Lady Gaga to the Rolling Stones: Andrew Watt's Studio Secrets
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I'm Brian Hyatt. This is Rolling Stone Music Now. Last week, I sat down in New York's Bowery Hotel with Andrew Watt, one of the hottest producers in music right now.

His work on the Rolling Stones album Hackney Diamonds just won a Grammy, and he's up for an Oscar for a song he did with Brandi Carlile and Elton John, who also have a joint album coming out that he produced. Andrew is also executive producer of Lady Gaga's upcoming new album Mayhem, including the Bruno Mars duet Die With a Smile that spent a lot of time at number one. He's worked with Post Malone, Ozzy Osbourne, with Eddie Vedder on his solo album Earthling, and on Pearl Jam's latest album,

among many other projects. So there's a lot to talk about. Here's my interview with Andrew Watt. We've now determined that you are so addicted to the studio that the very sight of sunlight makes you sneeze. You've developed an allergy. I have. I have developed an allergy to the sun. That is true. I want to start by saying I've seen the trailer to the film that's coming out about the Brandi Carlile and Elton John album that you produced.

And I've seen Elton John yelling at you in this clip. And it brings up a lot about the world that you're in right now, which is that your job on any given day might entail not only Elton John yelling at you, but Elton John yelling at you on film. So what's it like to do that? What I enjoyed about that clip is I realized

I realized in my most vulnerable moments is the most Jewish I've ever looked. Elton, you're so impatient. My hands are going in the air. I literally sound like my mom. So that was funny for me to see. You know, part of being a producer, I think, is creating an environment for geniuses to get to the end zone. You know, it's like...

in that moment I remember watching and going back to it watching Elton work is like watching Mozart compose and there's so much up there and if he has a roadblock at any point or something's not right or he can't hear or the thing's coming out it kind of just comes out of him in a way that he honestly can't control he's one of my closest friends I talk to him a hundred times a day I you know talk to him as much as I talk to my family at this point he is family and I think in that moment that was captured he

He was just frustrated with himself. Yeah. He wasn't frustrated with me. It was at a very stressful time for him. So we watch that together now and cry laughing because it's honestly funny. He knows he's ridiculous. And after that very day, he actually came in with like a gift for me, a necklace. He was like,

I was a cunt yesterday, you know, and gave me a hug. It's just kind of, if you're in the war path, you're in the fucking war path. How often does it get that intense? I mean, you're working with heavy hitters. I mean, every project has its own level of intensity and I can be pretty intense on myself as well. So I understand, you know, when you're working with a newer artist,

You're trying your best to come up with something with them that can like do what they want and serve their fan base or open them up to new fans. When you're working with someone that's already established, you're trying just to not let down those fans. So that's the pressure that I feel on myself, not let down the people that have been with them

their whole journey. Like when I was making the Rolling Stones album, the thing I kept saying to myself every day was, I can't be the one that makes the worst Rolling Stones album. That just can't be on me. Doesn't have to be the best. Doesn't have to be, can't even dream about being in those, you know, early ones. Like it's not possible, but it just can't be the worst. That's what I could tell myself. I think we actually did a lot better than that.

I think you did. The Grammy's agreed. Congratulations on that. Thank you so much. Yeah, it's a big deal. One thing I was surprised at is, you know, it's interesting. Like, I get it on one level. Some rock fans were anxious for, you know, new rock bands to get the recognition. We're actually mad that the Stones got recognized. They're like, can't we move on from this? And it's like, on one hand, personally, I can be like, okay, I sort of see where you're coming from. But on the other hand, if the Rolling fucking Stones make a great album, why

Why not honor them? But I do kind of see where they're coming from. I don't know how much of that you saw. That's really awesome that you bring that up. And I kind of like tried to not, you know, be part of that conversation. But just reflecting on what you just said, take me out of it, right? Let's pretend like you and I are clearly big rock fans both. Let's pretend someone else made this album with them, right? And I'm not a part of it. They are in there.

