GRAMMY-nominated and Juno Award-winning producer and composer with a diverse career spanning various genres. He has worked with renowned artists such as Kris Kristofferson, Billy Joel, Michael McDonald, Vince Gill, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, B.B. King, Gloria Estefan, Johnny Mathis, Dan Hill, and many more. In celebration of his 60th anniversary as a musician and nearly 50th anniversary in the music industry, he has just released a book titled, “Unplugged: Stories and Secrets from a Life Making Records, Scoring Film, and Working with the Legends of Music,” which is available in hardcover, paperback, eBook, and, of course, as an audiobook, with him doing the narration. His Disney album work as producer/artist in the children's music realm has reached sales of over three million units and he is Disney's most successful instrumental lullaby album artist. He was the guest on this show on both Episode 412 and 474.
“Fortunately for me I keep working. I love what I do so much and still have the same amount of passion for producing artists and making their dreams come true in the studio.”
“The most recent project I'm on right now is the new Jimmy Webb album, and I've worked with Jimmy since 1978, and I've done seven albums with Jim, and I think he’s America's most important songwriter and has been for all these years.”
“AI is changing so rapidly and growing so rapidly that literally what was AI last week is not AI this week. And what's happened, of course, is a great concern. There's now apparently over a million tracks on Spotify that are completely robot AI-generated music that has nothing to do with any human creativity.”
“I did say to myself, I think I can write a book, which I guess on some levels was probably a terrible mistake because it means I had to write the book.”
“I'm a good guitarist. I'm a good drummer. I'm a good keyboard player. I can keep up with the big boys and I've always been a musician first so … there's different kinds of producers and I'm a musician/arranger/producer, so I bring that side of things more than let's say an engineer/producer or someone who doesn't at all play an instrument or knows how to arrange and so it absolutely makes a huge difference in the way I work.”
“You know I can do really good background parts and harmony and stuff and I can sing … certain kinds of material. My voice is sort of almost Art Garfunkel-esque… it doesn't really grab you and when I work with the great singers it's very apparent to me that … my gifts, we’re different. I get to work with great singers and make them sound even better in the studio. And that's a delight and I don't feel in any way envious. I just feel like I've got my thing covered.”
“In those days you got record sales royalties, which on the Dan Hill project were very substantial. And they were in the pipeline and then we found out right around the time they were supposed to come in that GRT had gone bankrupt. And… we found out that our Dan Hill royalties from the records that had been sold were now trapped in the bankruptcy. And we never saw – I must have lost over the next bunch of years at least a million dollars in royalties.”
“I also felt really compelled to give some lessons here and the first lesson is don't spend your money till it's in the bank, and especially in show business.”
“I was fortunate enough to go to their home and to work in Bruce's home studio and… luckily had some time with Bruce (Springsteen) and he was really just a lovely guy and we talked a lot about the music, and I think he's one of the greatest in the history of modern music. I think he's probably, in my opinion has been always, probably the greatest rock performer in the history of rock for sure.”
“I found myself being asked to be a part of Walt Disney records as an artist and producer for different projects for young children.”
“I introduced myself and Willie (Nelson) shook my hand and Willie just said, ‘Where's the mic?’ He didn't even say, ‘Great to meet you.’ … he seemed lovely but the first thing he says, ‘Where's the mic’?”
“You've got to believe in yourself completely. You really have to have a single-mindedness that you want to have a life in music.”
“Hurt So Bad”
“You Just Missed Me”