After being transferred to the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison at Corcoran late last month, legendary music-producer Phil Spector has apparently already made a new friend – none other than cult leader and criminal mastermind, Charles Manson.
Oh that silly Spector! Even locked up behind bars, he still finds a way to surround himself with the famous. At least, that’s what the New York Post is reporting.
Spector was assigned to a “sensitive needs facility” in the Corcoran prison and booked as a medium security prisoner without a cellmate. The 69-year-old is serving a 19-year-to-life sentence after being convicted in May of the second-degree murder of actress Lana Clarkson who died in February 2003 after being shot through the mouth.
Spector’s wife Rachelle told the New York Post’s Page Six that “a guard brought Philip a note from Manson, who said he wanted him to come over to his [lockup]. He said he considers Philip the greatest producer who ever lived. It was creepy. Philip didn't respond.”
Manson, 74, is serving a life imprisonment sentence for conspiracy and murder in the 1969 Tate/ LaBianca murders.
Would Spector and Manson get along? Do you see them as jailhouse best buddies? It all makes sense – the two have tons to talk about. They can discuss how they’re both convicted murderers and then turn the conversation over to their role in the music industry.
Spector can explain his famous Wall of Sound production technique and then reminisce about all those Top 40 hits such as “Be My Baby” and “Da Doo Ron Ron” and what it was like working with The Beatles. Manson can bust out some Dennis Wilson stories and tell Spector how he really feels about The Beach Boys changing his lyrics to the tune “Cease to Exist” and re-working it into their 1969 tune “Never Learn Not to Love.” And what did he think of Guns N’ Roses covering Manson’s song “Look At Your Game, Girl” and including it as a hidden track on the 1993 cover album The Spaghetti Incident?
Then again, the New York Post isn’t the most reliable source and there seems to be a bit of an error in their story. The Post writes that Spector was “recently transferred to Corcoran State Prison in central California, where Manson … is housed in a separate wing.”
Manson does reside in Corcoran State Prison – that is true. But Spector is staying at California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison at Corcoran, which is located just south of Corcoran. According to Mapquest, the prisons are located 2.51 miles apart from one another.
Who knows, maybe a guard thought that Manson’s note was so important he walked the two miles over to deliver it. Or maybe the Post made the whole thing up and it was all just a rock ‘n’ roll fantasy.
The Post wrote that Spector wasn’t pleased about his new note-passing buddy.
"I think Manson wants to glean some musical advice from Phil, who was a '60s music god with his 'Wall of Sound,' " Spector publicist Hal Lifson told the Post. "But Phil's like, 'I used to pick up the phone and it was John Lennon or Celine Dion or Tina Turner, and now Charles Manson is trying to get a hold of me!' "
Click here for the New York Post article.