She inspired us to dream a little dream and make our own kind of music. But behind the scenes, Mama Cass Elliot lived through several nightmares. Why did she actually resent her popular nickname? What injury masked the hurtful judgment she faced by her own band, the Mamas & the Papas? The answers will break your heart.
Here is an up-close look into the personal hardships Cass dealt with along with testimony from her own daughter that definitively answers the question of who Owen’s father was. Without further ado, let’s “Listen to the World” of Cass Elliot.
What vocal range is Cass Elliot?
Folk rock dominated the music scene in the ‘60s, but the Mamas and the Papas still managed to stand out. How? A huge part of that had to do with Cass Elliot’s very unique voice; music buffs can clock her as belonging to the mezzo category, while able to reach soprano. It’s an impressive quality and range that few others could boast at the time.
RELATED: Gone But Not Forgotten: Cass Elliot Lives On Through Her Voice
A popular folk myth says Cass got this vocal range thanks to a brutal accident. The story goes, she was at a club in the Virgin Islands that was under construction. Some workmen dropped a thin metal pipe that hit her on the head hard enough to send her falling. Cass was hospitalized with a concussion and, according to her, started singing way higher.
Cass backs this folk myth, calling it, “true. Honest to God.”
It’s pretty much definitely true Cass was hit on the head before fully joining the Mamas and the Papas; fellow Mama Michelle Phillips would back this part of the story. But recordings of Cass’s voice from before the injury show she already had an impressive voice range – apparently, her range just widened.
But according to Michelle’s sister Russell Gilliam, this whole fantastic tale was covering up something far more painful. You see, while in the Virgin Islands, Cass had been performing a lot with John Phillips, Michelle, and Denny Doherty – but John still dragged his feet about fully recruiting Cass. Russell says John wanted to keep Cass out entirely because of her weight – in fact, John even told Cass outright it was because of her weight.
But when the group became famous, admitting something so hurtful wouldn’t look good for him. So, to save face, the story instead became that she couldn’t hit just the right notes – then that changed when she got hit by a pipe, and that is really why he took so long recruiting her.
Cass’s isolation from her future bandmates ended but the stigma surrounding her appearance stayed with her to the end of her life – and even beyond the grave.
Why didn’t Mama Cass like being called Mama Cass?
Cass walked a life of contradictions throughout her whole career. She lived a lie about her entry to the Mamas and the Papas to just better focus on the present and future. She was a huge part of the harmonies that made The Mamas & The Papas so successful, but Cass admitted she only felt proud of maybe a handful of songs.
On top of that, she didn’t want to get tied down to a folksy image, despite dominating the music genre.
Even before becoming part of the famous quartet, Cass had been associated with the name “mama” and it rubbed at her like sandpaper. She said, quote, “I fought against it all my folk-singing life. Before I was even with The Mamas & the Papas I hated it. Everyone would say, ‘Hey, mama, what’s happening?’ But then The Mamas & the Papas came along and I was stuck with it.”
Although Cass had a hand in choosing the band name, she felt stuck to a name chosen by the public, and all its connotations, She explained, “I never created the Big Mama image. The public does it for you. But I’ve always been different. I got into the habit of being independent, and the habit became a design for living.”
Why did Cass Elliot leave the Mamas and the Papas?
Even though Mamas & the Papas were defined by killer harmonies, they didn’t always synergize off the stage. There was a messy love triangle, for one thing; Cass pined for Denny Doherty, while Doherty had an affair with Michelle. Actually, it was a love… square – because Michelle was married to John. The band also had some legal drama when Cass was charged with stealing some hotel laundry; the court drama meant they canceled some big plans of theirs and Cass, once she was found not guilty, later admitted to pilfering some sheets.
On top of all that, Cass was really worn down by the Big Mama image that plagued her days in the band. By ‘67, the band dissolved, and even though some entertained the idea of a comeback, Cass was ready to move on to the next big thing.
She made her point loud and clear when she built a solid solo career and named her solo album the very instructional “Don’t Call Me Mama Anymore.”
At the end of the day, Cass knew what talent she had, even if sometimes negative voices drowned out everything else. She once said, quote, “I seem to be one of the very few pure singers around nowadays. I think you’ve got to be better vocally if you’ve got nothing else to offer.” She wanted to show that talent to the world on her own terms.
Did Cass Elliot try to lose weight?
Cass Elliot’s weight impacted her recruitment into the Mamas & the Papas, and it drove her to some extreme and unhealthy lengths. She landed a very impressive gig at Caesars Palace, earning $40,000 a week for 3 weeks, two shows every night.