They're 82 and 83 years old. They were 80 when they made this album. Tell me another band ever in history that has made a latter day album that good in their 80s. Right. That with that level of songwriting, that level of performance, fuck the production. I'm pressing record. You know what I mean? And then making sure it sounds like they're playing, singing, writing, performing their asses off. You can't tell me another band that has ever made an album in their 80s that

that is that good. And the reason you can't tell me that is because rock and roll is not that old. They are the blueprint of a rock and roll band. They're the only band that's still together from that time. And they made an album that was very important for them. And I think very important for the genre. I mean, it is important to note, I mean, and at every step of the way, they've been the first boot in the ground, you know? And so now they're the first boot in the ground to be like, we can make

you know, not only a great record in our eighties, but like a great, super energetic rock album. I mean, it's almost honestly people should, I think, appreciate that it's almost supernatural. That's what I was trying to say. It gives you faith in like the human race in human beings in like what a human being could be capable of. Right. Yeah. I mean, you know, Jagger is Michael Jordan level. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's,

It's unbelievable. That is an athlete. Mick warned you that he liked your energy and enthusiasm. At the same time, he warned you that with Keith, you might want to keep it down a bit. How did that dynamic of keeping it down and yet trying to do your thing work with Keith? Clearly it worked. I'd say the most magic moment of the album for me, being a guitar player, and we just talked about guitars as you were setting up, was doing guitar overdubs with Keith, you know, and like really getting into that stuff. And this

this process is results based. And so it's not really about talking with Keith. It was more about getting results, a great guitar sound, understanding how to pick up a guitar and like him show me what open G is and be able to kind of play with him that way and just communicate through the guitar or up here, down here, try this, or maybe at this fret. It was just like we were talking music instantly and having jams every once in a while between takes and it's,

The love of music, the genuine just love of music and playing was what Keith and I bonded over. And guitar collections and stuff like that. And he could tell just from inception point how much I loved the band and the Stones. And he was so cool about telling me stories once he opened up and everything. And I would say that was like the most informative process of my life. Deep knowledge.

those guys have and teaching me stuff about the history of music and just stories and how records were made. And I remember Keith and I were having this conversation about mono, recording in mono versus recording in stereo. And like, that was another thing also I talked with Paul McCartney about all the time. He was like, when the Beatles first recorded, he's telling me this in the studio, there was one speaker. Like,

Like, that's not something you comprehend. Like, you go into a studio, you got two speakers. It's stereo. You get it. You put it on the left, you put it on the right. When they heard that they were going to get to record in stereo and they saw two speakers in the studio, he told me him and John were jumping for joy. They're like, yes, it's twice as loud. Like, they thought it was twice as loud. And when Keith was telling me the next story I was about to tell you, I was reminded of that story Paul told me and I was kind of talking to him about that. And he said, Keith said, when they had to do their first album in stereo,

they just took the mono mix and put it on the left and put it on the right. Like they just stereo, they couldn't comprehend what stereo was. That's how long they've been recording. That's how long they've been crafting and making records and breaking the rules and, and coming up with these sounds. So to be around musicians of that caliber and just watch their process and take it in and learn and is unbelievable. Watching Keith fill out the whole sonic picture of what,

a Rolling Stones song should be guitar wise and the droning notes and all that stuff. Watching Paul arrange background vocals on a piano, watching Mick listen to a vocal and decide he's singing too well. Instead, he's going to go in and throw it away more. So it just sounds like nastier and dirtier. Like that's like a level of master, you know? Yeah. And you get to, even while you're working with them, you get to sit there and let them be Yoda and let them teach you things that you can carry forward for the rest of your career. It's college. Yeah. Yeah.

And I'm there to give my opinion and to offer suggestions or offer nothing and just record, right? But I try to always kind of remind myself, they can make this record without you. They're choosing to make it with you because they want your opinion. They want your taste. They want a partner to bang their heads against. And it's my job to offer what I'm feeling in the moment and try and forget about the history and...

focus on what I'm hearing at that current moment. This is a mini meditation guided by Bombas.

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We'll be right back.

I think Mick said there's a bunch of stuff left over. Probably not.

from the sessions, like enough for another record. Do you have any sense of what, if anything's going to happen with all that stuff? Um, it was a prolific time for the band, those sessions. They had amassed like 18 years of material. Yeah. You know, there was so much to go through and there was so much to,

Yeah.

they enjoyed making that album. They enjoyed the tour. They were all so happy about the Grammy. There's more material left. I can't tell you if it's going to happen or not. It's up to them, but it would be great. Why not finish the material? You know? Yeah. From your, from your perspective. Yeah. Yeah. They just pulled the plug on a European tour. I mean, do you have any insight into that? I don't, but I, uh, I hope to see them play again. Cause it's so much fun. And now I get a backstage pass. So, uh,

So the other Grammy you won was for this Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga collaboration that is currently holding down number one. We hold you just for love and time.

My first thought about that is I was wondering whether that's the first song to have live drums at number one on the Billboard Top 200 in the past like 15 years. That's such a good question. That can't possibly be. It can't be, but I just offhand, I was wondering because it does... Drums sound good on that song, right? They do sound... And also, I don't know, I can't say for sure. You'll tell me whether it was really live drums or just real drums, you know,

Played in... No, no, no. It's live. Everything on that song is live. Wow. That was the process. And while that song was getting mixed, while we were mixing that song, it was very important to both the artists that stayed really live and really nice to listen to loud. You know, none of it's pumping or compressed. It's like really breathes. Yeah. Everything in that song is live. Wow. Yeah.

