Rachelle Spector, wife of legendary ‘Wall of Sound’ producer Phil Spector is releasing a single, “PS I Love You.” An EP with five more songs will be available later this Spring. Spector, who is 41 years younger than her husband is an ardent and tenacious advocate for his innocence and strongly believes that he was the fall guy for the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson in his home in 2003, which she plainly refers to as “the situation.”
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
After a mistrial Spector was found guilty of second degree murder and sentenced to 19 years to life. An HBO movie about the trial, starring Al Pacino as Spector, debuts Sunday.
How did your songs come about?
They were from love letters that my husband and I wrote back and forth over the years and I decided to turn those letters into songs. I thought it would be great to say PS I Love You because I do and it’s cute, it’s just a really good way to portray a shorter version of Phil Spector.
So as far as this song was concerned the whole preface of it was something that can show him as a human being and in a more sympathetic light. About his father dying when he was young and about his son passing away when he was 10 from leukemia and ultimately me losing my husband. It’s a song of great sadness and to show a sympathetic side to him and how many losses he’s had in his life but it’s amazing how much he’s been able to achieve with all those losses.
He went from losing his father, to forming The Teddy Bears, to writing his first hit, ‘To Know Him is to Love Him.’ This particular song is sort of a spin off of ‘To Know Him,’ because if you knew Philip the way I do, as a normal human being, you would love him too.
I would see complete strangers who would meet him at Target or the Coffee Bean and within the first five minutes they’d be laughing and falling in love with him because he’s such a kind, gentle and caring human being, not to mention the fact that he’s so generous.
When did you meet him?
In September 2003. So this September we’ll be together 10 years.
Did you know about him?
From the beginning when I met him I had no idea of the situation. I didn’t even own a TV at that point. I met him on a level playing field. I saw him as a normal person. Obviously later on I found out about the situation and I was thinking, there is no way he’s capable of such a heinous act especially against a woman.
So you believe he’s innocent.
I got my private investigator’s license to aid in all the court proceedings. I’ve read over 400,000 pages of transcripts. I’ve had in depth conversations with the forensic scientists and pathologists. Dr. Henry Lee said there was no crime scene. His fingerprints and DNA were not on the weapon. He was wearing white, if you’re in the vicinity of this type of inter oral gunshot wound, they’d be blood splatter, fragments of everything all over, there was nothing. Even those things would dictate there’s no way this guy could have done this.
You have to look at the system. They hadn’t convicted a celebrity in 40 years, they didn’t get OJ, Robert Blake or Michael Jackson. So the pressure was on to convict somebody. Unfortunately he was it.
Did you have any involvement with the HBO movie that’s coming out?
Originally David Mamet (who wrote and directed the film starring Al Pacino) did reach out to my husband and said they wanted us to be involved and then afterwards we heard nothing from them. I tried reaching out, they actually wanted nothing else to do with us and the truth of how my husband acted, they didn’t want to come and see him at that point. They made no effort to really get to know my husband and what happened during his musical career and in the movie I’m nowhere to be found. I was a staple by his side every single day in that courtroom.
He’s 73 and serving a prison sentence of 19 years to life…
We’re still in the federal appeals process.
How are his spirits?
He’s hanging in there. We speak periodically during the week when he’s allowed to call and I visit him every weekend. That’ my main focus, keeping his spirits up, keeping him positive, keep reiterating that he’s an innocent man, that he took the fall for other people. He was ultimately convicted on, we don’t like you, instead of the forensic evidence that did not exist. We have to hope somebody is going to do the right thing and see the travesty of justice.
This is whey I felt it was an opportune time to put out one of my songs about my husband to show him in a whole different aspect, in a sympathetic light. I’m so sick of these people turning him into a fictitious monster. He’s a human being just like everybody else. I need to really show him as the wonderful man that he is.