R.I.P. Andy Johns, producer and engineer for Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and more

By Marah Eakin  |  April 8, 2013 | 8:55pm
Aux Features Music
R.I.P. Andy Johns, producer and engineer for Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and more
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Andy Johns, a veteran producer and engineer who worked on albums by Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Van Halen, and many more, has died. He was 61. No cause of death has been announced.

Johns—the younger brother of producer and engineer Glyn Johns, and uncle of producer Ethan Johns—was born in England, where he began working as a tape operator at London’s Olympic Studios, where his brother also worked. Before he was 19, he was helping Eddie Kramer produce The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Axis Bold As Love. He would go on to produce dozens of records on his own, including many by Humble Pie, Free, and L.A. Guns. He also produced Television’s excellent 1977 record Marquee Moon.

Beginning in the late ‘60s Johns also started engineering records for some of the music industry’s biggest successes, including Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin III, Led Zeppelin IV, Houses Of The Holy, Physical Graffiti, Coda), Jethro Tull (Stand Up, Living In The Past), and Rod Stewart (Foot Loose And Fancy Free, Blondes Have More Fun). He also worked with The Rolling Stones on several records including Sticky Fingers, Goats Head Soup, and It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll, and traveled with the band to the south of France, where he engineered Exile On Main St.

In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s he worked mostly with metal or hard rock acts and produced several records by Cinderella and Joe Satriani, as well as Bon Jovi’s 1994 soundtrack for The Cowboy Way, Good Guys Don’t Always Wear White. He also produced Chickenfoot’s 2009 self-titled debut.

 
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