And there's a few keyboards and stuff like that, but a lot of drums, live bass, live guitars, live vocals, like listening to them sing, you know, it's raw. I mean, that is, whether it's the only one, let's face it, it is a very cool anomaly at the top of the charts in 2025. It's kind of amazing. I think it's part of, I've been talking to people a lot about this, that just, there does seem to be a hunger for something completely different in pop music right now. And it's no, it's no coincidence that

Like alongside that is the rise of AI and stuff. There's, you know what I mean? It's like, people are like, okay, computers are getting so good that they can kind of do this other stuff. What's the realest rawest thing that it can't do? I think, you know, even Beyonce actually said the exact same thing about Cowboy Carter is that one of the reasons that she was drawn to live instruments right now is because of exactly what you said. So that's definitely something in there. Awesome. I think,

Yeah.

Yeah, I remember Gaga saying like, like once when she was listening to it, and it was like, she's like, it reminds me like James Taylor, Carly Simon, like kind of world. So it's funny that that that you say that. Yeah, you know, I think what makes it a modern record instantaneously is that it's Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga. Right? Yeah.

And that's something that I think people get caught up in when doing production, you know? Oh, how do we make this so cutting edge and how do we get it to be so it's something no one's ever heard before? Like, that was not necessary here. It's just a great song, right? And it's two classic voices, two once-in-a-generation artists together on a song. So...

identifiable, both of their vocal tones. It's like the song could have just been Bruno's guitar and Lady Gaga's piano and their vocals, and you probably would have liked it just as much. That's the focus of the song. Everything else there is just subtle and there to support it. So it's going to be on Gaga's album. Was it originally part of the sessions for her album, or was it a Lucy that then became part of her? It was always intended for her album. Yeah. In the process of

everything happening, it just kind of happened that they were kind of like drawn to each other to collaborate. That was someone that like Gaga and both Bruno are like, they have this deep, deep musical respect for each other. And they're kind of started at similar times and, you know, in music and everything. And they've kind of been having journeys kind of through this industry at the same time. So it's just a really natural thing. You could feel when those kinds of collaborations are not,

natural too when it just feels like you just stuck two people together you know that was an organic um inception kind of moment was it always that song did they play with other songs like yeah it was that song yeah and just yeah tell me i mean tell me a little bit more about like the day it was recorded how they broke down their parts how it all kind of happened

It was a really long day and night. And we went to the studio with Gaga and Bruno was there with James Fontenoy and they just started kind of playing together and playing, you know, song was taking life and kind of playing together. And Gaga wrote out all the chords and all the changing bass notes so that she could know what she was going to play. And Bruno was on the guitar and they kind of just started breaking down the song together and really like,

like singing together and kind of organically arranging their harmonies. And like, just, it was like important for it to get played in the room first and feel like a real song. Like I was first kind of explaining it to you. And then it was just kind of one of those magic nights that you never wanted to end. No one was looking at the clock. And before you knew it, it was, we were getting into the wee hours. And then, I mean, you know, well, I guess,

what I was going to ask is I think your collaboration with Gaga began with the Stones album. Yes. It's really interesting because, you know, someone could have said, you know, you're taking this as someone who was a pop producer and you took this detour into like becoming the guy for these classic rock revivals and someone could say, oh, what are you doing? You're getting away from the, you know, what you were doing. It just shows that it, it,

it led you back to one of the biggest pop stars of all time. That's really interesting. That's cool. That's your, your take on it. Um, you know, I've been rock whisperer or whatever, like, you know, another press that I've done before. Um, it's not something that I ever think about like that. I genuinely am following my heart, you know, and I'm so lucky for opportunities to be around musicians on that level. And I'm 34 years old. I was born in 1990. So I had a computer at a young age. I had napkins.

