Ronnie Spector is speaking after her ex-husband Phil Spector passed away on Saturday at the age of 81.
The former Ronettes singer and famous music producer were married from 1968 to 1974. The 77-year-old woman had already said that the union was abusive.
“It’s a sad day for music and a sad day for me,” wrote the singer on Facebook. “When I was working with Phil Spector, watching him create in the recording studio, I knew I was working with the best. He was in complete control, directing everyone. A lot to love at the time.”
“Meeting him and falling in love was like a fairy tale,” she continued. “The magical music that we were able to make together was inspired by our love. I loved him madly and gave him my heart and soul.”
PHIL SPECTOR, THAT WAS DAMNED FOR MURDER IN 2009, DEAD AT 81
Ronnie Spector of the vocal trio Ronettes with Phil Spector while recording in Los Angeles, California, at Gold Star Studios in 1963.
(Getty)
“Since I was sad many times while he was alive, he was a brilliant producer, but a terrible husband,” said the “Baby, I Love You” star. “Unfortunately, Phil was unable to live and work outside the recording studio. The darkness has settled, many lives have been damaged.”
“I still smile whenever I hear the song we did together, and I always will,” she concluded. “The music will be forever.”
In 2018, Ronnie told People magazine that the producer kept her isolated in her California mansion, where she endured years of psychological torment before she could escape.
“I thought I wouldn’t sing again and that I would die there,” she recalled at the outlet.
RONNIE SPECTOR SAYS EX-HUSBAND PHIL SPECTOR ONCE HE ADOPTED THE TWINS WITHOUT ASKING HER
The Ronettes, a popular New York girl group, was hired by Phil Spector.
(Getty)
After the divorce, Ronnie returned to New York to focus on his music career.
In 2009, Spector was sentenced to 19 years in prison for his second-degree murder conviction in the 2003 murder of actress Lana Clarkson.
The 40-year-old man was found in the lobby of Spector’s mansion, which looked like a castle, with a shot in the mouth. The defense said the “Queen Barbara” star was depressed by the breakup and used a 38 caliber pistol to take her life.
The first trial, which ended in September 2007, failed to reach a verdict after deliberating for 15 days. Spector’s retrial started in October 2008.
PHIL SPECTOR LOADED WITH MURDER
Lana Clarkson at the Radisson Hotel at LAX in Los Angeles, California.
(Photo by Albert L. Ortega / WireImage / Getty Images)
California state prison officials said Spector died of natural causes in a hospital.
“Your official cause of death will be determined by the coroner of the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office,” said a statement from the establishment.
Until Clarkson’s death, which Spector said was an “accidental suicide”, few residents knew the mansion belonged to the reclusive producer, who spent his remaining years in a prison hospital east of Stockton.
Decades before his conviction, Spector was hailed as a visionary for channeling Wagner’s ambition into a three-minute song, creating the “Wall of Sound” that mixed lively vocal harmonies with luxurious orchestral arrangements to produce pop monuments like “Da Doo Ron Ron , “” Be My Baby “and” He’s a rebel “.
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In this May 29, 2009 archive photo, music producer Phil Spector is sitting in a courtroom for his Los Angeles sentence. Spector, the eccentric and revolutionary music producer who transformed rock with his “Wall of Sound” method and who was later convicted of murder, died on Saturday, January 16, 2021, at the age of 81.
(AP Photo / Jae C. Hong, Pool, File)
Around the age of 20, his “little symphonies” resulted in almost two dozen successful singles and made him a millionaire. “You Lost That Lovin ‘Feeling”, the lyrical ballad of the Righteous Brothers that topped the charts in 1965, was tabulated as the most played song on radio and television – counting the many cover versions – in the 20th century.
In a 2005 court testimony, he testified that he had taken medication for manic depression for eight years.
“No sleep, depression, mood swings, mood swings, difficult to live with, difficult to concentrate, just difficult – a difficult time to go through life,” he said. “I was called a genius and I think a genius is not there all the time and has almost insanity.”
Tyler McCarthy and Fox News’ The Associated Press contributed to this report.