August 26, 2020 • 31 mins
Ike Turner goes deep about getting high, about his myriad marriages and drug busts, and about his tempestuous relationship with ex-wife Tina Turner. Game recognizes game when his path crosses Phil Spector’s, and the two engage in a shady tête-à-tête that ends in arson, narcs, and the SWAT team.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Blood on the Tracks is the production of I Heart
Radio and Double Elvis. Phil Spector was a musical genius,
one of the most successful record producers of all time.
He's now sitting behind bars, serving a nineteen years to
life sentence for murder. This is the story told by
his so called friends. Is this special Agent Paul Ramon
(00:29):
with the Federal Bureau of Investigation work in case number
double oh four Dash ten Dash seven one nine case
subject as Specter Philip Harvey. This information pertains to a
period ending September thirty two to interview subject as Turner
Isaiah Luster Jr. A k A I Interview number oh
Dash five one dash nine six six Dash six six
(00:50):
six Spirit Confessional Recall number five marked first two thousand
five h For any black artists in America to make
any tune, it has to go to the top ten
on the arm Beach hots before the top forty station
(01:13):
will touch him. And River Deep, Mountain High. It was
not a black record. Don't want to make the top
ten on the arm beach hots. That's why the top
forty radio station wouldn't play. The black jockey said it
was too white. The white jockey said it was too
black you made what Phil said about River d Now
and High. This is a few years later after the
(01:34):
record Life nine K sixty nine. Okay, he said today
that song could have been a number one record today,
like a couple of years wouldn't made any difference. He said,
when it came out, it was like his farewell must
have been one hell of a secret and farewell okay,
because he might have said nothing, none of us in
(01:55):
the studio. And then he said, I was just saying goodbye,
and I just want to go crazy, full fatness, full
us on wax. That's on once time he said, I
got what I wanted out of the two. Of course
he did, man, how of course he got what he
wanted out of Then the proof is then and that
(02:19):
part of Man and Old Water on the Tracks Chapter four,
(02:49):
Phil Specter and Ike Turner m hm. Now, see, I
feel like this whole thing is y'all want me to
sell the man out. Do you want me to tell
(03:11):
you all the dirty stuff, all the stuff to vilify
him and all that, like he's some kind of boogeyman
or some ship. Then okay, sure, maybe the guy did
some ship. Okay, maybe he made some mistakes and didn't
always do right by everyone in the room. Look takes
one to know one. Okay, Lord knows I made my
share mistakes. I know always do right by everyone. I
(03:34):
was reacted. I lost my temper. Then Fiel did the same. Man,
I don't know that I would say we were friends. Okay,
but game recognized this game. Man, it was for that bason.
Phil was scared of me. He was terrified of me.
Just ask Danny Davis. Go ask him, man, I'll wait
(04:00):
any Davis news up. Any time you were questioning, when
Phil tells you about this or that, Just running by
Danny Davis. Now, Phil, Phil saw me and Tina played
the Big T and T Show. That thing was like
the Tammy Show, right, but it was a movie and
it had all kinds of people, white, black, whatever, votedly
(04:20):
and raged halls, the birds and Donovan. This it's the
greatest LA music time. The show phils to produced so
or musical direct or some ship and so we close
the show. Tina was wearing that funny cat. I told
her not to wear that hat. Not that she always
(04:40):
listened to me. Phil told everybody that Tina just blew
him away. He said, now, quote, I was just devastated
by her. Now. I said it before and I'll say
it again. Tina was okay, there were better singers and
better dances. What Everttina is now couldn't hold a candle
to whatever Tina was before. I listened to her now,
(05:07):
and I don't even recognize her. Man. I loved her,
I did love her, okay, but I don't love her.
I don't even like her anymore, whatever she is, man.
But Phil just starts talking about Tina. Tina, Tina, Tina, okay, fine.
He sees his talent in Tina and thinks her destiny
(05:29):
is on Ed Sullivan in Las Vegas. He wants to
record I can Tina Turner. He says. What that really
means is that he wants Tina. Well he doesn't tell
everyone is that I could turn her scares the ship
out of him. I could tell it the first time
I met him. Man, here's robably scared to death when
(05:53):
he saw me on the Big t NT show. You know,
because I didn't live around wildly like Tina. I stood
there straight as in the row man and play my
guitar all business. Phil was saying, close he could to me,
not too close, okay, he didn't dare get too close.
He's standing there in his tall shoes and his big head.
(06:15):
Most definitely a wig. Okay. Again, takes one to know
one right, and I swear to God I can see
his little body tremble. So he comes to my house,
tell me he wants Ike and Tina minus Ike. Okay.
He says that they're gonna make this number one record.
It's gonna change everything. Tina will become the biggest star.
(06:39):
But that was always but he wanted to be in control.
He wanted to tell Tina what to do. He just
couldn't stand the thought of having me involved this ship. Man.
At least he knew enough to say it up run.
He owned it to a certain degree, even though he
(07:02):
would never come right out and say I turned to
scares me to death, whatever, man, I told him straight up,
if you think you can make this incredible record with
Tina on your own without me there, go for it.
Show me what you can do. Man. I don't want,
(07:26):
but I made some demands on my own. I told Phil,
I wanted my name on that record, regardless of what
or now I played on it. I wanted my name
before Tina's name, like it always was, and I got it.
There was two chickenship to negotiate with. That. Okay, So
(07:50):
Tina starts going to Phil's mansion in l A. That
baby went up a lot, Collina. They summer hearsing it
feels playing piano and having Tina go through the motions.
