Phil Spector was a complicated guy living in a simple world. When I knew him, he just seemed like a character. In retrospect, of course, he was really, really dangerous.

The way I heard it, Phil was brought in to Warner Bros. Records, and they gave him the roster. They said, "Who do you want to produce?” And he went down the list and said, “Dion.” So he and Gerry Goffin wrote a few songs for me. I went to California. I was willing to give him the reins. I was working with Phil Spector. No matter what I’d heard about him—and even at that point there were plenty of stories, about drugs and alcohol and guns and whatnot—I wanted to do it.