Napster and LimeWire and all the, and then iTunes, all this stuff, right? So I was listening to Led Zeppelin and the Beatles and Wu-Tang Clan and the Backstreet Boys on the same day. Right, right. So I love all different types of music. So it really makes it interesting and fun when you,

get to hop around genres. Otherwise, I feel like I'd wear myself out, you know? I'm definitely physically tired. You know, creatively and mentally, I'm so inspired. We did Stones, Pearl Jam, then the Brandy Elton album, and then into getting to work with Lady Gaga was a completely different type of music. It was so exciting and fun and

We were dancing all the time and it was, you know. So yeah, I've been in this studio with Gaga and it's very fun in my memory for back in Born This Way era when she was finishing that record. Yeah. Just the couple of days I did, I was like, this is the atmosphere she creates of kind of like fearlessness and creativity and inclusiveness. Yeah. That is the word. Absolutely fearless from everything, vocally, especially just going for it. Like absolutely.

immediately going for it and will do it again and again and again until she knows that it's the forever you know you just gotta get out of the way she's also like you know she'll be on at least in my experience like she's on EQ settings down to like the smallest thing like she hears everything she's a exceptional producer so it was awesome to be around that in

and collaborating. But I actually interrupted your story. So she obviously, she collaborated on the one, on the really incredible song. That was, that story of that song was not really talked about that much, but it was pretty insane what happened. She, I believe, was in the studio working on the Joker music. And she had heard Mick was in the studio. We were at Henson Studios in LA and wanted to say hi. So she stopped by. And then,

the day she stopped by, we were recording this song called Sweet Sounds of Heaven, which has Stevie Wonder on it. So she walked into the studio and Stevie Wonder and the Stones were jamming. Like, that's what she walked into. And we came into the control room and she was there. We all said hi. We were listening down to this song. And it was just this really natural thing of like, the control room was so small and the live room was so big. Just come into the live room. And then before she knew it, she was sitting on the ground and Mick...

She was kind of humming along. So then we got her a microphone and Mick handed her lyrics. And again, that word fearless, like she walked into a song. She was in the hallway, walking to the studio 20 seconds before that, not even knowing that anything like this even existed. And less than 10 minutes later, she's singing something that she's never even heard before and finding her way through it and something that the band had never recorded before.

So she was part of like the inception of that going from like just a little demo to a record. She became part of the record and it was probably the most magical day ever. Yeah. And super, super, again, old school in the best way, which is that's how those collaborations used to happen. Yeah. When they cut their vocals, there was a piece of glass between them and they were literally staring at each other.

and going at each other. Like it was like she became Mary Clayton in that moment. They were just separated by glass and she was watching his mouth and he would go, oh yeah, oh yeah. You know, they would just bounce off each other. It was insane. I hear the sweet sound, the sweet sound.

And so how did that lead to you on the album then, on her album? I think we just had a lot of fun with that. And it just was a natural kind of progression.

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And, you know, there's more to come. I can't wait to hear the whole thing. We've heard, I guess, three songs. Abracadabra is, I think it might be at number two right behind the other song. I'd have to check. Abracadabra.

That is such a great Gaga song and such a kind of a return to the most core kind of thing that she does, but without feeling like a rehash, which is the hardest thing to do. I'm just curious about that one coming together. How good is the video? And the video and the choreography is insane. Insane. Unbelievable. As always with the best stuff she does, it feels like one thing, you know? The vision. Yeah.

I don't know if you feel this way, but for me, just in general, I'm always like, if I love a song and I watch the video, it either is just like, all right, that was okay. Right. Or when it's unbelievable, it just takes the song to another stratosphere. It's very rarely that a video is so bad that you're like, this ruins the song for me. That almost never happens. Right. So it's usually just like, okay, that video was okay. Or like, I enjoyed that because I love the song, but the audio means more to you. The video is,

It's like one of the best videos I've ever seen. It's amazing. It elevates the song on another level and makes it so fun, right? It feels like a party. Yeah, yeah. Gaga fans are as excited about that song as anything in a long time. Is there anything you can say about how that one came together? Yeah. We made a lot of this stuff in Malibu at Shangri-La, Rick's studio. And to even say the word Malibu right now, it hurts my heart. Spent so much time there. And

thank god that the studio is okay but it was such a beautiful time absolutely heartbroken um for that area and all belly up but um made a lot of the stuff there and i just remember this little seed of a sound of a synth and she just heard something immediately and grabbed the microphone and started flowing and in the room and it was just like really great and then once there's like this a

initial kind of thing. She always runs to the piano, right? Because then it becomes like a song. And then what are the chords? And what are the, there's this crazy fun synth part, and then where can it go? And it was just kind of this free flowing, fast moving thing. And then once she came up with the chords for the other parts and the things that could bounce around, then we recorded that on other synths. And it was just kind of like this. It was, I remember that

That was like one song that was like, you keep running between the control room and the live room, the control room and the live room. And it was just so, it was so much fun. And of course it should be noted, like every great uptempo Gaga song, pretty much there's a, like a Gaga little thing in it. It's kind of, you got to get that in there. Only she can do those. That's true. It would be really weird if Chaperone did that. Yeah. Yeah.