And he's real stracted like I was real stripped with
my band. I left my review with a pistol one
(08:10):
hand and the other hand clutched real tight. I charged
ten bucks if one of the girls had a running
the stockins, twenty five bucks if they laughed too damn laugh.
But as tough as I was with the band members,
I also let Tina do her own thing, taking the
way she's saying. Man off stage may have been another
story behind closed doors is always different. Man on the stage.
(08:38):
I controlled the players. At least even if I couldn't
control Tina, nobody could control Tina. Plus I stood behind Tina,
washed her, shake her ass, and those tight many skirts
I bought for her. I convinced to the war those
they got tighter and short as the years went on,
I convinced to the start wearing the brawl to see
(08:59):
I control of Tina until she hit that stage and
then she let loose. Now Phil Spector comes in and
he wants to control Tina. She would come back from
those rehearsals at his manch to tell me that she
can't sing the song the way she wants to sing
(09:20):
the song. She has to sing it the way Phil
tells her to sing. If she deviates, he stops and
they start over again. No improvisation, no Tina being Tina
for better or for worse. You understand, they'll wanted Tina
to be what Phil wanted Tina to be, and he'd
(09:41):
get it too. I knew what he was doing. I
knew how he did it. Like I said, man, game,
recognize his game. Phil sabotage his own damn record. I
(10:25):
swear to god he Toltina back when we started this
whole River Deep, Mountain High business, that it was gonna
be the biggest song in the world, that she was
gonna be the biggest star in the world because of
the record. Right, she would be the biggest because he
made her the biggest seat. And it was great. Man.
I think River Deep Mountain High is as much a
(10:47):
work of art as good Vibrations. Okay, the two should
be talked about as the two best songs of nineteen
sixty six, no doubt. But Phil was the first accepton
and drive to find him els in his coffin, at
least here in the States. He took these full page
ads out in the trades, you know, and billboard and
(11:09):
cash box that just said River Deep Mountain High number
one in England. Benedict Arnold was right. He did that
sort of thing when he felt that his ego had
been disrespected, when in fact it was really crushed. I mean,
his ego was just crushed. He did it again when
(11:30):
Lenny Bruce, did you know, took out that full page
add that said Lenny Bruce was killed by an overdose
of police. He just couldn't let ship slide and move on.
This was his way of last. Now, now, the song
was huge in the UK. They loved it over there
(11:52):
because they loved Black American music. That's all the bands
were playing over there, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles. And
because they didn't put every song in the box, they
didn't have to categorize it on compartmentalize it the way
they do here. Black Talking to One was too blood
(12:12):
the hierarchy of the charts here is it Saint shoot
the talk to the hardy charge for talk. The song
was caught between a rock and hard place and not
even feel Specter with all his power and his people
and his ego could dislodge that fucker wanted place. You know.
He was riding high off all that stuff with the
(12:34):
righteous Place. You've lost that love and feeling and unchained melody.
You've lost that love and feeling is what the most
played song of all time. So his ego was pretty well.
With Ladd and Appli Just Want and then River Deep,
Mountain High doesn't even make it past eight on the
(12:56):
US charts. Phil got depressed. He thought he had it,
had the golden touch, and he lost it again. He
went back to his mansion, back into his bedroom. Dude
didn't do all that when with failure, you know, and
maybe I should have seen it coming. When we first
(13:20):
set foot in that studio and gold Star, that little
studio in Hollywood, when we first walked through that door
off the alleyway, Tina nearly had a heart attack. She
walked in. The door in the media was just like
helda It was March ninety six. We walked in and
(13:42):
there was like twenty or thirty people in there. It
wasn't just a bad man. It was a fucking symphony.
Two guitarists, two drummers, a damn choir, singers, white players,
black players, Earl Palmer and Carol Kay and Leon Russell
and Barney Kestle, the whole wrecking crew. That's what they
(14:04):
call those casts ship. Phil cut them all in line
just about as well as me. I said, just about Man,
because I could look at him Man, and he changed
the way he was playing in a second. Phil had
to tell them repeatedly, what do you wanted? A big hit? There?
Ba ba ba ba bla baka. Anyway, it wasn't just
(14:33):
the Wrecking Crew musicians hanging around. Brian Wilson was there
with Rodney Bergen High McJagger was there with Jack Nici,
and uh Dennis Hopper was there too. Tina was completely
unprepared for the people and the pressure. I mean, we
both were, but she just rose up. She looked at
me and told me she couldn't do it. She couldn't
performed with all these people. She wasn't confident enough to
(14:55):
deliver in front of all these people. Well that's when
I stepped in. I told Phil that Tina couldn't end.
You know, I just placed my chest right up against his,
gotten his face a little closer than he was comfortable with.
I said, Tina, ain't doing it this way, Jack, you
(15:15):
know you can't feel a different name like that. And
it just threw him off. I said, listen up, Jack.
