According to Phil Spector’s lawyer Chuck Sevilla, Spector jas losts the ability to speak according to UK Tabloid The Daily Mirror (I got it off Gigwise):
“He was moved within the last year to a new prison hospital in Stockton. He’s very frail. I believe he is able to walk, he’s lost a lot of weight, he’s been unable to speak for nine months due to polyps in his throat which they keep telling him they’re going perform surgery on, which they have not done. That’s just one of his many maladies. He’s in his 70s and he was not in the best condition going in. The prison won’t give information about his medical condition. We are trying to get his needs attended to. I will be writing the warden today to try and get that done. Can you imagine being in a prison and you need help and you can’t speak? It’s very dangerous.”
Spector was found guilty of killing Lana Clarkson n 2009 and jailed for 19 years.
This story is at the heart of every great artist vs bad person imaginable. Yes, Spector murdered the unfortunate Clarkson, yes, the law demands his incarceration and he should be incarcerated and he is but the man has given so much joy to so many people it feels unfair. It feels like there needs to be a double checking of the karmic balance sheets.
This is a story with no answer, unlike, say, Buju Banton who should be simply released right this second. He deserves to be jailed, he was a woman beating asshole of huge proportions (as David Mamet recently had Spector say in his movie: “why was Jesus Christ killed? He got too big for his britches”) and even so, I like there to be choices in life and this is just a dreadful story with no choice whatsoever.
what do we do with Phil Spector? what can we do but throw him away as damaged goods whose use is finished and while Spector will be immortal, is immortal, in life he is on the slagheap. A genius who killed Lana clarkson. She looms over this story, you deserved better than this but so did Phil. It should never have happened. It is a nightmare where are greatest musical artist ends up dying in jail.
If you need a reminder, here is one. Five years in the life of Phil Spector on one album.
From the wall of sound to speechless prison walls. Although I’m really trying, I think I may start crying.
