yeah, yeah

[Mick] And here, you had at that time

the greatest female soul singer, Tina Turner.

You had the greatest songwriters of the moment,

so you had the greatest record producer, Phil Spector.

It couldn't fail.

Oh

"River Deep Mountain High"

was an international success,

but not here.

[Mick] Were you devastated when...

- [Phil] "River Deep"? - [Mick] Yeah.

[Phil] The Beatles came out publicly and said

it was the greatest record they had ever heard,

so it became number one in England.

I took out ads in America which hurt me very badly

with the American radio.

Benedict Arnold was right.

[Mick] I don't understand the significance.

[Phil] Benedict Arnold was a traitor to the American.

He joined with the English forces

- against George Washington. - Oh, okay.

[Phil] Nasty remarks I made. But I was pissed.

More than anything, I was angry.

Phil went crazy. He was really upset.

And he took revenge.

You know, I can't say it was rational thinking here,

but the revenge he took was,

"I'm not gonna make any more records."

[Mick] It seems an awful lot has been crammed

into this period, but in four years, you know,

Phil has gone from kind of anonymity

to becoming the most successful record producer

in rock and roll.

Very poignantly, it's also this period

in which Lana Clarkson is born.

[Donna Clarkson] Lana was my first born.

We always knew she was going to be special.

This is Lana and her dad.

Well, she looks like she's about two in this picture.

In those years she was already theatrical.

She had all these nursery rhymes,

you know, memorized,

and she would perform for me all the time.

I remember some old home videos that a friend had from a party,

and everyone had costumes on.

And when she came in with her costume,

she did the whole entrance.

You know, she was, like, right there

with the whole performing thing,

and she was probably only 11 or 12, you know,

so that was kind of a sign right there.

When her dad passed away, she-- Lana was 16.

He had had a mining accident,

and the sprinkler system was clogged.

So, he had gotten up to try to unclog the system,

and all of a sudden it just gave him

this lethal dose of cyanide.

So, he passed away at 34.

It was a very difficult time for everyone.

But Lana, you know, she-- we persevered

through many things, and I guess being very close

as a family, we always supported each other

and helped each other in every way that we could.

So, as a single mother with three children,

we had come down to Los Angeles.

Lana had convinced me that, you know, she would help out,

and she could get a job if I let her

get out of high school early.

Lana wanted to model at the time.

She was only 16.

I decided to move back up to the Napa Valley,

so she stayed down here and started working.

Lana was always very independent.

Even when-- in that picture I showed you

where she was two years old,

she said, "Mom, I'm independent."

And I remember asking her, "What does independent mean?"

And she goes-- she put her hand on her hip and she goes,

"It means I'd rather do it myself."

I didn't really have any qualms about her staying and working.

She was very smart,

and she was able to handle herself quite well.

ROB: I'm a unique person in this story

because I knew both people.

I mean, I don't know anybody that knew both people.

I did know Phil Spector and Lana Clarkson.

I went out with her a little bit,

but we just became really, really close friends.

Lana, she was kinda like one of these young,

really energetic, optimistic girls.

Lana is one of the tallest people you've ever met.

She was just a giant presence.

She was so full of life,

and she sparkled, and that was Lana.

You just-- you couldn't miss her, that's for sure.

She'd always say, "Sunny, I'm gonna be famous one day.

You should take my picture," like, that was, like...

till her dying day, we were always shooting,

and she was always trying to get me to shoot something.

She had an idea.

She was probably 19, 20 when she finally went to Europe.

This is "Sposabella."

This is a Italian wedding book.

And you can see, her layout is one of the first.

So, here she is. Very beautiful layout.

[Alan Thicke] Is it true what they say about Italian men

being as aggressive on the streets as we...

Oh, absolutely, they're the worst.

I mean, I love them, don't get me wrong,

they're wonderful.

But let's see, last year on my birthday

I was walking down the street, and a young boy about age 17

came behind me on a bicycle and pinched my rear.

So, I turned around and knocked him over.

But he pulled me down on top of him

and started punching me and beating on me.