He just shot up to attention. He listened. He would
pick up an apple core from the ash tray in
the room and either while he nodded his head. Was
that a power move? But I don't know, man, I
think he's just disgusting. I told him I was taking
(15:37):
Tina outside, and when he wanted to trim the fat
and get his ship under control, we'll be back to
cut the track. But when we didn't go back, Bill
a dial back in the zoo, Tina sang like a
motherfucker man. Take after take. She just gave it everything
(15:57):
she had. She put so much into to that she
nearly passed out. Man. The sweat was just stripping. It
was on the edge of her lips, her eyelids hanging
there on the tip of her nose. Sy sorry little
carried away there. That room was small and hot and stuffy,
and this tune was a pressure cooker. Your dick, Well,
(16:18):
what are we we gonna do? What that brain? She got
so hot in there that she took off her damn blouse,
stripped right down to her brow. In the middle of
gold Star, she asked if anyone were mind it. Before
she heard a reply, she had pulled it off over
her head. All the eyes in that room were simultaneously
staring at her and trying to look away, you know,
(16:40):
like should we shouldn't we? She put a lot into
that performance, the rehearsals that feels, matching the session in
the studio. She put her all into a man. And
however I felt about being swept aside at the start
of it all, it didn't matter. If the sting was
gott a vault us into the stratosphere, we'd be finer
(17:02):
than a frog has split four ways, you see. And
then it was obvious that it wasn't going to be.
But Phil thought it was going to be. He just
lost interest, disappeared, just like he was no longer advocate.
(17:23):
He distanced himself. It was the same ship he pulled
with the Righteous Brothers and the rownets before them. He
said it was all calculating, which you know he was
saying just so he could save face and not look
like a complete idiot. I don't know, man, I want
(17:43):
to say he was a complete idiot, but he certainly
swam those waters between idiotcy and genius. I've done some
laughs in there, okay, then deep waters and long too.
There's lots of places a man can get lost in
there on this shore that he had most certainly washed
up on the shore I couldn't tell you where it was.
(18:14):
We'll be right back after this word word word. That
taxi thing was years later, man, years later, Phil invited
me to come to a party. Who was throwing that
a bowling alley in Montrose, just a little north of Pasadena.
(18:35):
Quick blip up the two ten. I'm gonna guess this
is around two thousand and two. He had thrown a
party there for his daughter a year earlier, when she
was graduating high school. I believe it was and enjoyed
getting back out in the public that he decided to
make it an annual ship dead. I thought, oh, man,
if nothing else, maybe there would be some ass I
(18:56):
could chase around for an hour or too. Phil was
just balls deep it regrets. I think he wished he
had made this record or didn't make that one wish
he had married this girl and not that one. Like
I said, before I could relate. Okay, yeah, man, I
(19:16):
was arresting something like twelve thirteen times for drugs, arrested
even when the quote unquote drugs I was carrying was
just baking. So man, I did time, pay debts and
repay debts. I've been married ten times at least when
it came to regrets and life choices for me, and
(19:38):
Phil was empatical, you know what I'm saying. When Tina
and I first lit up in the seventies, I took
up a relationship with cocaine at last for years. Someone
told me that ship would make your dick hard for hours,
and that's all I needed here. My dick was hard
for years. Man, what can I say? I like coke?
(19:58):
Man who doesn't like coke? So what do I know?
Maybe Phil had some old roller decks filled with other
guys who had other regrets. I hadn't talked to him
much in a while. No one had talked to him
all that much. But he called me up and told
me to come out to Montrose and we catch up.
He told me he'd send a car to pick me
(20:20):
up some nice stretched job. I waited and waited nothing,
no stretched job. John called him back and I got
his secret terry. She told me to take a cab
and Phil will reimburse me when I got there. Okay, fine,
trying to take the cab. When we pull up at
the place in Montrose and tell the driver paying tight,
(20:42):
someone will come out to pay you. Well. Almost an
hour later, I'm inside enjoying myself, okay, and I find
out that the driver is still sitting outside waiting to
get paid. I say, hey, Phil, I'm not trying to
be ungrateful here, but the cabby is idling outside, and
you said you will for the bill, okay. I mean
some days it was hard for me to string together
(21:03):
a couple of bucks, and this was one of those days.
And Phil says, yeah, yeah, yeah, man, I'll settle up
with the guy. Just enjoy yourself. I'm thinking, okay, when
exactly are you going to settle up with him? And
he turns around and talks to someone else. I'm thinking, okay,
this guy's not getting paid by Phil Spector. Next thing
I know, I'm introducing a friend of mine to Phil,
(21:25):
someone I brought with me to the party, and Phil
is just an asshole man. He doesn't give a ship,
you know, like big fucking whooped. He do works. God
damn man, Phil Man wanted to get out and mingle
with the public again. I don't know that he was ready,
for sure. He wasn't ready. He was rusty. So I'm done.
(21:52):
I leave the party, get back in the cab that's
been sitting there for almost two hours. At this point,
I get back home and make a call to ball
Money to pay for the fact. I pay the driver
with borrowed money. I was so out of my mind
angry at this point, man, angry about it, all the money,
the disrespect. Sure, So then I make another call, this
(22:16):
time to film. I get the machine and I say,
I'm going never the kind to kids ask and I
never will be. You need to take a bong and
look at yourself. I think you're a lonely man that
I've been really sorry for you. I took that car
over there, I didn't at your request, and then I
found myself in an embarrassing position. You'll never guess what
(22:39):
happens next. I get an overturn phone called no personal visit.
But the very next day there's a knock on my door.
I opened it and it's a delivery two dozen roses,
a check from film made out to me for two grand,
and a note that just says thank you for coming me.
(23:03):
No apology, no explanation. All these years later, Man, his
true colors are there still he's still terrified of me.
He pulled that ship with the cab at the party
to funk with me, to funk with me in front
of a bowling alley full of friends and ask kisses.
He knew he was safe there. And then he secretly
(23:26):
sends me that care package at my house, you know,
because he was too afraid to live on my bad side.
