Russ Kunkel Kunkel had a cameo as doomed drummer Eric "Stumpy Joe" Childs in the 1984 film "This Is Spinal Tap". In 2010 Kunkel joined the Troubadour Reunion Tour supporting James Taylor and Carole King. In 1968, Kunkel married singer/songwriter Leah Cohen Kunkel, sister of Cass Elliot (born Ellen Naomi Cohen) of The Mamas and Papas. Following Elliot's death in 1974, Leah was given custody of Cass Elliot's daughter, Owen. The couple also raised their son, Nathaniel, an Emmy Award winning sound engineer. In 1990, Kunkel married singer Nicolette Larson ("Lotta Love"), and the two were married until her death in 1997.
The Mamas & the Papas album "Romance Is on the Rise" (1974) by his then wife Geneviève Waïte, which he also produced; and he co-wrote "Kokomo" (1988), which was a number-one hit for the Beach Boys. Phillips was lost to heroin addiction through much of the 1970s, a period that culminated in his arrest and conviction in 1980 on a charge of conspiring to distribute narcotics, for which he spent a month in jail in 1981. In later years he performed with the New Mamas and the Papas (see below) and appeared in revival shows and television specials. He told his side of the Mamas