Chapter 1: What are the key events leading up to Phil Spector's murder charge?
Hey everybody, Robert here, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences have announced that three different Cool Zone Media shows have been nominated for awards at the 30th Annual Webby Awards. You can vote on these now if you just Google the name of the podcast, and the category behind the bastards has been nominated in the Experimental and Innovation Podcasts category, and
It Could Happen Here is in the news and politics podcasts category. And James Stout's miniseries Migrating to America, A Dream Worth Dying For, has been nominated in the podcast documentary category. And you can find links to vote for each of these podcasts in the episode description and in the posts on social media for episodes of It Could Happen Here and Behind the Bastards. Thank you.
Welcome back to Behind the Bastards, a podcast where I am presumably on vacation or at least working on a different series of episodes. And this week, as for the last three episodes, my good pal, Grammy Award winning Greasy Will. This guy? Is here. Yeah, he's here to talk to us.
This guy is here to talk to us about part four of Phil Spector, which we made it to part four. We're gonna drink out of the Grammy again. And to be fair, I've been drinking the whole time, but now I feel like this is a celebratory shot, which is out of, the celebration shot's come out of the Grammy.
That's why we split it into two different recording days, folks.
Yeah. So I can get real lit. Because if we'd had to keep going on the first one, it wouldn't have happened. I just wanted to keep you alive. Which, by the way, I have some words for your viewers. Uh-oh. Oh, no. After the Grammy. Hold on. Take the shot first. Hey, guys. I love that. Hey, guys. How about let's not talk about my appearance. You know, these dark circles under my eyes are genetic.
Every person in my family who has a drug or alcohol addiction gets them. So this is rude of you to just assume I'm drinking too much. It was a podcast. Sorry for having fun. You know? He still got the job done. The script is great. I made it through. And then look what you got out of this.
You got me saying, dang, dude, I should tell them about Phil Spector because not everybody knows the whole story of Phil Spector. And it's so incredibly interesting, which is where we will pick up after a word from these sponsors or whatever. Wow. Some sponsors. Yeah.
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Chapter 2: How did Phil Spector's actions on the night of the murder unfold?
Thanks. Yeah, I know. I'm actually, I stream every week. I do. I spend a lot of time on the internet. I'm so good at talking to nobody. So it's amazing to have somebody to actually talk back to. Normally, it's just like the comment section on one of my stupid ass videos, which, you know, don't.
We'll be in the comment section.
So. Phil Spector, he just had an article written. I think this is one of the most... insane cause and effects of history that has ever happened because Phil Spector, he has this journalist come and this journalist writes a piece on him for Interview Magazine or some, I wrote it down, but I don't remember. So let's just pretend I said it.
So he writes an article for me, he puts it in this magazine and it comes out and Phil breaks his sobriety. loses it, starts drinking menacingly.
Sure, of course. Right?
Right? He loses his mind. He's kind of, it's not a positive article. It's positive in the sense that it's like, hey, I'm talking about Phil Spector and he's a genius.
This guy's still relevant. Yeah.
Yeah. But it's negative in the fact that, like, Phil sees all the bad things that this guy says about him. And he starts drinking again. And he finds himself on the night of February 2, 2003, at the House of Blues. And this is where he will run into Lana Clarkson. And I feel as though we do not, I mean, it's hard to give victims as much attention as they deserve, right?
It's like, that's a very difficult thing because the interesting part of this whole thing is that Phil Spector is fucking insane. Sucks ass, yes. And this was a fairly normal Los Angeles person living their life. And so it's like the bulk of the story lies on Crazy Boy, right? So I do want to spend just a moment first off to show you Lana Clarkson.
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Chapter 3: What evidence was found at the crime scene involving Lana Clarkson?
Like many Angelenos, Clarkson absorbed the idea that Hollywood rewarded persistence, and if you stayed visible long enough, something would eventually break your way. And I think that's a very reasonable Los Angeles feel. It's like, you know, there is a lot of, there's a lot of, hey, you could make it at any time here kind of feels. Yeah.
And it's true in that it is the only way people who aren't born into the industry or whatever succeed. If you are not a nepo baby. Right. This is the only thing that works. But also, it still fails for 90% of people.
90%. 99% I'd venture to guess.
I'm being crazy optimistic.
Yeah, that was very optimistic. 99. Yes. It does not go well for a lot of people.
We're sitting here as two of the people in our own fields who managed to make it through that 99% thing. And it is like... I know a lot of people who wound up somewhere else.