I did all that for him. Man brought him Tina,
let him record Tina the way he wanted to record.
Tina stepped aside to let him do his thing. He
(23:50):
made promises that he couldn't keep. And this is what
I got for it, okay, and insult some flowers, a
check and one measily sentence. And that land was the
(24:12):
last time I saw Phil Specter. March Inglewood, California. The
(24:52):
Ellen narcotics agents called it the taj Mahal because it
was grandiose, extravagant, palatial, one of Southern California's Eight Wonders,
the house that Coke built. Ike Turner called it Bollock Sound,
which phonetically called to mind Anna May Bullock a k a.
Tina Turner a k a. Proud Mary, the singer he discovered,
(25:13):
partnered with, and subsequently humiliated and abused behind closed doors.
But now Tina was long gone. She had bailed years ago,
fleeing Ike in Dallas with nothing but the bloody clothes
on her back. It was Tina gone. Ike's music suffered.
In place of music, he turned to drugs, and drugs
kept him very busy, so busy that he left the
(25:35):
trail of cocaine behind him wherever he went. The L
a p. D kept an eye on Ike every time
he came and went. From the taj Mahal, a guitar
player with a bad reputation who recorded with Phil Specter
toward with the Rolling Stones and famously had a hand
in the first ever rock and roll song, using his
studio complex as ground zero for drug dealing and drug doing.
(25:59):
On this day in Mark, l A. Narks brought the
SWAT team with them. They went in through the front door.
The first thing they found was a live hand grenade.
The next thing they found was Ike on his knees
next to the toilet, empty baggies on the floor, the
toilets still running in seven grams of cocaine that he'd
get the flush. I got thirty days in jail in
(26:20):
three years probation. The following year, some port of flammable
liquid down the hallways of the taj Mahal and lit
a match. A few months later, shots rang out in
the middle of the day on Ike's front lawn. I
claimed that the mailman had kicked his dog, and so
he pulled the piece from the back of his pants
(26:41):
and immediately shot him. Ike was cleared in cored of
the assault charge, but more run ins with the police followed.
Arrests for possession, conspiracy to sell, and concealed weapons were
common for Ike in the eighties. Eighty nine, Phil Specter
(27:01):
opened his copy of the Los Angeles Times and the dark,
cold comfort of his law Collina Mansion and wasn't all
that surprised at the first headline that caught his eyes.
Ike Turner arrested on cocaine charges. The article explained the
cops of pulled Dike over in West Hollywood, where he
was driving under the influence of cocaine and unloaded thirty
(27:23):
eight revolver and a pile of rock cocaine sat on
the seat next to him. It wasn't the first time
cops had busted Ike in West Hollywood. Specter knew all
about Likes troubles. He knew a trouble man when he
saw one. He never fully trusted Ike. He and Ike
were too similar. He knew the games that Ike played,
the manipulations, the way he used and abused those closest
(27:44):
to him. Specter knew all about Ike's troubles and ikes
games because they were his troubles and his games too.
Phil Spector folded up the paper and placed it on
the coffee table. He focused his attention back to the stereo,
which was playing I'm Your Man, the new album by
Leonard Cohen. He turned the volume up. The record was
full of synthesizers, and for Specter's taste, it was too
(28:05):
sterile and modern sounding. It made a spectacle of Leonard's voice,
His poetry was caught up in machines. It didn't have
the warmth and the feeling that a Leonard Cohen record deserved.
Specter had given Leonard what he deserved just a decade before,
at least he thought so. Even if the world didn't agree,
even if the world wanted something more modern than Spector
(28:27):
could deliver, Specter saw a kindred spirit and Leonard someone
to get loose with, someone to get crazy with. At
the time in seven Bill Specter was hoping that Leonard
Cohen felt the same way. If he didn't, it's no worry.
Phil Specter had a plan to keep Leonard Cohen loose, crazy,
him by his side for as long as he wanted.
(28:48):
The proof would be there in the pudding in the
Blood on the Tracks. This episode of Blood on the
Tracks is brought to you by twenty seven Club, a
(29:09):
podcast that I host on musicians who died at the
age of Season two, featuring Jim Morrison, is now available,
as is season one with twelve episodes featuring Jimmy Hendrix.
Subscribe to the twenty seven Club on Apple podcast, i
Heeart Radio app or Wherever You Get You podcast, and
of course, this episode was also brought to you by
Disgrace Land, the award winning music and true crime podcast
(29:31):
also hosted by Yours Truly. Episodes on the Rolling Stones
Jerry Lewis, Cardi B, The Grateful Dead, j Z Prince
and many many more are all waiting for you right now.
Just search Disgrace Land on Apple podcast, the I Heart
Radio app, or wherever you give your podcast all right.
This episode of Bought on the Tracks was written by
Zeth Lundi and scored in mixed by Matt Both hosted
(29:54):
by me Jake Brennan. Additional music and score elements by
Ryan Spreaker and Henry Unatt. This episode featured Jeffrey Alkins
is like Turner. Blood on the Tracks is produced by
myself for Double Elvis partnership with I Heart Rate. Sources
for this episode are available at Double Elvis dot com
on the Blood on the Track series page. If you
(30:14):
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(30:36):
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and Twitter at Disgrace and then Rocking MH tight crazy
Blood on the Tracks is the production of I Heart
Radio and Double Elvis. Phil Spector was a musical genius,
one of the most successful record producers of all time.