I saw red, so I beat him up,

and sort of picked up the bicycle.

You know, the adrenaline, one hand, threw it at him.

Crashed him, storefront window,

gelateria, you know, the whole thing.

It was terrible.

[Alan] So, I guess there's a moral in that.

Don't be biking by Lana and pinching herself.

- Absolutely not. - [laughter]

[Rob] Through a number of years, going back to like 1967 or '68,

Phil was just kinda resting on his laurels

and just had enough money, and like, could live

and be a hermit.

He was kind of inconsequential in the music business.

But, of course, you know,

the Beatles were the biggest thing on Earth,

and so that interested him.

And the Beatles at that point had recorded their--

what would be their final album, "Let it Be."

So, the Beatles were looking for someone to salvage this project,

and so they brought in Phil Spector to take this on.

Spector produced this sort of strange mixture

of the Beatles meet the wall of sound.

Of course, the album then gets a Grammy,

and Phil Spector could say that he produced

the Beatles' final album.

He went on to produce more albums with John Lennon,

including, of course, the album that produces the song

which everybody knows John Lennon by, "Imagine."

[Mick] Why did you and John get on?

[Phil] We just loved each other.

A perfect marriage.

[Mick] What did you like about him?

[Phil] Oh, I just loved him.

And we just loved each other.

He loved the way I worked, he loved the way I thought,

he loved the-- he was just like a brother I never had.

[John Lennon] Great working with you, Phil.

Really great.

I've worked with a lot of cats in my time.

Honestly, it's really great, sincerely.

Brilliant. [muttering]

- Okay. - [Phil] Next tune.

[Mick] Spector served Lennon's songs

and served the music on those two albums brilliantly.

But by this point we can see that Phil

is drinking heavily.

It begins to impair his faculties as a producer,

and his concentration.

And there are stories of, you know,

Phil being in the studio, being slightly out of control

and slightly more drunk than he should have been,

and slightly more eccentric than he should have been.

And then as if to pour more petrol onto the flames,

John Lennon has been going through a difficult time

with Yoko Ono.

And so, the plan is that they're gonna record an album

of rock and roll classics together.

It soon becomes apparent that these sessions

are getting out of hand.

[Don] They would get very drunk, both of them.

So, that made it almost impossible, you know.

It's like two giants who don't give a shit.

[Mick] Phil, of course, during the time

that he was recording the rock and roll album,

he'd actually pulled a gun, not threatening John Lennon,

but he'd pulled a gun, brandished a gun,

and fired a shot into the ceiling.

John Lennon naturally assumed that it was blanks,

and Lennon said, you know,

"You're trying to damage me ears, Phil!"

And it was only the next morning when somebody came along

and explained that they'd prized the bullet

out of the ceiling of the studio

that they realized that this was actually live rounds

that he was carrying around.

At this point Phil is deep into his relationship

with the lead singer of the Ronettes, Ronnie.

I was so in love, I...

Even though-- listen to this, I read, someone described him

as "a body and pallor of a veal filet."

I'm thinking, that's not an attractive thing to say.

But for you, he was your husband.

- Oh. - A man you were madly

- in love with. - I was madly in love.

I was in awe of his writing, of his...

- He's a talented guy. - Yes, of his producing.

You can't take that away from him.

Of everything. I was in love

with just the way he was in the studio with the--

telling the musicians what to do.

He did have great energy.

He'd make you laugh, he'd say-- make some comment.

And then, you know, later in the party,

he'd be sitting there with four or five people around him

and he'd be telling stories,

and he was very magnetic, kind of, you know.

I mean, he didn't come on strong,

but he was really into-- he had kind of a soft voice.

You'd kinda listen, and he said very interesting things.

The Ronettes are broken up by this point,

and the relationship between Spector and Ronnie solidifies,

and then they do indeed get married.

Ronnie, of course, when Phil goes into retirement,

is expecting that he's gonna be devoting a lot of time to her

and devoting a lot of time to building her career.

But that-- that doesn't happen.

Here's a man that owned the record company,

wrote all my songs and produced all my songs.

