Though Bill Lee scored his son’s first four movies, they had a falling out shortly after the arrest on drug charges. By 1994, the elder Lee said they had not spoken in two years.
Bill Lee said the problems started with his son’s intolerance of his second marriage. The family feud began in 1976 when Spike Lee’s mother, Jacquelyn died of cancer and Susan Kaplan moved in with Bill.
Spike has been quoted as saying “my mother wasn’t even cold in her grave”. Bad feelings intensified with Jungle Fever, Spike Lee’s film on interracial romantic relationships, as Kaplan was white.
Lee played the bass for artists including Chris Anderson, Cat Stevens, John Lee Hooker and many others.
On the original release of Dylan’s classic song, “It’s Over Now, Baby Blue”, Lee, on the bass guitar, is the only musician performing other than Dylan himself.
Lee was arrested on October 25, 1991, in Fort Greene for carrying a small bag of heroin during a police drug sweep of a park near his home. Lee would later say of his arrest, “I’m glad I was arrested, It woke me up.”