Ronnie Spector Reacts To ‘Lousy Husband’ Phil Spector’s Death

A music legend in her personal proper, Ronnie Spector mirrored on her life and profession with Phil Spector, remembering him as a “sensible producer, however awful husband.”

The late pop innovator, who’d been serving a 19-year jail sentence for the 2003 homicide of actress Lana Clarkson, died Saturday on the age of 81 of pure causes.

“It’s a tragic day for music and a tragic day for me,” Ronnie Spector wrote on Instagram Sunday alongside a black-and-white picture of the previous couple. “Once I was working with Phil Spector, watching him create within the recording studio, I knew I used to be working with the perfect. He was in full management, directing everybody. A lot to like approximately these days. Assembly him and falling in love was like a fairytale.”

The 2 first collaborated in 1963 when the report producer signed The Ronettes to his label with Ronnie Spector, then often known as Veronica Bennett, fronting the group because the lead singer. The chart-topping partnership went on to spawn traditional hits comparable to “Be My Child,” “Child, I Love You,” “Do I Love You?” and “Strolling within the Rain.”

The pair ultimately received married in 1968 ― their romance reportedly started whereas he was nonetheless married to first spouse Annette Merar ― and went on to undertake three youngsters collectively, the final two of which Phil Spector introduced house with out first telling his new spouse.

The enduring frontwoman chronicled their tumultuous marriage in her 1990 memoir “Be My Child,” during which she stated the report producer psychologically abused her over the course of their relationship.

Spector claimed she was stored prisoner of their California mansion and was forbidden from carrying sneakers at house for concern she would run absent. The singer even recalled Phil Spector threatening to show her physique in a glass-lidded coffin he stored within the basement as soon as she was lifeless, so he might “have a look at her perpetually.”

“I knew I used to be going to die there,” Spector stated in a 2018 Folks interview approximately being held captive by her then-husband. “It’s a sense you get. He was so obsessed and he at all times stated, ‘Earlier than I allow you to go, you’ll be lifeless, honey.’ And he wasn’t kidding.”

It wasn’t till 1972 that she lastly escaped Phil Spector’s clutches with the assistance of her mom, working barefoot down the driveway absent from their house.

Regardless of the torment she skilled, Spector ended her Instagram tribute on a extra hopeful observe.

“I nonetheless smile at any time when I hear the music we made collectively, and at all times will,” she concluded. “The music will probably be perpetually.”

Whereas the singer nonetheless often performs, her subsequent mission is executive-producing a biopic, “Be My Child,” based mostly on her life. At Ronnie Spector’s request, Zendaya will painting the Ronettes crooner within the upcoming A24 movie, which can discover her life and unstable marriage.