John Phillips formed the Mamas & the Papas in 1965 and wrote many of the band's greatest hits, but when the group broke up just three years later, his substance abuse overtook his life.
Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix / Alamy Stock PhotoJohn Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas outside of his Bel Air home in 1969.
Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, John Phillips was considered one of the leading figures of the folk-rock movement. One of the four members of the Mamas & the Papas, Phillips was responsible for some of the biggest hits of the 1960s, establishing a musical legacy that lasted a lifetime.
Unfortunately, that is not all John Phillips is remembered for today.
Phillips led a turbulent life, one that was marred by substance abuse, relationship troubles, and a controversy that would haunt him long after his death: his relationship with his daughter Mackenzie.
Although he may have written some of the most beloved folk harmonies of the ’60s, the mark Phillips left on the world is much, much darker.
John Phillips’ Early Life And Musical Beginnings
John Edmund Andrew Phillips was born on Aug. 30, 1935, in Parris Island, South Carolina. That very week, his namesake — Hurricane John — struck the southeastern United States. The wild storm would prove to be an apt metaphor for John Phillips’ life.
Phillips’ father, Claude, was a U.S. Marine Corps officer who had “developed a passion for gambling, booze, women, and camaraderie among his Marine buddies,” as Phillips wrote in his 1986 autobiography, Papa John. “He would drink his whiskey and play cards and show off his soulful Irish tenor to blow off steam. His voice brought tears to people’s eyes.”
Public DomainJohn Phillips in 1967, the year before the Mamas & the Papas disbanded.
Claude reportedly struggled with feelings of uselessness after the end of his military career, which resulted in frequent drunken fits and foul moods. Meanwhile, Phillips’ mother, Edna, ran a dress shop and spent time out of the house. “Every morning, she’d leave the bottle [of Four Roses] there for him, and he’d head down to the dark, dank cellar and just drink himself into a stupor every day for months at a clip,” Phillips recalled of his father. “It was like I didn’t really have a father much of the time.”
The family eventually moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where John discovered some of his early musical influences, mostly traditional folk and doo-wop harmonies. After high school, he briefly attended Hampden-Sydney College and later enrolled at the U.S. Naval Academy, seemingly ready to follow in his father’s footsteps. In the end, though, this life didn’t hold his interest.
“The truth was that the only thing that I had enjoyed about college anyway was playing guitar and singing for people,” Phillips reflected in his autobiography. “And I could do that anywhere.”
So, John Phillips made his way to New York City to pursue a career in music.
The Rise And Fall Of The Mamas & The Papas
In New York, Phillips formed a folk trio called The Journeymen with Scott McKenzie and Dick Weissman. They produced three albums together and achieved a moderate amount of success, but they split in 1964 due to interpersonal troubles and America’s changing taste in music. Phillips quickly moved on to his next project: the Mamas & the Papas.
The band formed in 1965 and was composed of Phillips, his wife Michelle, Canadian singer Denny Doherty, and vocalist “Mama” Cass Elliot. Right from the start, though, relationships within the group were messy.
Public DomainThe Mamas & the Papas only performed from 1965 to 1968, with a brief reunion in 1971.
Phillips had only recently divorced his first wife, Susan, with whom he had a son named Jeffrey and a daughter named Mackenzie. They’d separated after Phillips met 17-year-old Michelle while on tour with The Journeymen and started an affair. John and Michelle Phillips wed on Dec. 31, 1962 — when John was 27 and Michelle was 18.
However, there was also an undeniable chemistry between Michelle Phillips and Denny Doherty that created “two and a half years of total melodrama,” as Michelle explained to Vanity Fair in 2007. Michelle and Denny soon began an affair of their own. To make matters more complicated, Cass Elliot was “madly in love” with Denny Doherty, though the feelings were unrequited. And Phillips was understandably upset that his wife was sleeping with his friend and band mate behind his back. That wasn’t the only issue in their relationship, though.
“I ended up in the hospital,” Michelle once recalled of a fight she and Phillips had. “That’s all I’ll say about it.”
Even as the Mamas & the Papas put out hits like “California Dreamin’,” “Monday, Monday,” and “Words of Love,” their behind-the-scenes drama and Phillips’ drug use continued to ramp up tensions within the group. Eventually, after just a few years of stardom, the band broke up in 1968.
John Phillips had wanted total control, both in his relationship and in the band, and it tore them all apart. That was hardly the end of Phillips’ challenges, though.
John Phillips’ Controversial Relationship With His Daughter
Throughout his life, John Phillips was married four times and fathered multiple children. His first daughter, Mackenzie Phillips, was an actress and singer in her own right, and she seemed to have everything going for her.
Image Press/Getty ImagesJohn and Mackenzie Phillips in New York City circa 1981.
Unfortunately, her life was marked by many of the same problems that had plagued her father, including drug abuse.
John Phillips died of heart failure on March 18, 2001, in Los Angeles. He was 65 years old. For many people, his death was the final note of his life’s song. His legacy as a musical genius was firmly established. Nothing, it seemed, would change that.
Then, nearly a decade after his death, Mackenzie Phillips published her 2009 memoir, High on Arrival, which detailed her own struggles growing up in the limelight. More shocking, however, was the accusation that she had been involved in a decade-long incestuous relationship with her father that began when she was 19.
“I loved my father and I still do,” she wrote in High on Arrival. “But he was not a man with boundaries. He was full of love, and he was sick with drugs. He drew me to him and pushed me away… Your father is supposed to protect you, not f—k you.”
It began, Mackenzie claimed, when her father flew to Florida to stop her from getting married. That night, she and John Phillips “got high on downs,” and she passed out in his bed. When she came to, he was on top of her.
Other members of the family were concerned that if Mackenzie said anything, it would drag “the family name through the mud.” In the end, they determined that, while terrible, the incident should be forgotten about and tucked away. Months later, she spoke to her father directly and said, “Dad, we have to talk about how you raped me.”
ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock PhotoMackenzie Phillips alleged that her father sexually abused her for a decade.
“Raped you?” he allegedly replied. “You mean when we made love?”
Mackenzie Phillips later explained that the sexual abuse from her father only ended after she became pregnant and he paid for her to have an abortion, 10 years after that first incident. Some of Mackenzie’s half-siblings defended their father, saying that he was not the sort of person who would do that. However, Chynna Phillips, the daughter of John and Michelle, stood by her half-sister. So did Denny Doherty’s daughter, who claimed that the other “Papa” knew of the incestuous relationship for years and kept quiet.
Given that John Phillips had been dead for nearly a decade when the memoir was released, he was never able to respond to the allegations. Regardless, they certainly complicated the legacy he left behind.
After reading about John Phillips’ tumultuous life, learn about the poet Ted Hughes and his own controversial life. Or, go inside the story of the once-renowned composer Antonio Salieri — and the accusations that he killed Mozart.
