To know him was to love him

I wish to express a deep sadness for the loss of my friend Phillip Harvey Spector, who met a tragic end this weekend at some local facility bearing bars and a lot of misunderstanding.

It is said he fell from grace, didn’t do much in his later years. Not true. He actually did a lot. Made some beautiful and significant albums.

But he’s a murderer you might say. Is he? Were you there? Did you follow his trials? Let’s face it the media reigns supreme. He always professed his innocence and I believe him and like it or not I have always had good reason to do so.

Some of the more damning details are brought to light in David Mamet’s film about the case. Al Pacino plays Phil magnificently I might add.

Nevertheless I know Philip. I knew him well over a long period of time and he was a huge and formative influence in my life.

And when I say I knew him I knew him sad and angry, ranting and raving, sometimes drunk and crazy and in the later years brandishing guns occasionally pointed in my direction and yet I was never afraid, never felt threatened, never. Philip was a lot of things but he was not a murderer. I grew up with one and I feel qualified to know.

And yes Philip treated his artists horribly and he ripped them off. He could be arrogant and nasty and no, he wasn’t always nice to me but somehow it didn’t always matter. He was who he was. Deeply flawed, plagued by mental illness and genius in arguably equal amounts. We treat mental illness differently now with much more compassion, more understanding but not for Phillip, the mad genius record producer who gave us everything we had never known in music. A man with one of the greatest musical legacies EVER and yet with his passing are they flooding the airwaves with his songs? Mourning his passing? Are there enough of the accolades? He has been unfairly judged by some who knew and many who don’t.

As we all know there are simply never any innocent men behind bars.

I stand with Phillip in terms of his innocence.

I wrote to him in prison. Words were hard to find. He never answered. I can only hope my letters found him and provided him some comfort during his terrible ordeal.

He is free now and I’m glad for that but I will love him and I will miss him forever.

Rock on Phillip. There’s plenty of room for you on the other side and you will not be judged so harshly.