He's now sitting behind bars, serving a nineteen years to
life sentence for murder. This is the story told by
his so called friends. Is this special Agent Paul Ramon
(00:29):
with the Federal Bureau of Investigation work in case number
double oh four Dash ten Dash seven one nine case
subject as Specter Philip Harvey. This information pertains to a
period ending September thirty two to interview subject as Turner
Isaiah Luster Jr. A k A I Interview number oh
Dash five one dash nine six six Dash six six
(00:50):
six Spirit Confessional Recall number five marked first two thousand
five h For any black artists in America to make
any tune, it has to go to the top ten
on the arm Beach hots before the top forty station
(01:13):
will touch him. And River Deep, Mountain High. It was
not a black record. Don't want to make the top
ten on the arm beach hots. That's why the top
forty radio station wouldn't play. The black jockey said it
was too white. The white jockey said it was too
black you made what Phil said about River d Now
and High. This is a few years later after the
(01:34):
record Life nine K sixty nine. Okay, he said today
that song could have been a number one record today,
like a couple of years wouldn't made any difference. He said,
when it came out, it was like his farewell must
have been one hell of a secret and farewell okay,
because he might have said nothing, none of us in
(01:55):
the studio. And then he said, I was just saying goodbye,
and I just want to go crazy, full fatness, full
us on wax. That's on once time he said, I
got what I wanted out of the two. Of course
he did, man, how of course he got what he
wanted out of Then the proof is then and that
(02:19):
part of Man and Old Water on the Tracks Chapter four,
(02:49):
Phil Specter and Ike Turner m hm. Now, see, I
feel like this whole thing is y'all want me to
sell the man out. Do you want me to tell
(03:11):
you all the dirty stuff, all the stuff to vilify
him and all that, like he's some kind of boogeyman
or some ship. Then okay, sure, maybe the guy did
some ship. Okay, maybe he made some mistakes and didn't
always do right by everyone in the room. Look takes
one to know one. Okay, Lord knows I made my
share mistakes. I know always do right by everyone. I
(03:34):
was reacted. I lost my temper. Then Fiel did the same. Man,
I don't know that I would say we were friends. Okay,
but game recognized this game. Man, it was for that bason.
Phil was scared of me. He was terrified of me.
Just ask Danny Davis. Go ask him, man, I'll wait
(04:00):
any Davis news up. Any time you were questioning, when
Phil tells you about this or that, Just running by
Danny Davis. Now, Phil, Phil saw me and Tina played
the Big T and T Show. That thing was like
the Tammy Show, right, but it was a movie and
it had all kinds of people, white, black, whatever, votedly
(04:20):
and raged halls, the birds and Donovan. This it's the
greatest LA music time. The show phils to produced so
or musical direct or some ship and so we close
the show. Tina was wearing that funny cat. I told
her not to wear that hat. Not that she always
(04:40):
listened to me. Phil told everybody that Tina just blew
him away. He said, now, quote, I was just devastated
by her. Now. I said it before and I'll say
it again. Tina was okay, there were better singers and
better dances. What Everttina is now couldn't hold a candle
to whatever Tina was before. I listened to her now,
(05:07):
and I don't even recognize her. Man. I loved her,
I did love her, okay, but I don't love her.
I don't even like her anymore, whatever she is, man.
But Phil just starts talking about Tina. Tina, Tina, Tina, okay, fine.
He sees his talent in Tina and thinks her destiny
(05:29):
is on Ed Sullivan in Las Vegas. He wants to
record I can Tina Turner. He says. What that really
means is that he wants Tina. Well he doesn't tell
everyone is that I could turn her scares the ship
out of him. I could tell it the first time
I met him. Man, here's robably scared to death when
(05:53):
he saw me on the Big t NT show. You know,
because I didn't live around wildly like Tina. I stood
there straight as in the row man and play my
guitar all business. Phil was saying, close he could to me,
not too close, okay, he didn't dare get too close.
He's standing there in his tall shoes and his big head.
(06:15):
Most definitely a wig. Okay. Again, takes one to know
one right, and I swear to God I can see
his little body tremble. So he comes to my house,
tell me he wants Ike and Tina minus Ike. Okay.
He says that they're gonna make this number one record.
It's gonna change everything. Tina will become the biggest star.
(06:39):
But that was always but he wanted to be in control.
He wanted to tell Tina what to do. He just
couldn't stand the thought of having me involved this ship. Man.
At least he knew enough to say it up run.
He owned it to a certain degree, even though he
(07:02):
would never come right out and say I turned to
scares me to death, whatever, man, I told him straight up,
if you think you can make this incredible record with
Tina on your own without me there, go for it.
Show me what you can do. Man. I don't want,
(07:26):
but I made some demands on my own. I told Phil,
I wanted my name on that record, regardless of what
or now I played on it. I wanted my name
before Tina's name, like it always was, and I got it.
There was two chickenship to negotiate with. That. Okay, So
(07:50):
Tina starts going to Phil's mansion in l A. That
baby went up a lot, Collina. They summer hearsing it
feels playing piano and having Tina go through the motions.
And he's real stracted like I was real stripped with
my band. I left my review with a pistol one
(08:10):
hand and the other hand clutched real tight. I charged
ten bucks if one of the girls had a running
the stockins, twenty five bucks if they laughed too damn laugh.
But as tough as I was with the band members,
I also let Tina do her own thing, taking the
way she's saying. Man off stage may have been another
story behind closed doors is always different. Man on the stage.
