66 Facts About Glyn Johns

Glyn Thomas Johns was born on 15 February 1942 and is an English recording engineer and record producer.

Glyn Johns has worked with many of the most famous rock recording acts from both the UK and abroad, such as The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who, Led Zeppelin, the Kinks, Eagles, Bob Dylan, The Band, Eric Clapton, The Clash, Steve Miller Band, Small Faces, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils and Joan Armatrading.

In 1965 Glyn Johns became one of the first independent British recording engineers to operate freelance rather than under the hire of a particular record label or studio.

Glyn Johns was involved in making some of the most influential albums of the rock era such as Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed by the Rolling Stones, Who's Next by the Who, and Led Zeppelin's debut album.

Glyn Johns was the chief engineer during the Beatles' Get Back sessions for what became the Let It Be album, as documented in the films Let It Be and The Beatles: Get Back.

Since 1984 Glyn Johns has continued to be active in the industry.

In 2012, Glyn Johns was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, receiving the Award for Musical Excellence.

Glyn Johns was born in Epsom, Surrey, England, on 15 February 1942, and is the older brother of Andy Glyn Johns.

Felton Rapley, considered one of the leading pipe organists in the UK at the time, became the choirmaster, and as Glyn Johns progressed, Glyn Johns was given occasional solos and eventually rose to head chorister at the age of eleven.

Glyn Johns became a fan of traditional jazz and joined a local ragtag jazz band on tea chest bass.

Glyn Johns cites the record "Little Rock Getaway" by Les Paul and Mary Ford as an influence.

Glyn Johns soon bought his own guitar and was introduced to blues and folk recordings by a neighbour, who lent him records by artists such as Snooks Eaglin, Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry, Woody Guthrie, and Burl Ives.

Glyn Johns began to keep company with a group of friends interested in music, whose ranks included Ian Stewart.

In 1959 at the age of 17, Glyn Johns left school, and with Mayhew and Golding formed the band the Presidents.

In 1959, Glyn Johns began his career as an assistant recording engineer at IBC Studios on Portland Place in London.

Glyn Johns later went on to record for Pye Records and Immediate Records, but none of his solo records became hits.

In 1962, Glyn Johns entered into an arrangement with George Clouston, the manager at IBC studios, to let him produce records by certain artists.

Oldham moved the Rolling Stones' sessions to other studios, such as Regent Sound, using other engineers, and for more than a year Glyn Johns was not involved with the Rolling Stones recordings.

In 1963, Glyn Johns made arrangements to produce and record a session with Georgie Fame, but was paired, only as engineer, with producer Shel Talmy.

In 1965, Glyn Johns left IBC studios to further pursue his solo career as a singer and performer and promote his latest record "Mary Anne", but the record failed to chart.

In 1971, Glyn Johns reunited with the Who for the first time since the mid-1960s, this time as a co-producer, to work on what became the album Who's Next.

Glyn Johns continued to work with the Who throughout the 1970s as an engineer on parts of Quadrophenia in 1973.

Glyn Johns produced and engineered The Who by Numbers and produced early sessions for Who Are You with engineer John Astley, who later took over as producer.

Glyn Johns returned to work with the group, producing and engineering 1982's It's Hard.

Glyn Johns was a disciplinarian who did not like people mucking about or wasting time.

Glyn Johns brought out the best in us, and as a result that album [Slowhand] has great playing and a great atmosphere.

Olympic Studios became Glyn Johns's preferred studio for many years, and it became one of the most in-demand recording facilities in England.

In 1968 the Rolling Stones expressed the desire to work with an American producer and Glyn Johns recommended Jimmy Miller, who he had seen working with Traffic.

Glyn Johns stayed on as engineer, and with this team the group recorded Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed.

Glyn Johns engineered some of the tracks on Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main St, both produced by Jimmy Miller.

Glyn Johns's brother engineered Goat's Head Soup, the last Rolling Stones album produced by Jimmy Miller.

Glyn Johns contributed to certain tracks on It's Only Rock 'n Roll, and returned as chief recording engineer on the early sessions for Black and Blue.

Glyn Johns engineered the Small Faces' 1968 LP, Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake.