How would I ever think that he was gonna, like,

just retire two months after we got married?

We moved into a 23-room mansion,

and it was like I was taken away from everything,

'cause I was brought up around family, people, liveliness.

Then all of a sudden, I got married,

it was like... darkness.

And Phil had to have everything dark in the house.

I mean, there was no rock and roll.

I was no longer called Ronnie.

I was called-- he called me Veronica

and the servants called me Mrs. Spector.

So, I believe he did that subconsciously just to--

so I wouldn't be thinking of the Ronettes

and people would call me Ronnie.

And that's when he went into a recluse.

And so, when he went into recluse, I went.

[laughing] You see?

[Mick] She's allowed out sort of periodically.

But at the same time, he puts this sort of inflatable

plastic figure of a man in the passenger seat beside her...

so that if she goes out, people will think

she's with somebody, so nobody's gonna hit on her.

Ronnie, you would drive with that thing in the car?

- Yes, I would. - Why?

Gayle, I would have done anything

to get out of the house.

So, the only way to get out was with the inflatable man,

and it was better than not going out at all.

And then, of course, in order to sort of...

in order to build his sort of idea

of what a family should be, what a marriage should be,

he decides they need children.

So, he brings home a baby, Donte, who's an adopted son.

Well, Ronnie held to that Donte was hers for a while.

If Ronnie said she's pregnant,

what-- why shouldn't I believe she's pregnant?

She's gonna have a baby, and...

then years later, "Oh, I didn't have him.

He got him for me."

You don't get kids for a gift.

Now, the twins were a little bit of a different story.

Then, I think she was mad at him,

because she was like, "He gave me them for Christmas."

Like somebody gave you a puppy, two puppies.

This is not normal. This is not normal.

[Mick] Phil tries to keep her away from everybody else.

She's in a pretty despairing state.

And she finally decides that she has to escape.

She had her mom with her.

That probably gave her the courage.

He took her shoes.

They escaped that way,

and she was running barefoot from Phil.

I don't know how far she went, how she went,

but I know she left barefoot.

[Mick] I mean, this was the--

I mean, it was completely unreasonable behavior,

completely irrational behavior.

Insane behavior. Insane behavior.

So, I think she was very relieved

to get out of that.

All the situations that you usually hear about with Phil,

he's the aggressor.

And then there's the Leonard Cohen story, right?

This is their first day, they worked together all day.

Now it's about 6:00.

And so, Leonard says, "You know,

it was a kind of stressful day,"

and whatever it was, and I was a little tired."

And so, they got this song, and Phil says to Leonard,

he says, "Go out and put a vocal on this, will you?"

And Leonard looks at Phil and says...

[clicks tongue] "You know what, Phil,

I'd really appreciate it if I could do it tomorrow."

He said, "I'm a little tired, I don't feel like

I could give it what I need to give it."

And Phil reaches in his bag and takes out a gun,

and just sticks it to Leonard's head and says,

"You're gonna go out and sing this now."

And it was like, that's the first day, right?

[scoffs]

And they kept working together, and I said to Leonard,

why didn't you just say that's it?

He said, "Because it was fascinating."

He said, "There was an electricity

"and a chemistry, and a thing

that seemed worthy of chasing down the road."

He said, "And this was Phil Spector,

this wasn't just some guy," you know.

And he said, "So, I felt like

I had to follow through with it."

[Mick] So, these stories begin to multiply.

Phil Spector, the genius, begins to be eclipsed

by Phil Spector, the crazy guy, Phil Spector, the madman.

It was a life that revolved largely around alcohol

and a life that revolved around him being out of control.

And every now and again somebody would throw a lifeline

of, "Can you produce this," or "Why don't you produce that?"

And that's what happened

with what's essentially his final record,

his last hurrah, with the Ramones.

[Phil] In 1980, Joey Ramone came to me, rest his soul,

and said, "Phil, would you produce us?"

He was like a-- a big fan,

and he idolized me and all that.

And I said, you know, it might be fun

to produce a punk rock group.

[Mick] I think Phil's role and perception

of what the producer should be

very quickly had become a thing of the past.

