LOS ANGELES – For all the hit songs he drove up the charts, for all the power and wealth he amassed, for all the admiration he drew as he rearranged the pop music landscape, there was a darkness deep in Phil Spector’s soul that would forever shadow his genius.

Even as anthems such the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” and the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin” erupted from radios across America, the acclaimed record producer was a brooding, manic man with a white-hot temper and a fondness for gunplay, all of which would manifest itself on a winter morning in 2003 when he fatally shot actress and nightclub hostess Lana Clarkson in the foyer of his castle-like mansion in Alhambra.

Dispatched to prison after being convicted of second-degree murder, Spector died Saturday while in custody in a Northern California hospital where he was being treated, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He was 81, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Spector was hospitalized after becoming ill with COVID19, said a source familiar with his medical condition who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Before he was transferred to a hospital, Spector had been an inmate at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton, which specializes in housing medically vulnerable people with existing health conditions, the corrections department said.

“It’s a sad day for music and a sad day for me,” said Ronnie Spector, the producer’s former wife and muse. “The magical music we were able to make together was inspired by our love. I loved him madly and gave my heart and soul to him.”

But Ronnie Spector added: “Unfortunately Phil was not able to live and function outside of the recording studio. Darkness set in. Many lives were damaged.”

Before his death, the 81-year-old was housed in a prison health care facility for the state’s sick and mentally ill inmates. Sources told TMZ that he died of complications from COVID-19.

Story Date: January 20, 2021