It was just a natural thing, you know? It's kind of like... I think sometimes it's not always like this. It's all different kinds of songs. Sometimes you hear a word first, and then it turns into a melody, and then other times you hear a great melody, and then it ends up being words. If I remember correctly, kind of that part of the song, like the melody started, and then the words started taking shape. It turned into one of those signature things that Blishy can do. Yeah, and long story short...

You're very excited for this album. Beyond. Beyond. So what is the deal with you and Paul McCartney? He's like my professor. Professor Paul. Yeah, we've been working on stuff.

in little chunks of time over the past couple years. He also helped seal the deal for me in getting the Stones gig. I can't even believe that's a real statement that I'm saying to you right now. And he's actually playing around the corner. What time is it right now? Like an hour or something. An hour and 20 minutes. That's where I'm going after this. Which I could say because it will already have happened. Nice. Have you seen the other two as well? I went to one. I went to one on Wednesday afternoon.

It was the most amazing thing. Got to be top one concert I've ever seen. I mean, it was just, it's incredible. The band sounds so good. It's in a small room. Front of house guy is killing. He also mixes ACDCs. Guitars are loud. Oh man. And everyone else is singing in the band. The harmonies are so great. And it's like, you're in a room of 400 people and you hear Blackbird. And then you hear, let it be into Hey Jude, into Golden Slumbers. Like, come on. Yeah. Yeah.

Nothing to complain about. Yeah, we're making music together, which has been one of the joys of my life. I kind of said earlier before, watching him arrange background vocals and go to the piano and sing the harmony and how he kind of puts it all together and is sure when he wants to hit a third or a fifth or a seventh and then hit the second as he goes back to the one, you know, it's like, it's just unbelievable.

just amazing to watch. I know Paul does like sessions and sometimes it's not clear what it's for. Is, is the idea that it's for one particular album or, or is it just like working on stuff? You'd have to ask Paul. Yeah. Same, same kind of thing. Anytime that guy decides that he wants me around while he's making music, I'm there.

So your own, you know, you had your time as an artist, you know, and you're also playing these really fun shows with Chad Smith. I saw one of them and it's like, you know, a lot of producers, especially nowadays do have, you know, like Jack Antonoff has bleachers, people have their outlet, you know, people are able to do different things now. How interested are you in a larger scale return to performing, songwriting, singing, that kind of thing? Um,

I mean, that's my first kind of thing that I love doing. We're staring out at New York City as we sit in the Bowery Hotel right now. There's not a bar, restaurant, or club in this entire city that I have not hit. So it's where I'm most comfortable, and now I've gotten the luxury and, you know...

amazing opportunity to get to play with some of these artists that I work with and do fun things, like when we did the Eddie Vedder tour and did the Earthlings. And it's so much fun for me. So definitely going to be playing, definitely going to be putting some way to express that side of myself together, but ever-changing and ever-growing, and it just has to feel real and authentic, you know? I don't want something...

that I would ever do in that regard to feel like it's like leftovers of projects that I'm working on. You know, you can tell when that's the case. I want it to feel like something really special and genuine and something that I have to do, not something I'm just doing because it's there. Something that is like so compelling that it feels like I need to make this record. - I've seen you cover Prince. You're wearing a Prince sweater as we speak. I think there's a Prince tattoo on one of your fingers.

Or the artist, since it's his symbol when he... He's my hero. Is he the... As far as people who are gone and so you can't work with them, is he the number one person you miss that chance with? Bowie and Prince. Yeah. And I don't even know that they would have ever wanted to work with me or that I would have had anything to offer to them. I just love that I shared the same air as them on this earth. Yeah. And I'm forever inspired by both of them, but they would have been...

two people I would have loved to just have had a conversation with at some point. Yeah. Yeah. I spent a couple of days with Prince just a year before he died, which was, I think about all the time. Um, he was, so it was, it was a cover story for wrong stone. Um, we actually didn't publish it until after his death a year later because, uh, in Prince fashion, he, uh, he decided he wasn't going to pose for a, a cover photo.

and gave us this cover photo that was like, he said, how about this one? And it was completely unusable. And so we just kind of hit an impasse, thought we'd come back to it. And instead he unfortunately died. And so we ran it, but it was, it was, uh, very, very memorable. He took me on, uh, he rehearsed for me at Paisley park. Really wasn't even rehearsal. He just played me five songs. Like he wasn't rehearsing. Yeah. He just played me. Yeah. He just made me the, but he put me on the stage in a chair next to him and played a guitar solo in my face. Cause