He really was very, very slow to pick up on the idea

that he was there to facilitate the artist,

and wanted to impose himself on the Ramones.

Well, working with Phil is very difficult, because...

[sighs] I guess he's a perfectionist,

so he likes to spend a lot of time

redoing things and relistening,

and it's very time-consuming.

It comes very hard for-- I mean, rock and roll

has gotta be spontaneous and done a little faster.

[Mick] They came up with a song

called "Rock 'N' Roll High School."

[school bell ringing]

Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock and roll high school

Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock and roll high school

It was a hit, but I think Phil's satisfaction from it

was very limited.

[explosion]

Phil seems to be frustrated with us.

I think he's frustrated with himself, really.

The Ramones thing was not a piece of cake.

I mean, that was a nasty project in a lot of ways.

They had a lot of trouble with him.

That was a big factor in Phil sort of throwing in his hand

as a-- in the record business and saying, "That's it.

"You know, I'm gonna walk away from that.

"I've made a record that's been a hit.

"I don't know where I'm gonna go now in the studio.

"I don't know where I'm gonna go as a producer.

Maybe I'm finished as a producer."

He seemed like a man walking his last mile

doing our record, you know, that grim.

[out-of-tune guitar playing]

You've lost that loving feeling

Whoa, that loving feeling

You know, somebody once asked me a question.

They said, "Philip--" excuse me, camera.

They said, "Philip, aren't you lonely in this big house?

"Must be very lonely.

"All of them rooms to roam around in.

Damn, it must be lonely."

And you know what I said?

You ever live in one room?

Very lonely.

Just you and the bathroom, and you and the sink,

you and the toilet.

Loneliness is a state of mind.

He didn't want you to go home at the end of the night.

He was lonely.

So, you had to be prepared for that.

I certainly remember one night,

and we were at one of his favorite hamburger places

on the east side.

It's about 3:00 in the morning.

I said, "Phil, I gotta go home."

He said, "Don't you know, you're not going anywhere."

I said, "I got-- I gotta work in the morning."

You know, he didn't like people to leave.

He didn't like the chemistry to change.

I got an inkling of that

when I was kind of a prisoner in a bar.

We were all singing "Irene, Goodnight,"

and I said, "I gotta drive my kid to school

in a couple hours."

And he said, "No, no, don't leave.

You know, you'll change the chemistry of the singing."

I mean, I had to pretend to go to the men's room

and sneak out the back door

'cause it was getting light out, you know.

But I-- boy, I thought, wow, he's serious about it.

We'd interviewed Phil for "All You Need is Love."

I mean, we'd finished talking.

He didn't want us to go anywhere.

I said, "Well, we have to go,

because tomorrow morning, we've got-- 8:00,"

blah-blah-blah, usual things.

And he was doing his best to detain us,

and said, "Well, would you like to do another interview?"

No.

He didn't want us to leave.

[Paul] Over the course of the investigation,

we learned that Phil Spector really enjoyed

bringing people to his home and locking them inside.

And this came from multiple sources.

This came from actual people that were locked in.

This came from-- his regular limo driver

would say he would have to come in

and basically rescue them,

sometimes open windows so they could get out.

He had some sort of configuration

where he had one door that you would walk in,

that would lock, and then a second door area,

kinda like the jails we have,

and people would not be able to get out.

As an investigator, we are absolutely looking

to the victim and take detailed notes

as to the position she's in.

Lana Clarkson was lying in the chair

in that foyer area.

She had a purse slung over her shoulder.

Why was she in that particular position?

I mean, that leads you to believe

someone's in a position where they wanna leave already.

Her butt basically was scooched to the very edge of the chair.

Her feet were completely out in front of her,

and she was lying back.

It was determined that the gunshot wound

was such that she wouldn't have been able to move

after sustaining that gunshot wound.

[Mick] Phil saw himself as the figure

that the record business turned their backs on.

And then, of course, he certainly saw himself

as the martyr in the murder of Lana Clarkson.

He sort of thought that he was being

sort of victimized in some way for being Phil Spector.