(08:38):
I controlled the players. At least even if I couldn't
control Tina, nobody could control Tina. Plus I stood behind Tina,
washed her, shake her ass, and those tight many skirts
I bought for her. I convinced to the war those
they got tighter and short as the years went on,
I convinced to the start wearing the brawl to see
(08:59):
I control of Tina until she hit that stage and
then she let loose. Now Phil Spector comes in and
he wants to control Tina. She would come back from
those rehearsals at his manch to tell me that she
can't sing the song the way she wants to sing
(09:20):
the song. She has to sing it the way Phil
tells her to sing. If she deviates, he stops and
they start over again. No improvisation, no Tina being Tina
for better or for worse. You understand, they'll wanted Tina
to be what Phil wanted Tina to be, and he'd
(09:41):
get it too. I knew what he was doing. I
knew how he did it. Like I said, man, game,
recognize his game. Phil sabotage his own damn record. I
(10:25):
swear to god he Toltina back when we started this
whole River Deep, Mountain High business, that it was gonna
be the biggest song in the world, that she was
gonna be the biggest star in the world because of
the record. Right, she would be the biggest because he
made her the biggest seat. And it was great. Man.
I think River Deep Mountain High is as much a
(10:47):
work of art as good Vibrations. Okay, the two should
be talked about as the two best songs of nineteen
sixty six, no doubt. But Phil was the first accepton
and drive to find him els in his coffin, at
least here in the States. He took these full page
ads out in the trades, you know, and billboard and
(11:09):
cash box that just said River Deep Mountain High number
one in England. Benedict Arnold was right. He did that
sort of thing when he felt that his ego had
been disrespected, when in fact it was really crushed. I mean,
his ego was just crushed. He did it again when
(11:30):
Lenny Bruce, did you know, took out that full page
add that said Lenny Bruce was killed by an overdose
of police. He just couldn't let ship slide and move on.
This was his way of last. Now, now, the song
was huge in the UK. They loved it over there
(11:52):
because they loved Black American music. That's all the bands
were playing over there, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles. And
because they didn't put every song in the box, they
didn't have to categorize it on compartmentalize it the way
they do here. Black Talking to One was too blood
(12:12):
the hierarchy of the charts here is it Saint shoot
the talk to the hardy charge for talk. The song
was caught between a rock and hard place and not
even feel Specter with all his power and his people
and his ego could dislodge that fucker wanted place. You know.
He was riding high off all that stuff with the
(12:34):
righteous Place. You've lost that love and feeling and unchained melody.
You've lost that love and feeling is what the most
played song of all time. So his ego was pretty well.
With Ladd and Appli Just Want and then River Deep,
Mountain High doesn't even make it past eight on the
(12:56):
US charts. Phil got depressed. He thought he had it,
had the golden touch, and he lost it again. He
went back to his mansion, back into his bedroom. Dude
didn't do all that when with failure, you know, and
maybe I should have seen it coming. When we first
(13:20):
set foot in that studio and gold Star, that little
studio in Hollywood, when we first walked through that door
off the alleyway, Tina nearly had a heart attack. She
walked in. The door in the media was just like
helda It was March ninety six. We walked in and
(13:42):
there was like twenty or thirty people in there. It
wasn't just a bad man. It was a fucking symphony.
Two guitarists, two drummers, a damn choir, singers, white players,
black players, Earl Palmer and Carol Kay and Leon Russell
and Barney Kestle, the whole wrecking crew. That's what they
(14:04):
call those casts ship. Phil cut them all in line
just about as well as me. I said, just about Man,
because I could look at him Man, and he changed
the way he was playing in a second. Phil had
to tell them repeatedly, what do you wanted? A big hit? There?
Ba ba ba ba bla baka. Anyway, it wasn't just
(14:33):
the Wrecking Crew musicians hanging around. Brian Wilson was there
with Rodney Bergen High McJagger was there with Jack Nici,
and uh Dennis Hopper was there too. Tina was completely
unprepared for the people and the pressure. I mean, we
both were, but she just rose up. She looked at
me and told me she couldn't do it. She couldn't
performed with all these people. She wasn't confident enough to
(14:55):
deliver in front of all these people. Well that's when
I stepped in. I told Phil that Tina couldn't end.
You know, I just placed my chest right up against his,
gotten his face a little closer than he was comfortable with.
I said, Tina, ain't doing it this way, Jack, you
(15:15):
know you can't feel a different name like that. And
it just threw him off. I said, listen up, Jack.
He just shot up to attention. He listened. He would
pick up an apple core from the ash tray in
the room and either while he nodded his head. Was
that a power move? But I don't know, man, I
think he's just disgusting. I told him I was taking
(15:37):
Tina outside, and when he wanted to trim the fat
and get his ship under control, we'll be back to
cut the track. But when we didn't go back, Bill
a dial back in the zoo, Tina sang like a
motherfucker man. Take after take. She just gave it everything
(15:57):
she had. She put so much into to that she
nearly passed out. Man. The sweat was just stripping. It
was on the edge of her lips, her eyelids hanging
there on the tip of her nose. Sy sorry little
carried away there. That room was small and hot and stuffy,
and this tune was a pressure cooker. Your dick, Well,
(16:18):
what are we we gonna do? What that brain? She got
so hot in there that she took off her damn blouse,
stripped right down to her brow. In the middle of
gold Star, she asked if anyone were mind it. Before
she heard a reply, she had pulled it off over
her head. All the eyes in that room were simultaneously
staring at her and trying to look away, you know,
(16:40):
like should we shouldn't we? She put a lot into
that performance, the rehearsals that feels, matching the session in
the studio. She put her all into a man. And
however I felt about being swept aside at the start
of it all, it didn't matter. If the sting was
gott a vault us into the stratosphere, we'd be finer
(17:02):
than a frog has split four ways, you see. And
then it was obvious that it wasn't going to be.
