16. Phil Spector pioneered the music industry, but will spend the rest of his life behind bars as a murderer.
While most surviving rock and roll pioneers are happy spending their autumn years as show business royalty, the man credited with inventing the role of producer is spending his remaining years behind bars. Phil Spector, the man behind the ‘Wall of Sound’ production technique that defined a generation, is set to be remembered for his fall from grace just as much as he is for his musical genius.
Spector, who was born in 1939, started making a name for himself as an auteur in the late-1950s. After a brief spell as a guitarist, he switched to writing and producing. In the 1960s, he worked for some of the world’s biggest acts, including the Beatles, the Righteous Brothers and the Ronettes. He carried on working throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s and even had a few hits in the 2000s. However, in 2003, it all came crashing down.
On the night of February 3, 2003, police were called to Spector’s Los Angeles mansion. There, a part-time actress lay dead from a gunshot wound to the head. The music guru claimed that it was an accident. However, at the subsequent trial, the jury heard that Spector had form in threatening women with guns. After a first trial ended in a hung jury, a second trial ended with Spector being convicted of murder in the second degree. These days, the man who created the sound of a generation is serving 19 years to life in the California state prison system. His police mugshot from the night of the killing now defines him just as much – if not more – than the pictures of him in the music producer’s booth making magic in the 60s.