The actions of the Hitler-like district attorney

and his storm-trooping henchmen

to seek an indictment against me

and censor all means of me getting my evidence

and the truth out are reprehensible,

unconscionable, and despicable.

He was making comments to the media

such as, "She killed herself.

"Who does she think she is?

Why would she do that in my house?"

No crime was committed at my home

on February 3rd, 2003,

and the public will find that out as well,

and that this district attorney

is pursuing a personal vendetta without evidence.

I don't like that.

I don't like that you're trying the case

outside the courtroom.

It's not for me to explain

why she took her life.

It's only for me to explain

that I had nothing to do with it.

When they start talking about suicide,

then you have to start disproving the suicide.

You do wanna make sure it didn't happen.

We have to go through Lana Clarkson.

We have to find out, was she depressed?

Has she ever done anything to hurt herself?

Does she own guns? What is her usual routine?

Who are her friends? What did they have to offer?

So, there was just a myriad of things we didn't know.

Lana was doing modeling, and she ended up going to Italy

and doing quite a bit of modeling there,

and she had a lot of fun with that.

And then, when she came back after a year,

she decided she was actually more interested in acting.

When we first met, she was doing

everything that you would do as a young woman

wanting to become a movie star.

"Fast Times at Ridgemont High" was one of those opportunities.

Boys, I'd like you to meet my wife, Mrs. Vargas.

Hi.

[Nili] She was doing "Fantasy Island."

"Who's the Boss?"

On t-shirt night, I do everything I read.

[Nili] She was doing all of these wonderful roles

where she was the sexy blonde bombshell that came in,

and everybody's head turned to see her.

- I used to be an actress. - Uh-huh.

But now, I'm like, really into justice.

[laughter]

Being a six-foot blonde has pluses and negatives.

Here she is, this tall, gorgeous girl,

so there's a lot of roles that she could not play.

So, she would get typecast.

She couldn't help the fact that she had these looks

and this stature.

When you walked in a room with her,

everybody turned around.

It makes life more difficult.

She put up with a lot of shit,

as all attractive

young actresses did and do.

It's sad, but emblematic

of how that works in Hollywood.

She would talk about how she would have good intent

and she would be with somebody,

and then all they were interested in was sex,

and like, she thought there was more to the situation,

and then got disappointed.

And like, no, she went through a lot of that.

It's not the song, sweetheart, it's the singer.

[chuckles]

[Rob] She was in this whole social strata.

I saw that, and I discouraged it,

and I just said, you know,

this is gonna bite you in the ass at some point,

you know, so you gotta be careful.

[Sergio] There were times when, you know, I could tell she--

she was either pissed or bummed.

She pretty much did the water off a duck's back thing.

it was like, "Yeah, fine, whatever, fuck you,

I'll make it anyway."

And I think that was perhaps her most durable quality

with regard to having to put up with the shit

that Hollywood engenders.

I don't remember Lana

discussing doing this and that

in order to get to that place.

We worked very hard

and we studied, we prepared,

hoping to perhaps win this lottery

that is Hollywood.

I met Lana for the first time

during the audition

for a picture called "Deathstalker."

Lana fit the description perfectly.

She almost had the role before she even auditioned.

I saw her as she came in, and I said that's it.

And she turned out to be a very good actress,

and I was very pleased with her performance.

I felt we had a leading lady who could play a female warrior,

so I came up with "Barbarian Queen."

ANNOUNCER: One woman vows revenge.

Lana Clarkson is the "Barbarian Queen."

[Lana] I'll be no man's slave,

and if I can't kill them all,

by the gods, they'll know I've tried.

"Barbarian Queen" was a solid success,

and this was her chance for first star billing.

She took it very seriously.

Both Lana and I felt that "Barbarian Queen"

would be launching her as a full-fledged star.

Lana had a presence that was very powerful.

Say nothing, my child.

There was something sympathetic within her as well.

The strength, vulnerability, I would call it,

the audience loved her.

But I'll make you this one promise.

We will win!