But Phil thought it was going to be. He just
lost interest, disappeared, just like he was no longer advocate.
(17:23):
He distanced himself. It was the same ship he pulled
with the Righteous Brothers and the rownets before them. He
said it was all calculating, which you know he was
saying just so he could save face and not look
like a complete idiot. I don't know, man, I want
(17:43):
to say he was a complete idiot, but he certainly
swam those waters between idiotcy and genius. I've done some
laughs in there, okay, then deep waters and long too.
There's lots of places a man can get lost in
there on this shore that he had most certainly washed
up on the shore I couldn't tell you where it was.
(18:14):
We'll be right back after this word word word. That
taxi thing was years later, man, years later, Phil invited
me to come to a party. Who was throwing that
a bowling alley in Montrose, just a little north of Pasadena.
(18:35):
Quick blip up the two ten. I'm gonna guess this
is around two thousand and two. He had thrown a
party there for his daughter a year earlier, when she
was graduating high school. I believe it was and enjoyed
getting back out in the public that he decided to
make it an annual ship dead. I thought, oh, man,
if nothing else, maybe there would be some ass I
(18:56):
could chase around for an hour or too. Phil was
just balls deep it regrets. I think he wished he
had made this record or didn't make that one wish
he had married this girl and not that one. Like
I said, before I could relate. Okay, yeah, man, I
(19:16):
was arresting something like twelve thirteen times for drugs, arrested
even when the quote unquote drugs I was carrying was
just baking. So man, I did time, pay debts and
repay debts. I've been married ten times at least when
it came to regrets and life choices for me, and
(19:38):
Phil was empatical, you know what I'm saying. When Tina
and I first lit up in the seventies, I took
up a relationship with cocaine at last for years. Someone
told me that ship would make your dick hard for hours,
and that's all I needed here. My dick was hard
for years. Man, what can I say? I like coke?
(19:58):
Man who doesn't like coke? So what do I know?
Maybe Phil had some old roller decks filled with other
guys who had other regrets. I hadn't talked to him
much in a while. No one had talked to him
all that much. But he called me up and told
me to come out to Montrose and we catch up.
He told me he'd send a car to pick me
(20:20):
up some nice stretched job. I waited and waited nothing,
no stretched job. John called him back and I got
his secret terry. She told me to take a cab
and Phil will reimburse me when I got there. Okay, fine,
trying to take the cab. When we pull up at
the place in Montrose and tell the driver paying tight,
(20:42):
someone will come out to pay you. Well. Almost an
hour later, I'm inside enjoying myself, okay, and I find
out that the driver is still sitting outside waiting to
get paid. I say, hey, Phil, I'm not trying to
be ungrateful here, but the cabby is idling outside, and
you said you will for the bill, okay. I mean
some days it was hard for me to string together
(21:03):
a couple of bucks, and this was one of those days.
And Phil says, yeah, yeah, yeah, man, I'll settle up
with the guy. Just enjoy yourself. I'm thinking, okay, when
exactly are you going to settle up with him? And
he turns around and talks to someone else. I'm thinking, okay,
this guy's not getting paid by Phil Spector. Next thing
I know, I'm introducing a friend of mine to Phil,
(21:25):
someone I brought with me to the party, and Phil
is just an asshole man. He doesn't give a ship,
you know, like big fucking whooped. He do works. God
damn man, Phil Man wanted to get out and mingle
with the public again. I don't know that he was ready,
for sure. He wasn't ready. He was rusty. So I'm done.
(21:52):
I leave the party, get back in the cab that's
been sitting there for almost two hours. At this point,
I get back home and make a call to ball
Money to pay for the fact. I pay the driver
with borrowed money. I was so out of my mind
angry at this point, man, angry about it, all the money,
the disrespect. Sure, So then I make another call, this
(22:16):
time to film. I get the machine and I say,
I'm going never the kind to kids ask and I
never will be. You need to take a bong and
look at yourself. I think you're a lonely man that
I've been really sorry for you. I took that car
over there, I didn't at your request, and then I
found myself in an embarrassing position. You'll never guess what
(22:39):
happens next. I get an overturn phone called no personal visit.
But the very next day there's a knock on my door.
I opened it and it's a delivery two dozen roses,
a check from film made out to me for two grand,
and a note that just says thank you for coming me.
(23:03):
No apology, no explanation. All these years later, Man, his
true colors are there still he's still terrified of me.
He pulled that ship with the cab at the party
to funk with me, to funk with me in front
of a bowling alley full of friends and ask kisses.
He knew he was safe there. And then he secretly
(23:26):
sends me that care package at my house, you know,
because he was too afraid to live on my bad side.
I did all that for him. Man brought him Tina,
let him record Tina the way he wanted to record.
Tina stepped aside to let him do his thing. He
(23:50):
made promises that he couldn't keep. And this is what
I got for it, okay, and insult some flowers, a
check and one measily sentence. And that land was the
(24:12):
last time I saw Phil Specter. March Inglewood, California. The
(24:52):
Ellen narcotics agents called it the taj Mahal because it
was grandiose, extravagant, palatial, one of Southern California's Eight Wonders,
the house that Coke built. Ike Turner called it Bollock Sound,
which phonetically called to mind Anna May Bullock a k a.
