Spector ‘not his usual self’ before mansion death

A FORMER girlfriend of Phil Spector testified that the music producer “was not his usual self” during a dinner date hours before actress Lana Clarkson was shot dead at his California mansion.

Rommie Davis said at Spector’s murder trial that she was concerned about him because he was drinking and taking medication, calling it a “lethal combination”.

After the dinner, authorities say Spector met Ms Clarkson at a nightclub and asked her to accompany him to his home.

She was found dead on February 3, 2003, with a gunshot through her mouth. The defence says she shot herself.

During testimony in Los Angeles yesterday, Ms Davis said she and Spector, who were high school classmates, dined out all three nights of the weekend leading up to Ms Clarkson’s death and Spector’s behaviour concerned her.

“I was very concerned about him,” she said.

“He was not his usual self. He was not interested in what I had to say. In all the time I went out with him, he was great fun to be with. This weekend, the behaviour was totally different.”

On cross-examination, Ms Davis said she did not remember whether Spector finished both drinks he ordered and could not tell whether he was drunk. She said she never saw him in possession of a gun and that he had never threatened her.

Spector, 67, rose to fame in the 1960s and ’70s, and is credited with changing rock music with what became known as the Wall of Sound recording technique.

Ms Clarkson was best known for her role in Roger Corman’s 1985 film Barbarian Queen.