[all cheering]

[people chattering]

[Mick] Lana Clarkson was building her career,

and she was a working actress and successful actress

at around the same time Phil Spector was somebody

whose star had fallen.

And he's also devastated when John Lennon died.

Just after the Ramones record.

I'm sure that was a big factor

in Phil sort of throwing in his hand as a--

in the record business.

That was the death of a friend, death of somebody

that he'd loved, and somebody that he'd admired.

It then turned out to be effectively the end of--

the end of Spector's career as a record producer,

and he retreated, basically.

He's becoming a more isolated figure,

and as such, he's becoming a figure

of increasing gossip and speculation

about his behavior, and who he is,

and the stories are beginning to spread.

[Phil] I wasn't insane,

but I wasn't well enough to function

as a regular part of society.

So, I didn't. I chose not to.

So, I just sort of struggled along alone,

and chose to not work,

and I chose to raise a daughter,

and I chose to get my life on track.

And it took about 10 years.

Breakthrough was recently. Recently, only recently.

And I did it more because I was determined to do it

because of my daughter,

'cause I wanted her to look up to me

and say this is what a reasonable man is like,

so she could have a reasonable relationship with me.

He did talk to me a lot about medication.

I mean, he never would say, like, "Speaking of that time

"I was in the studio, and I acted,

"you know, like, unhinged,

I wasn't taking my medication."

You know, he didn't, like, go into these analytical

explorative paths about himself.

But we did talk about mental health

and the importance of medication and therapy a lot.

He was told when he was young that he was manic depressive.

I don't know if that's just the best language

they had for it at the time,

and later he was diagnosed as bipolar.

There were times in his life

when I think he was probably mixing his medication

with alcohol, which you're just not supposed to do.

During our investigation, a few people told us

that from 1997 to 2002,

Phil Spector completely stopped drinking alcohol.

However, it appears in 2002 he began drinking again.

Now, why was this a concern?

Phil Spector had been under doctor's care

and prescribed medication.

[Paul] We recovered a ton of drugs at the house--

prescription medications, a bunch.

But ultimately, they did a toxicology report on him,

and he came up with a couple of things in his system,

but it was mostly his alcohol content.

I don't think that that made him violent.

I think it made him...

erratic.

Now, it's very important that people recognize

that doesn't mean you become homicidal.

It means you become manic.

It means you become possibly delusional.

He's gonna say something he regrets.

You know, he's going to act bizarre.

I mean, if you listen to those tapes,

he comes up with all kinds of crazy shit.

That's just not true.

That's megalomania, right?

That's having a manic episode.

So, you're gonna say all kinds of things.

That's why you just have to look at what the evidence says.

Don't listen to the person, look at the evidence.

A tragedy happened,

but it could have happened in anybody's house.

I mean, it has to be because of who I am.

It has to be 'cause I live in a castle.

It has to be a frame-up,

because it's not based on real evidence.

I had nothing to do with her death.

Case closed.

[Paul] We did a forensic psychological background on her.

There was nobody as far as close friends

or family members who said Lana Clarkson was suicidal,

that she ever talked about suicide.

Lana never talked about self-harm.

And why would a beautiful woman

in the prime of her life commit suicide

in a stranger's house, of all places?

It would never happen.

[Richard] One thing that I took note of

during the autopsy,

she had a bruise on her tongue.

Now, to me, that would indicate

the gun was forced into her mouth.

If you're gonna kill yourself, are you gonna jam the gun

in your mouth? I don't know.

[Paul] You start adding all these things up over time,

you realize that it made absolutely no sense

that this young lady would take her own life

in this situation.

I'm not the one sitting there

having to prove it in front of a jury,

but I felt we had overwhelming evidence

to support that Spector did it.

[Nicole] The city dumped a lot of money

into making sure that they got somebody.

They finally had someone

who had this sinister past,

so, I mean, that was like the vultures were descending.

He was easy prey.

I'm sorry that I met you

Now I only just regret you

I remember the night

When you first held me tight, oh

Now, I'm sorry that I met you

I was lost in the hurricane

La-la-la, la, la-la