The other former Small Faces, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, and Kenney Jones, joined with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, both from Jeff Beck Group to form the Faces, and Glyn Johns engineered and co-produced the albums A Nod Is as Good as a Wink.

In 1983, Eric Clapton and Glyn Johns helped organize the ARMS Charity Concerts to raise money for Lane's medical bills and research for the disease, and assembled a cast of musicians for the show, which included Clapton, Jimmy Page, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Steve Winwood and others.

Glyn Johns engineered Led Zeppelin's debut album recorded in October 1968.

Glyn Johns worked as the chief recording engineer on the Beatles' "Get Back" sessions, which were both taped and filmed.

In 1969, Paul McCartney called Glyn Johns and asked him to assist with sessions.

Glyn Johns recommended that the album be structured as an "audio documentary" with talk and banter included between each track.

Glyn Johns helped the band compile several versions of the album, all of which got shelved before the project was turned over to producer Phil Spector in 1970, who reworked it and released it as the album Let It Be.

Glyn Johns engineered early recorded parts of the song "I Want You " at Trident Studios on 23 February 1969, that in later finished form appeared on the Abbey Road album.

Glyn Johns assisted with early sessions of Paul McCartney and Wings' Red Rose Speedway.

Glyn Johns quit the project due to what he described as his lack of satisfaction with the material.

Glyn Johns worked with other British acts such as Procol Harum, Joe Cocker, the Move, and Fairport Convention.

Glyn Johns engineered several songs by Australia's the Easybeats, including their 1967 hit "Friday on My Mind", which was produced by Shel Talmy.

Glyn Johns did his first work with an American act in 1968 with the Steve Miller Band, whom he had seen perform live at the Fillmore in San Francisco.

Glyn Johns produced and engineered their next three albums, Sailor, Brave New World, and Your Saving Grace.

Glyn Johns later produced and engineered Dylan's 1984 live album, Real Live.

Glyn Johns did one of the mixes for the Band's Stage Fright in 1970.

Glyn Johns engineered and produced the Eagles' first three albums, bringing them to Olympic Studios in London to record their self-titled debut, followed by Desperado, and the early sessions for On the Border.

Glyn Johns engineered and co-produced the first two albums by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, which provided the hits "If You Wanna Get to Heaven" and "Jackie Blue".

Glyn Johns worked with others such as Spooky Tooth, Billy Preston, and Howlin' Wolf.

Glyn Johns engineered the song "A Man Needs a Maid" on Neil Young's 1971 Harvest album.

In 1982, Glyn Johns worked with the Clash during the late stages of making the album Combat Rock.

The group's chief songwriters Mick Jones and Joe Strummer disagreed on how to proceed, and according to Glyn Johns even booked separate studios in New York to do their own competing mixes of the album.

Glyn Johns agreed and, upon hearing an acetate of one of the previous mixes, was concerned about the record's apparent self-indulgence, but was impressed with many of its tracks and realised that there was enough strong material to make a good album.

Glyn Johns recommended that the album be shortened to one disc, and proceeded to reduce the number of tracks for inclusion, plus he edited down the length of several tracks in addition to remixing all of the songs that ended up on the final release.

Glyn Johns produced much of Linda Ronstadt's 1998 We Ran album.

In February 2012, Glyn Johns began work on the Band of Horses album, Mirage Rock.

Glyn Johns sometimes uses an additional close mic for the snare drum.

Glyn Johns is the older brother of the producer and engineer Andy Johns, who began as an engineer with Jimi Hendrix under the tutelage of Eddie Kramer, and like Glyn Johns, worked with the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.

Glyn Johns is the uncle of the blues musician Will Johns.

Glyn Johns is recognized as one of the pre-eminent audio engineers and record producers of the rock era.

Glyn Johns received an Award for Musical Excellence and was honoured for his work on landmark recordings by many famous artists.

Glyn Johns was the winner of the 2013 Music Producers Guild Inspiration Award.

Glyn Johns has written an autobiography titled Sound Man, published by Blue Rider Press on 13 November 2014, in which he recounts his experiences working with the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Who, the Eagles, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and others.