John Phillips

The mastermind behind the Mamas and the Papas, one of the most popular music groups of the late 1960s, John Phillips was a singer-songwriter-producer whose early hits, marked by golden harmonies and lyrical sophistication, were largely undone by a life ruined by drug addiction. He emerged from the folk music scene of the early 1960s to partner with Canadian singer Denny Doherty, brassy New Yorker Cass Elliot and teenaged second wife Michelle Phillips to form the group that went on to earn chart-topping hits with the sun-dappled beauty of songs like "Monday, Monday" and "California Dreamin'." But their fresh-faced appeal hid an emotional tumult within the group that tore them apart by 1968. Phillips would dive headlong into addiction in the years that followed before a 1981 conviction for trafficking sent him into sobriety. He marked his final years by performing with new versions of the Mamas and Papas, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. After his death in 2001, Phillips became the focus of a gruesome accusation by his daughter, Mackenzie Phillips of "One Day at a Time" (CBS, 1975-1984) fame, who alleged that he had conducted an incestuous affair with her for years. The story was yet another black mark on a music career marked by incredible successes and the darkest of failures.