Cause he wanted to, he wanted me to tell him whether the goosebumps in my arm went up. I was like, they're up. How amazing is that? I think about that all the time, but it has to be one of the great experiences of your life. It was, it was absolutely. He was, I do, I truly do think about it all the time. He was, he was a, he was a deep and a very special human being. In addition to being who he was. I think about him every day as a producer, as a musician, taste level, the audacity to make,

never give a fuck about what anyone else was doing and always changing the rules in music and doing it his own way. Yeah, one of the greatest producers of all time. The greatest performer. I mean, he's a constant reference point for me on everything. When we were making the Gaga album, I had this picture of Prince that I love that it was on the wall. Chinguilla is very, Rick does it on purpose, has it all just white so that

you you come up with your own uh things from your imagination you're not influenced by anything but i brought a picture of prince with me because we kind of moved in to the studio because it's malibu can be far and we just had this picture and stuff every day looking at him for a year next time vetter goes out solo do you think that are you expecting to play with him again i don't know um ed's become one of my real pals of life before i got the pleasure of getting

getting to know him he was the voice in my headphones that spoke to me and now he's a part of my life and um another teacher and someone who's always there for advice guidance so he's a real friend any chance i ever get to be in the same room as him is the best and he's been so gracious of he knows how much i love to play and letting me um come on stage with pearl jam and um

Yeah. Those Earthling tours were so much fun. Everyone was just having fun. It was like we would all eat together every day and hang together and have some beers, have a smoke, play a show. It was great. So I don't see how it couldn't happen again at some point. When you produced Pearl Jam, you also would at least sometimes play guitar with them, right? Yeah. Mainly because in that situation with a band, it's great to have a guitar, a

around so you can just kind of be like, what about this or that? Right. Like suggest instead of having to speak music, just kind of do it. The chords were going by so quick for two reasons. Number one, it was so much fun. Like, yeah. And like the little kid in me was like, I'll play it with Burlap. So there was that. And then also that album was made in such a special way. Every member of that band is able to sing. Yeah. Able to write lyrics. Yeah.

able to play every instrument they're all virtuosos so they have made albums before where they all make their full demos including ed including everyone including matt cameron everyone and then it's just they're picking the best songs that they like and then taking each other's demos and making them pearl jam songs for this album the um consensus was that it was going to be made

in a very different way, which was just bring a riff or an A section and a B section and then let the other members of the band finish your thing, which was kind of how they used to do it because they didn't have the ability to demo. The ability to demo is sometimes the greatest thing in the world. And then other times, it's not even whether it's great or not. It's just, it kind of gets you stuck in whatever your vision is because you can take it almost all the way there. So this was like, okay, you're...

Probably the greatest live rock band out there now. The shows, you've been to a Pearl Jam show, right? They are three hours and you never see the same thing twice and they don't know what's going to happen until they walk 30 minutes before the show.

it's unlike any other band. So that energy, as a diehard Pearl Jam fan, I was like, I just wanted to capture that energy in the studio. So a lot of it was like, okay, like, are we recording? My engineer Paul, are the mics there? They're on. Someone show the riff. Okay. Stone and Jeff start crossing each other. Mic's starting to play, you know, what are the chords? What's the thing? Where can it go? Where's the next section going to be? And they were so gracious that they were willing to hear my ideas and wanted to hear my ideas. So sometimes it's,

The guitar was there for that. Sometimes it was there just to fill out space. Sometimes it was just there in the corner and not touched at all because the ideas were flowing so quickly. But it was kind of everyone had their own station and I had some toys next to my station. And the rest of it was like more arrangement stuff, you know, because it was like, okay, let's keep this. Let's keep some of the first few takes where it's really not perfect and it's whatever. I had a talkback microphone where I could be like, you know, B section, boom.

Boom. And then everyone would go. Conducting. Kind of like that. Yeah. And that way everyone could move together. And the, you know, the first couple of takes, you know, Matt Cameron was the one that would say it. He was like, you know, the way we made this record, right when everyone finished the take where they're like, okay, I know the song. We kept the one before we got to do it where everyone actually knows it.

You know, it was like right when you're finding the thing that makes it cool. For the Stones, you weren't going to grid. Like you were just, see what I don't know. I forget if that's, did they become accustomed to using a click and everything? And then you broke them from that or? Matt is just one of the greatest. He is a click, I think. Ever. And Matt, and a lot of drummers have this process where they have like, you know, a thing on the floor that is like a flashing light. That's like starts them at the tempo that they want. So they know.

And then every once in a while, when he wants, he can look down to it and seize the original tempo, can pull it back or just abandon it completely, which there's certain songs where it's completely abandoned. Like Upper Hand is one that speeds up so much at the end. And that's what we love about bands, right? Yeah.