Tina Turner a k a. Proud Mary, the singer he discovered,
(25:13):
partnered with, and subsequently humiliated and abused behind closed doors.
But now Tina was long gone. She had bailed years ago,
fleeing Ike in Dallas with nothing but the bloody clothes
on her back. It was Tina gone. Ike's music suffered.
In place of music, he turned to drugs, and drugs
kept him very busy, so busy that he left the
(25:35):
trail of cocaine behind him wherever he went. The L
a p. D kept an eye on Ike every time
he came and went. From the taj Mahal, a guitar
player with a bad reputation who recorded with Phil Specter
toward with the Rolling Stones and famously had a hand
in the first ever rock and roll song, using his
studio complex as ground zero for drug dealing and drug doing.
(25:59):
On this day in Mark, l A. Narks brought the
SWAT team with them. They went in through the front door.
The first thing they found was a live hand grenade.
The next thing they found was Ike on his knees
next to the toilet, empty baggies on the floor, the
toilets still running in seven grams of cocaine that he'd
get the flush. I got thirty days in jail in
(26:20):
three years probation. The following year, some port of flammable
liquid down the hallways of the taj Mahal and lit
a match. A few months later, shots rang out in
the middle of the day on Ike's front lawn. I
claimed that the mailman had kicked his dog, and so
he pulled the piece from the back of his pants
(26:41):
and immediately shot him. Ike was cleared in cored of
the assault charge, but more run ins with the police followed.
Arrests for possession, conspiracy to sell, and concealed weapons were
common for Ike in the eighties. Eighty nine, Phil Specter
(27:01):
opened his copy of the Los Angeles Times and the dark,
cold comfort of his law Collina Mansion and wasn't all
that surprised at the first headline that caught his eyes.
Ike Turner arrested on cocaine charges. The article explained the
cops of pulled Dike over in West Hollywood, where he
was driving under the influence of cocaine and unloaded thirty
(27:23):
eight revolver and a pile of rock cocaine sat on
the seat next to him. It wasn't the first time
cops had busted Ike in West Hollywood. Specter knew all
about Likes troubles. He knew a trouble man when he
saw one. He never fully trusted Ike. He and Ike
were too similar. He knew the games that Ike played,
the manipulations, the way he used and abused those closest
(27:44):
to him. Specter knew all about Ike's troubles and ikes
games because they were his troubles and his games too.
Phil Spector folded up the paper and placed it on
the coffee table. He focused his attention back to the stereo,
which was playing I'm Your Man, the new album by
Leonard Cohen. He turned the volume up. The record was
full of synthesizers, and for Specter's taste, it was too
(28:05):
sterile and modern sounding. It made a spectacle of Leonard's voice,
His poetry was caught up in machines. It didn't have
the warmth and the feeling that a Leonard Cohen record deserved.
Specter had given Leonard what he deserved just a decade before,
at least he thought so. Even if the world didn't agree,
even if the world wanted something more modern than Spector
(28:27):
could deliver, Specter saw a kindred spirit and Leonard someone
to get loose with, someone to get crazy with. At
the time in seven Bill Specter was hoping that Leonard
Cohen felt the same way. If he didn't, it's no worry.
Phil Specter had a plan to keep Leonard Cohen loose, crazy,
him by his side for as long as he wanted.
(28:48):
The proof would be there in the pudding in the
Blood on the Tracks. This episode of Blood on the
Tracks is brought to you by twenty seven Club, a
(29:09):
podcast that I host on musicians who died at the
age of Season two, featuring Jim Morrison, is now available,
as is season one with twelve episodes featuring Jimmy Hendrix.
Subscribe to the twenty seven Club on Apple podcast, i
Heeart Radio app or Wherever You Get You podcast, and
of course, this episode was also brought to you by
Disgrace Land, the award winning music and true crime podcast
(29:31):
also hosted by Yours Truly. Episodes on the Rolling Stones
Jerry Lewis, Cardi B, The Grateful Dead, j Z Prince
and many many more are all waiting for you right now.
Just search Disgrace Land on Apple podcast, the I Heart
Radio app, or wherever you give your podcast all right.
This episode of Bought on the Tracks was written by
Zeth Lundi and scored in mixed by Matt Both hosted
(29:54):
by me Jake Brennan. Additional music and score elements by
Ryan Spreaker and Henry Unatt. This episode featured Jeffrey Alkins
is like Turner. Blood on the Tracks is produced by
myself for Double Elvis partnership with I Heart Rate. Sources
for this episode are available at Double Elvis dot com
on the Blood on the Track series page. If you
(30:14):
like it, you hear, please be sure to subscribe the
Blood on the Tracks on Apple podcast, I Heart Radio, Apple,
wherever you get your podcasts, and if you'd like to
win a free Blood on the Tracks poster designed by
Nate Gonzalez and leave a review for Blood on the
Tracks on Apple podcast, you can hashtag Blood on the
Tracks on social media leave you review there. We'll pick
two winners each week announce them on the Double Elvis
(30:36):
Instagram page that's at double Elvis. Go ahead and give
that a fall alright. As always, you can find me
blabbing about other crazy rock stars on Disgrace, Land and Club,
and you can talk to me per usual on Instagram
and Twitter at Disgrace and then Rocking MH tight crazy
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