Charles Manson seeks career guidance from Phil Spector

Convicted cult leader Charles Manson has reached out to convicted music producer Phil Spector, suggesting that the two jailbirds collaborate on pop songs. Both men are serving life sentences in central California's Corcoran State Prison.

Manson contacted Spector shortly after the producer arrived, dispatching a guard with a note. "[Manson] said he wanted him to come over to his [cell]," Spector's wife, Rachelle, said. "He said he considers Philip the greatest producer who ever lived."

Certainly Manson has a right to an opinion. Though his clan, the Manson Family, are known as killers, they were also conceived as a music group. Before launching the murder conspiracy that killed Sharon Tate, Manson and his followers recorded songs with the Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson. Terry Melcher, who produced the Byrds' Turn, Turn, Turn, was another acquaintance – and a target – of the group.



Spector managed to avoid the Manson Family, mixing instead with the Supremes, Ike and Tina Turner, and Manson's beloved Beatles.

"I think Manson wants to glean some musical advice from Phil, who was a 60s music god with his 'Wall of Sound,'" Spector's publicist Hal Lifson said. "Phil's like, 'I used to pick up the phone and it was John Lennon or Celine Dion or Tina Turner, and now Charles Manson is trying to get a hold of me!'"

And even though Spector must serve at least 19 more years for the murder of Lana Clarkson, he is still not interested in a Manson team-up. "It was creepy," Rachelle Spector said. "Philip didn't respond."