So, yeah, I don't like my rock music gridded. I know other people do, but I don't like my rock music gridded. And even if you're going to use a click, you still don't have to grid it after. It's okay to go away from the click. It's okay for it to speed up. It's okay for it to have to turn off the click. It's okay if someone didn't have it in their headphones. It's like all okay. I don't really enjoy rock music that is perfect. There's a great YouTube where someone went into the stems and quantized Van Halen 1.

You're like running with it and it sounds terrible. Yeah. Yeah. And you know what? The Stones, when we started the Stones album, it was like the thought of that was like, that is sack religious. Can't do that. That's, you know, who wants to hear that? No one. The personalities, bands, it's mostly even with bands. I feel this way so much. It's just like the personality of the musicians and how they play together and how they move has to be heard. And the Elton Brandy album is to no click. Oh, wow. Yeah.

Yeah. It's also very important to Elton to do it like that. It should be. And it makes it a lot harder. The thing can be flown. Right, right. And that's okay. I mean, it should be noted you have, in addition to everything else, there's an Oscar nomination for a track with those two. Congratulations on that as well. Thank you. Yeah. I couldn't believe that. I woke up on the day of that thing and my phone was so crazy because I kind of sleep late because I work late. Someone's dead. It's my birthday or we got nominated for the Oscar. And it was the latter.

And that album is, you know, it's at least a four-way collaboration. Yeah. You, Bernie Taupin, Elton, Brandy. Yeah. Chad played drums. Oh, wow. Pino Palladino played bass. Wow. And Josh Klinghoffer did a lot of the synths and kind of scapey stuff. And I played guitar. Wow. And we were a little, became a band. And actually, something really cool about that album is that, you know,

Chad is my best friend, as you know. And we spent a lot of time, recreational time together, listening to records. And we were just listening to so much Elton before we went into that album. And I played Chad this album called 11-17-70. You know the album? I do. And it's like, listen to Nigel. Listen to this motherfucker. I mean, he's unbelievable. So we were like, kind of really listening to his fills and the way he does stuff. He doesn't play hard, but he plays with such intensity. So we

we decided that Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was our favorite non-live album recorded sound. So we were like, we gotta get the same kit that Nigel used. Find all the pictures, forget the mic. We got drum sounds for like a week for the album, which we never do usually because my engineer's so good, Paul. We set it up with more mics than we need and then depending on what the song is, we turn off the other mics and we'll do sometimes just kick, snare, and overheads, right? Yeah.

depending on what it is, but we have them all so that we can make any sound we want after. And Chad calls me like two weeks before the album and he's like, I got the kit. I was like, what kind of kit is it? He's like, no, no, no. I got the kit. I got Nigel's kit from Goodbry Yellow Brick Road. Ben Stiller owns that drum set.

And somehow by way of conversation, Chad remembered him telling him that and called Ben and Ben was like in heaven. He was like, a lot of people would be like, you're not touching my kit. Like Chad breaks drums, by the way. Yeah. Sent the kit. We found all these pictures. We were like, like, you know, archivalists, like looking at how the mics were and it wasn't sounding right. And then we saw this picture that I had, which was an advertisement of Nigel plays Slingerland. Right. And,

And Elton's in the picture with him. And I actually have the picture. And now it's framed because it means so much. There's no bottom heads. So we took the bottom heads off and it just became that concert Tommy thing.

And there's mics under the toms. And then there's the overheads. No close tom mic. And once we did that. You got it. We got it. That's amazing. And I can't wait for you to hear the drum sound on the record. That's such a great story. I love that. Yeah. That's, yeah. You know, when I'm making records with these kinds of people, I care about it. The records I make with everyone. But like, there's a legacy there. There's something to protect. Right. Right.

Those are some of the best drum sounds ever. How do we get there? And Chad really can do anything on drums. He can do anything. Yeah. And he has no ego. Like, really no ego. Like, it was such a thing where it's like, we really listened together for a while because Chad is strong and loves it. So he wants to beat it up. And it's amazing for certain times in music when he's doing that. Like, when we make Ozzy or Iggy, it's, come on, hit it.

hit it right but there's other songs and even on Chili Pepper songs there's songs where he's playing kind of softer and he's so dynamic so we really listened to Elton and what we heard was they turned the drums up the snares are all loud in that song there's always a back beat in those albums

But they can be loud because they're not played hard. So they're not taking up all the space. So if they were played loud, they would have had to be low and then it would mess the whole kind of sonic scape up. So he's really playing light. And because that snare is loud and it just sounds so kind of loose and groovy, you can hear the snare drum moving. You have this long affiliation with Ozzy. Do you have any involvement in this big concert that he's doing? Yes. There's...