I went to school with like 75 people and I know one of them that still has a job in the audio world. And that is just the, I know the class before me, the class after me. I know hundreds of people that came in with me and I know none of them still having jobs.
It's wonderful to tell people to chase their dreams. You're also, don't lie to them when you do it. Yeah, yeah. You can chase your dreams for a while. You know? Have an exit plan. Have an exit plan.
It's like gambling.
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Chapter 4: What were the main arguments presented during Phil Spector's trial?
All right, so by the early 1980s, she is landing small parts. She's getting some brief exposure in mainstream productions. She's in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. She's a little background character in there, you know. Her steadier work came in genre films, where she became recognizable to audiences through fantasy and cult B movies, such as Barbarian Queen, Barbarian Queen 2, and Deathstalker.
Feels very... You might remember me from such works as Barbarian and Barbarian Queen 2.
Deathstalker.
These are super B movie type things. In later years, we get weird about saying B movies as though we're supposed to call them like lesser grade movies. I don't know what, lesser off market. I don't know what, it's weird. They're B movies. I don't know why that suddenly got PC in any way. And I'm ranting about this right now because it made me mad.
I never heard that it was, but okay.
Oh, it made me mad. I call them B movies. There was a bunch of articles that I read about Lana Clarkson specifically that were like, you shouldn't call her a B-movie actress. That's degrading. And I'm like, that's just... No, we love B. We call Bruce Campbell a B-movie actor.
Right, exactly. The great Bruce Campbell.
Anyway. So Barbarian Queen was actually produced by Robin Corman, who did the original in the 1960 Little Shop of Horrors. So it wasn't... They're not like a prestige role, but she's connected. She's doing well, you know?
Yeah, Dr. Corman.
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Chapter 5: How did the media portray Phil Spector during the trial?
Her career didn't collapse so much as just narrow, you know? It's a slow erosion of opportunity, and everybody in L.A. was going, it goes through it, you know? It's like there's just less roles for the older woman than there is for the young, buxom beauty or whatever, you know?
In the early 2000s, while at a house party, she's dancing in her high heels and she slips and falls, breaking both of her wrists. The accident derailed her acting career because of course you're not going to auditions with two broken wrists or whatever. You're not doing much. And, you know, she's starting to see her career kind of slip away. You can't...
In the world, in this world, in all the entertainment, you can't take a break. Robert, you know that you work 700 days a year. Yeah, you are working like you are a busy bee over there doing episodes all the time, which is why I'm here.
You got to hustle, otherwise the pod save guys will eat you alive.
Yes. And you have an amazing productive output, but it is, you know, if you were forced to take a long break, you know, it could damage your career because people move on. You know, that's just the fact of what happens. Yeah. So she begins pivoting to comedy. She starts writing her own stand-up act, and she's trying to do other things, like get out of her typecast.
Around 2002, while Clarkson was still pursuing acting, she takes a job at the House of Blues on Sunset Strip. She gets a job working in the foundation room upstairs, which is where musicians and industry figures and celebrities are all kind of hanging out. It's the VIP room of the Hollywood Sunset Strip. So you know it's... It's a good place to be still being connected, right? Yeah.
Like many who took those jobs, she understood that proximity could still mean possibility. And she hoped that meeting the right person might reopen doors that had quietly closed. It was the kind of compromise that Hollywood encourages you to stay close enough to the spotlight so you can kind of, you know... be in proximity of good things happening.
If you have spent any time in any entertainment industry at all, you get what's going on. Sometimes the phone just stops ringing and you got to start hustling in different ways. On the night of February 2nd, Clarkson was working there, and she's still holding onto the idea that her story in Hollywood isn't finished.
She's 42 years old, but she's still hopeful, still recognizable in certain circles, and still navigating that fragile space between past visibility and future chance. The night she met Phil Spector, that would, you know, ring her into infamy for the rest of her life, but obviously for the worst reason. Yeah. Lana's story is the story of a billion people, right?
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Chapter 6: What were the outcomes of the trial and its impact on Phil Spector's life?
There's no... there's no air of like sadness around what is going on. And this is important because she's about to end up dead and there's going to be a lot of doubt cast upon her mental state at this time. But seemingly she's a very happy person, still believes in like the best will come for her.
Right.
When Clarkson first encountered Spectre, she reportedly mistook him for a woman. Keep in mind, she's six foot tall. He's five foot four. He's wearing big wigs and dressing all crazy. He's got platform heels and shit. Why is he wearing?
Oh, because he wants to be taller. Yeah, of course she mistakes him. Yes, that makes sense.
