John Edmund Andrew Phillips

 John Edmund Andrew Phillips (August 30, 1935 – March 18, 2001)

He was a singer, guitarist, songwriter, and promoter, most notably of the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, a landmark event of the counterculture era and the Summer of Love. Known as Papa John, Phillips was a member and leader of the vocal group The Mamas & the Papas. The group had several hit songs, had including "California Dreamin'", "Monday, Monday", "I Saw Her Again", "Creeque Alley", and "12:30 (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon)". John Phillips also wrote "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)", in 1967 for former The Journeyman band mate, Scott McKenzie. John and his wife Michelle Phillips became Hollywood celebrities, living in the Hollywood Hills and socializing with stars such as Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, and Roman Polanski. The Mamas & the Papas broke up in 1968 largely because Cass Elliot wanted to go solo and because of some personal problems among Phillips, his wife Michelle, and Denny Doherty, including his wife's affair with Doherty. It was because of these personal issues, that the band ultimately split. Phillips released his second solo album John, the Wolf King of L.A. in 1970. The album was not commercially successful, although it did include the minor hit "Mississippi", and Phillips began to withdraw from the limelight as his use of narcotics increased.In 1981, Phillips was convicted of drug trafficking; subsequently, he and his television star daughter Mackenzie Phillips made the rounds in the media in an anti-drug campaign, helping to reduce his prison time to only a month in jail, of which he spent three weeks (one week off for good behavior) at Allenwood Prison Camp, Allenwood, Pennsylvania. Upon his release, he re-formed The Mamas & the Papas with Mackenzie Phillips, Spanky McFarlane (of the group Spanky and Our Gang) and Denny Doherty.

Throughout the rest of his life, Phillips toured with various incarnations of this group. His years of drug addiction resulted in health problems that required a liver transplant in 1992.On March 18, 2001, he died of heart failure in Los Angeles at the age of 65, days after completing recording sessions for a new album. Phillips 66 was released posthumously in August 2001. He is interred at Forest Lawn (Cathedral City) near Palm Springs.