The legend himself Jack Douglas (1945-2026) shares stories from five decades of rock history — from producing John Lennon's final album to the memories Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, The Who, and his recent production of Silverplanes.
Topics Include:
- Jack Douglas joins Nate from a snowy driveway, cigar in hand.
- Silverplanes' debut album Airbus is finally releasing after years of delays.
- Jack met Silverplanes' Aaron Smart through his college-age son.
- Aaron turned out to own the Sunset Boulevard studio Jack had worked in.
- Jeff Emerick mixed the album shortly before his sudden death in 2018.
- The pandemic added two more years of delay to the release.
- Jack and Aaron are now label partners with New York real estate billionaire Douglas Durst.
- Their label operates 50/50 with artists — no standard royalty deals.
- Signed artists include Robin Taylor Zander and the Detroit Youth Choir.
- Jack builds songs from a single acoustic guitar performance first.
- Aerosmith was different — built from the band groove up, lyrics last.
- Walk This Way had no lyric until a Young Frankenstein gag unlocked it.
- Jack started his career as a TV composer while janitoring at Record Plant.
- He worked on sessions that became The Who's Who's Next.
- Kit Lambert and Keith Moon were both, politely, out of their minds.
- Jack survived eccentric clients by being reliably sober and crazy simultaneously.
- John Lennon was the easiest artist Jack ever worked with.
- John would say: "I'm the artist, you're the producer — let's work like that."
- Jack engineered Imagine and stayed close to Lennon through the Lost Weekend years.
- He was in and out of the Fame sessions with Lennon and Bowie.
- John told Bowie: "I'm writing you the best hit you'll ever have."
- John knew about — and liked — Aerosmith's cover of "Come Together."
- George Martin gave Jack a flat in Kensington and a Morgan sportscar.
- Jack helped produce Ringo's "Grow Old With Me," hiding Here Comes the Sun in the strings.
- Double Fantasy was secretly recorded at Hit Factory, too far west for fans.
- John wanted a middle-of-the-road record aimed at people aged 28 to 40.
- Earl Slick was kept from rehearsals deliberately — a wildcard for fresh solos.
- Rick Nielsen discovered John's Shea Stadium Rickenbacker with the setlist still taped on.
- Rick later gifted John a custom all-white Rickenbacker, model 001, never cashed his check.
- Cheap Trick's "I'm Losing You" session was thrilling but too edgy for the album.
- Jack hid microphones throughout the sessions, gifting John cassettes on his birthday.
- Jack destroyed the tape of the last day — John had sworn him to secrecy.
- After John's murder, Jack and Yoko listened to vault tapes alone until dawn.
- Yoko later sued Jack; Phil Spector's incoherent testimony and a wig mishap followed.
- Jann Wenner called Jack a nobody — until Jack's lawyer read Wenner's own book aloud.
- The jury was out ten minutes. Jack won millions.
- The 2010 Stripped Down version was mixed in the exact same Record Plant room.
- Live at Budokan was actually Osaka — Budokan tapes were too poorly recorded.
- Jack rebuilt the Osaka drum kit using speaker-driven bass frequencies and filtered signals.
- Aerosmith's Live Bootleg was sent back to Sony unchanged after Jack faked a remix session.
High resolution version of this podcast is available at: www.Patreon.com/VinylGuide