He looks like an old woman in Hollywood, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. By this time, he's wearing elaborate wigs and eccentric clothing. And his theatrical presentation kind of become a part of his public persona. Right. He walks right into the foundation room. No hesitation. Just walks straight in there. And this is a high-class VIP area.
So Lana Clarkson, being the hostess of the foundation room, is like, hey-o! Hey, ma'am, Mrs. Lady, you know? She's, like, trying to stop him from walking because she doesn't know who he is. And he gives her the old, don't you know who I am? I'm not a Mrs. Like, I'm Phil fucking Spector. Now, keep in mind, it's fucking 2003. Right. Yeah, nobody cares, Harvey. His last hit was in the 70s.
It's been a minute, right?
Yeah.
Two whole generations have come and gone of people no longer listening to his music regularly. So it's like nobody knows who he is. And this is a very classic LA, you don't know who I am? You don't know who I am? I can't believe you don't know who I am. Has happened to anybody who encountered somebody who was even slightly famous in Los Angeles that you didn't recognize.
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Chapter 7: How did Phil Spector's past influence the perception of his case?
And I was like. My name's Greasy Will, man. Write it down. Take a picture. I don't give a fuck.
Yeah, what are you gonna do?
You know? And I was like, I hear that so often, it means nothing. It's lost all meaning to me. And he turns out, so it turns out, the next day, he calls my last boss, the boss that I had at the time working at the studio, he calls her, and she says... And this is a quote from her, direct quote. Candace Stewart, she's the homie. She said, you know that guy's killed people before.
You should probably not anger him.
I know it can't have been, but were you beefing with Suge Knight?
Yeah, no context or anything. Just, you know that guy's killed people, right? Not how, not why, not where. All right, so... Lana's manager steps into the situation. You know, Phil loses his mind. Manager steps in and says, sorry, Mr. Spector, we got your table for you. Let's put you down. Like, we got everything. And Lana is super embarrassed. She's super apologetic.
Like, she's pretty new to the job still. She hasn't been working there long. And, you know, she's doing this to meet people. And now she's just angered of what she perceives to be a very powerful person in Hollywood. But again, it's like... Early 2000s. How was she supposed to know who Phil Spector is? 100%. 100%. So she's trying to make up for it.
She does her best to try and give him extra attention. Oh, Mr. Spector. And Phil seems to really enjoy getting this, like... oh, now you care about who I am feeling, you know? It's like, you know, he seems to really feel empowered by the whole thing. The waitress, if you remember, he goes, he went to Dantana's with another date, a high school friend.
Then he takes her home because she's like, I don't want to get lit anymore. And he was like, all right. So he takes her home and then he comes back, starts drinking with the waitress, right? And then he takes the waitress to the House of Blues. And then at the House of Blues, the waitress is like, I don't want to drink anymore. I need to go home. I got to work tomorrow.
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Chapter 8: What is the legacy of Lana Clarkson and Phil Spector after the trial?
Right? It's like late. It's near closing time. He comes in like very close to closing time. And it's late. It's like almost 2 AM. And she's like, I'm trying to go home. So Phil's like, go have my driver take you home. Get the fuck out of here. I don't want to be seen with somebody not drinking. He's like making fun of her. He's like mad that she won't. She orders the water.
He's like, nobody drinks water around me. Are you crazy? She doesn't want to party.
Yeah.
You don't want to party. You know? So he sends her home. And then he starts trying to put his moves on Lana Clarkson, right? She's now, she's in a position of very serious power imbalance.
You know, this is a very Weinstein-esque power imbalance where now not only is she, you know, trying to make things up to him, but he's also feeling the joy of being in that situation and pushing things even further. He's like, sit down, have a drink with me. And she's like... I can't. My boss says, no, he's like, tell your boss that I'll leave.
If, if you don't sit down and have a drink, you're like, you know, like he's, he's going off on this shit.
Yeah. Um, and he clearly has never gotten used to not having that much power. Yes. Like, yeah, for sure.
He still enjoys it. Like for some people, he gets to that point. They're like, bro, it's not even like fun anymore. I only want to like, I just want to be left alone, you know? Uh, but for him, he clearly still is like, yes. Um, so, uh, You know, I'm sure Lana let on that she was an actress, probably, during the conversations. Because that's what you do, right?
You've seen this situation a thousand times in Hollywood. Because that's networking. That's what you believe networking is. So he's telling, you know, her, come back to my place. Come back to my place. It's almost closing time. We've got to get out of here. Let's come back to my place in Alhambra. We'll talk about things. I'll show you some stuff. Phil...
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