Phil Spector may have held the Ramones at gunpoint (specifically Dee Dee) while recording End of the Century 30 years ago, but Marky Ramone turned up to support his former combative producer on a pivotal day of Spector’s murder retrial.
Trials & Tribulations, a crime blog with daily accounts of the Spector retrial, reported yesterday the prosecution called their final witness, the mother of allegedly murdered actress Lana Clarkson. During her testimony, Clarkson’s mother recounted the last day she spent with her daughter, shopping for shoes and discussing her future film and television aspirations. It is likely the prosecution wanted to dissuade jurors of Spector’s defense that Clarkson had committed suicide.
“[Spector’s girlfriend] Rachelle Short got Spector’s attention at the defense table to let him know [Ramone and another man] showed up to support him today,” Sprocket of Trials and Tribulations writes. “To me, it looked as if it took Spector a while to register who had come to court. Once he did, he smiled at them.”
Ramone has been trying to downplay the gun stories about the recording sessions in Spector’s mansion in 1979 ever since Spector’s arrest. He told NME last year, “[Spector] never held us hostage. We could have left at any time. We had the keys.”