John Phillips Day
John Edmund Andrew Phillips (August 30, 1935 – March 18, 2001) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and promoter. He is best known as the leader of the vocal group The Mamas & the Papas. He was one of the chief organizers of the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.
In 2009, Phillips’ daughter Mackenzie alleged that she had an incestuous relationship with her father, beginning when she was 19 years old; this account is disputed.
Phillips was born August 30, 1935, in Parris Island, South Carolina. His father, Claude Andrew Phillips, was a retired United States Marine Corpsofficer. On his way home from France following World War I, Claude Phillips managed to win a tavern located in Oklahoma from another Marine during a poker game. His mother, Edna Gertrude (née Gaines), who had English ancestry, met his father in Oklahoma. According to Phillips’ autobiography, Papa John, his father was a heavy drinker who suffered from poor health.