By that point, Cass was around 300 pounds. Of course, a healthy weight can vary a lot, but there are some ways of weight loss that are pretty universally unhealthy and unfortunately, Cass pursued crash dieting. In six months leading up to her show, Cass lost 100 pounds. She ended up having throat problems and a stomach ulcer, and she tried to ease it by drinking milk and cream, which put 50 pounds back on. Cass ended up bedridden for almost a month and lost her voice for a while. This big break ended up with very angry audience members who barely clapped when she finished.
Cass wrote a very chilling piece for Good Housekeeping in 1969, an article called From What A Way To Lose. She pretty much summed it up when she wrote, quote, “The Mama Cass Diet can give you acute tonsillitis, hemorrhaging vocal cords, mononucleosis and a dangerous case of hepatitis. At least that’s what it did for me. I lost my health–and more than a quarter of a million dollars in earnings as a singer.”
Who did Mama Cass have a child with?
Cass dedicated the song “Lady Love” to her little daughter Owen, whom she had on April 26, 1967. By that point, she was at the tail end of her marriage to James Hendricks – the folk musician, not the rockstar guitarist named Jimi. But the thing is, that wasn’t Owen’s father. In fact, Cass made a point of never publicly naming just who the father was.
Fortunately, that mystery would be solved thanks to some help. You see, Cass and Michelle Phillips stayed friends – and their own kids became friends too, with Owen befriending Michelle’s daughter Chynna.
The families saw a lot of each other. Now an adult, Owen remembers swimming in the pool with Chynna while their moms talked. Michelle asked Cass to tell her who exactly Owen’s dad was. Cass promised to tell her when she returned from an upcoming trip. Sadly, they would not get a chance to talk again.
Michelle tried to play detective. At one point, when Cass was no longer around, Michelle, John, and Denny Doherty were in a car together and Michelle mourned not knowing who Owen’s dad was. The two men shared knowing looks; Cass had told them. Michelle finally had her lead: Owen’s father was Chuck Day, a guitarist and baritone singer.
How did Cass Elliot pass away?
Back in April 1974, Cass was supposed to appear on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, but she collapsed just before going onstage. She was treated at the hospital, then released. At the time, Cass wrote it off as exhaustion from doing so many interviews.
But none of that mattered, thanks to some great news.
July was nearing its end, but Cass was feeling more springy than ever the night of the 29th. She called Michelle Phillips with very exciting and very personal news. Finally, possibly for the first time in her whole singing career, she felt like she was making it. She’d just enjoyed two weeks back to back of standing ovations at the London Palladium – and to all those fans, she was Cass Elliot, not Mama Cass. Finally, she was on the road to the career she really wanted! Michelle never heard her sound happier.
Hours later, Cass Elliot died at the age of 32. News broke fast – but it broke pretty harshly too. A pretty well-known forensics expert conducted her autopsy and found there were no drugs in her system, and that Cass Elliot died of a heart attack. But just like the pipe injury story, rumors spread pretty easily, and some headlines said she died choking on a ham sandwich.
According to Cass’s friend, Hollywood Reporter writer Sue Cameron, after she heard Cass died, she called her number and her manager Allan Carr picked up. He allegedly told Sue, quote, “You’ve got to tell them that she died choking on a ham sandwich. You must go to your typewriter and write that. There’s a half of a ham sandwich on her nightstand.” The story went international.
Ironically, the full picture further incriminates the very culture that made claims like that. Cass was no stranger to comments on her weight, from her bandmates and from the media. She’d go onto some TV programs that mocked her, and then she’d hide herself away backstage and cry. “Creeque Alley” has the line, “No one’s gettin’ fat except Mama Cass.” While Michelle was billed as the pretty Mama, Cass risked getting billed as the fat Mama, unless she used humor so she’d be called the funny one.
Ultimately, it’s believed the crash dieting weakened Cass’s heart to the point that it gave out prematurely. There weren’t drugs found in her system, but reports claim her cabinets had been cleared out to protect her reputation and she did experiment with drugs that exacerbated her weakened heart. All to satisfy the masses in a way that killed her far too soon.
Owen wouldn’t get to know her mom for long, but she did know enough to believe wholeheartedly, that she “would want to be remembered for her voice, which was one of the uniquely special sounds of her time. But it’s more than just her singing voice. I think she would want to be remembered for the voice she raised to improve the world around her.” We all owe it to her to remember Cass for exactly this, as a remarkable talent taken too cruelly too soon from the world. The stars are fading, but she lingers on.
What was your favorite tune by the legendary Cass Elliot? What stories surrounding her death have you heard? Get in the comments and share your memories, we read each and every one!
