John Edmund Andrew Phillips (August 30, 1935 – March 18, 2001) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and promoter of the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Phillips was a member and leader of the vocal group The Mamas & the Papas.

Phillips was born August 30, 1935 in Parris Island, South Carolina. His father, Claude Andrew Phillips, was a retired United States Marine Corpsofficer. Claude Phillips, while on his way home from France following World War I, managed, in a poker game, to win a tavern business located in Oklahoma from another Marine. His mother, Edna Gertrude (née Gaines), who had English ancestry, met his father in Oklahoma. According to his autobiography, Papa John, Phillips’ father was a heavy drinker who suffered from poor health.

Phillips was the primary songwriter and musical arranger of The Mamas & the Papas. In a 1968 interview, Phillips described some of his arrangements as “well arranged two-part harmony moving in opposite directions”. After being signed to Dunhill, they had several Billboard Top Ten hits, 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 Journeymen bandmate Scott McKenzie. “San Francisco” is widely regarded as emblematic of 1960s American counterculture music. Phillips wrote the oft-covered “Me and My Uncle“, which was a favorite in the repertoire of the Grateful Dead.

Phillips helped promote and performed with The Mamas & the Papas in the Monterey International Pop Music Festival held June 16 to 18, 1967 in Monterey, California. The festival was planned in just seven weeks and was developed as a way to validate rock music as an art form in the way jazz and folk were regarded. It was the first major pop-rock music event in history.