Back in July, HarperCollins announced that Cher's autobiography Cher: The Memoir would be published in two volumes. Their press release stated that this was simply because Cher had lived “a life too immense for only one book.” For a moment we were under the mistaken belief that Cher had made this comment herself, and, if we're honest, we're still a little disappointed this was not the case, because truly that would be a fabulous quote.
Cher, The Memoir, Part One is now with us, and, as expected, it's a lot.
As a taster for what you can expect from the book, let's zoom in on an anecdote revolving around the time that Cher fearlessly and emphatically shut down a gun-wielding Phil Spector.
As a teenager, Cher dipped a toe into the music business as a singer for Spector, who already had a reputation as one of the industry's most talented and in-demand producers. But the pair had a falling out after Spector released a demo recording he'd made with Cher and Harry Nilsson, without obtaining permission from the record labels that the singers were signed to. In her book, Cher says that she went to visit the producer at home to discuss the mater, but found Spector acting “weird”.
“He became agitated and got kind of smart with me - a little too smart, like he was trying to intimidate me,” she recalls. "He told me he could do whatever he wanted. He said our record companies could sue him if they didn’t like it. Then he picked up a revolver that I hadn’t previously noticed lying on the green felt.”
Cher was not in the mood.
She writes: "Staring at him in fury as he twirled it around his fingers, I said, Don’t fuck with me, Phillip! You can’t pull that shit on me, you asshole. This is me, Cher, okay? You’ve known me since I was sixteen and you’re going to try to do this with me? Put that fucking gun down and promise me you’ll never do anything like this shit with my music again, okay?”
Presumably Spector was too gobsmacked to reply, but Cher wasn't hanging around for a response, and recalls that she got “the hell out of there,” unharmed.
On May 29, 2009, Spector was sentenced to 19 years to life for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson in his home. He died in January 2021.