a zillion surprises for that concert but all I know is that I was asked to play in some concoction of things that they have put together but Ozzy is family and as is Sharon as is the whole family and he was the first person to believe in me that I could make a rock album yeah that's huge and we made two albums together so far and he's really excited for this concert and anytime you give Ozzy a goal to hit or challenge he'll do it

And yeah, we did the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for him, which was... I heard it was great. Yeah. I mean, it's a part of the phenomenon of being a fan of these older artists and then working with them is knowing, as they know, as I've sat and discussed with Mick and he laughed about it, just knowing that, you know, I said to Mick, sometimes it seems like you're going to live forever. And he laughed and said, I won't. Everything is finite. You know, every relationship you have is finite. Everyone's...

Time here is finite, but for some of these artists, you know, we know the way chronology works and it's just a hard thing to, for fans to face and for everyone to face knowing that the clock is ticking there. How does that affect your thinking? Um, you know, something that I really try and not think about too much cause it really rips me apart. Um, I've become so close to a lot of these people and they become such important figures in my life. Um, easy to get cynical, um,

So I try and live in the now, but it's inevitable, right? It's life. It makes you think about your parents or your, you know, your family members and stuff like that. I just feel incredibly lucky to just be a small part of their history, you know, and be a little nugget of their musical contribution to the world. I truly feel like I am living a dream. It is part of every day. If you could have had a dream,

video camera in my childhood bedroom or a photograph of what it looked like and the posters that were on those walls, the music that was coming through those speakers and what I'm getting the opportunity to do now with these guys and girls. It's really not to be believed. I feel incredibly lucky. And then on the flip side, I mean, as we discussed, the sounds and approach of rock is actually far from dead when you look at the charts now. It's actually had a huge impact.

As we just, as we said, you know, with, with people like, and I feel like this comes up. I mean, Die With A Smile is like kind of a rock song. Yeah, absolutely. Number one song. It's got that big guitar solo moment. Absolutely. You know, Pink Pony Club has a huge guitar solo. Like,

At the same time, though, like young rock bands, there's a lot of good ones, but they're not right now yet at the center of the culture, at the center of the charts, at the top of the charts. How much have you thought about, like, can we find a band that is young that will connect and get huge? Because that does seem like the missing piece right now in music. I talk about it every day, actually.

And it's something I'm yearning for. I want so bad. And there are some great bands. Fontaine's DC is amazing. I mean, they're amazing. The idols are fucking awesome. Like there are really great bands, you know, with them doing just exactly what they're doing now and not changing a thing. If they had been around 20 years ago, they would be in the mainstream, right? It's the same way the Foo Fighters and Green Day and Pearl Jam and all those bands, they were the mainstream, the Strokes, right? That period.

Coldplay when they were making rock, that was the mainstream, right? So I feel it coming back. I feel people liking that and loving it. I think it's only a matter of time. And I look forward to working with bands that are younger as well. Part of my decision to work with the bands at this level is because I idolize them and I love them. And I've just always followed my heart in music. I can't make something...

that I'm not all in on, that I'm obsessing over and thinking about every second of every day. To give that much of yourself and do it, you has to be something that you're authentically really into. Otherwise, you can kind of hear it in the music, right? Absolutely. I'm curious about how your sort of musical brain works. Are you... There's all sorts of producers, but...

to be the kind who's able to dive in and play an instrument while they're playing and jump into any song. Can you kind of see the chord changes going by? Are you like close to a perfect pitch type guy? Is that how your brain works? Yes. Makes a lot of sense. But it helps having, you know, perfect pitch when you're, you know, something sharp, flat or what note we should go to or whatever. But it's like something that I use, but it's not my, like, it's not something that's important in my process, literally at all.

I'm like following my heart and where it wants to go. A lot of times I'll make music, you know, depending on who the artist is in the situation. A lot of times I'll make music because I know like relatively where I think the melody and top line should be. And if I just have the right chords behind it, you know what to do with the music, you know? So that's fun. Yeah. Did you discover you had perfect pitch from like a very young age? I think it actually developed. Wow. Yeah.

it kind of came from like the people talk 10,000 hours, like million hours, you know? So, so keep working musicians. You'll have perfect pitch too. Maybe someday I'm still working on it. Well, Andrew, thank you very much for taking the time to do this. Yes. Thank you for asking these questions and for your care of stuff that I've done. This was a lot of fun. Yeah. Hope to have you back, man. Great to meet you. Thanks.

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