The Mamas & The Papas’ Cass Elliot Was Subjected To Relentless Body-Shaming, Even In Death

Nearly five decades after Cass Elliot’s passing, the late singer’s music is experiencing a resurgence as a new book explores her life alongside her other The Mamas & the Papas bandmates. In the book, All the Leaves Are Brown: How the Mamas & the Papas Came Together and Broke Apart, Scott G. Shea, a New York Times best-selling author, meticulously detailed the journey of the folk quartet, which consisted of John Phillips, his wife, Michelle Phillips, Denny Doherty, and Cass Elliot.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, the author spoke about the band’s rise to stardom and eventual dissolution. “They were lightning in a bottle,” he told the news outlet. “And the level of dysfunction was incredible. The band was together for a very short period. And when they got a big recording deal and became superstars, they also reached a level of dysfunction and really what I deemed as resting on their laurels.”

Cass Elliot: Mamas & the Papas bandmates body-shamed her

Shea revealed that Elliot was the final addition to the band, but one of the founding members of the group, John Phillips had negative opinions about her appearance and frequently subjected her to body-shaming. Despite his reservations, he had no option but to accept her into the group due to the undeniable beauty of her voice.

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“She rubbed John the wrong way, she was immensely talented. She could sing the shingles off any roof. She had one of the best voices of her generation. And I do think that John, on some level, was jealous of that. And when he put his band together, I think he had a trio in mind,” the author detailed. “He wanted to be the musical cultivator with the handsome lead singer and the beautiful female vocalist… He didn’t feel Cass fit the look. But the thing is, he just didn’t like her. He didn’t want her in his group… I do think there was some lingering resentment there. He was very forceful with her in a way that he wasn’t with the others.”

Cass Elliot did not die choking on a ham sandwich

All through her life, Elliot had always been a subject of mockery due to her weight, thus, it was not surprising that when she died, Sue Cameron, a longtime columnist for The Hollywood Reporter who broke the news of her passing, reported that she choked on a ham sandwich.

However, Shea disclosed that the report was untrue as it only focused on the irrelevant details at the scene. “There was a full autopsy investigation, they found it was heart failure due to a variety of things… She took a lot of LSD, and then she started on heroin. Now, she wasn’t on heroin at that point in her life, but that likely weakened her heart with time. And she was on a lot of yo-yo diets where she would lose 100 pounds, gain it back and lose it again for show business. All of those things together contributed to her heart failure,” he shared. “But even today, her death is a fat joke, and that’s really a shame. It’s cruel. And the record has been set straight hundreds of times. My book is just another one of those things trying to set the record straight.”