Beau Hill (music producer- Ratt, Warrant, Winger)

Beau Hill is a music producer best known for his work with Ratt, Alice Cooper, Warrant, Winger, Europe and Kix.  In this episode we discuss a variety of things throughout his career and his life.  He tells stories of working with music legends like Stevie Nicks, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton. We also discuss his thoughts on Poison’s CC Deville doing the solo on Cherry Pie, the music business, and his path to success. A must listen to episode for music fans! 

0:00:00 - Intro
0:00:13 - Golf
0:03:00 - Traveling to Antartica
0:06:00 - Beau's Journey
0:08:35 - Jon Keyworth, Denver Broncos
0:09:45 - Production Techniques
0:12:42 - Keith Olsen & Stevie Nicks
0:17:45 - Beau's Band Airborne
0:23:13 - Audition for Foreigner & Spider
0:26:02 - Co-Producing Demos with Sandy Stewart
0:32:05 - Call to Produce Ratt
0:34:40 - Working with Stevie Nicks
0:39:26 - Working with Ratt
0:47:00 - Alice Cooper & Michael Wagener
0:48:24 - Producer Sam Taylor
0:51:15 - Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton & Ron Wood
0:59:30 - Warrant's Cherry Pie & Don Ienner
1:02:30 - CC Deville's Solo on Cherry Pie
1:08:10 - Jani Lane
1:13:07 - Producing, Remixing & Arranging
1:20:20 - Uncle Tom's Cabin
1:22:35 - Job at Interscope
 1:27:25 - Black Bambi & Unruly Child
1:31:30 - Elements of a Hit Record
1:33:19 - Oliver Anthony
1:35:55 - Social Media & Connections
1:40:03 - Drinks & Big Parties
1:43:50 - Tunnel to Towers
1:44:50 - Working with New Bands
1:46:30 - Outro

Beau Hill Productions website:
https://beauhillproductions.com/

Tunnels to Towers website:
https://t2t.org/

Chuck Shute website:
https://chuckshute.com/

Transcript

Chuck Shute: 0:00

All right, so we figured it out then the zoom. You've never been able to do this before. How did you make it through the pandemic? Then without doing zoom?

Beau Hill: 0:23

I started playing golf. Oh, I did what I was doing before I ran in here.

Chuck Shute: 0:30

Okay, interesting. Do you ever play golf with Alice Cooper's I know you produce one of his albums.

Beau Hill: 0:37

No, I never. I've never, I never played golf. I never picked up a golf club. I didn't have time. Until Until the pandemic. And so I was sitting around working on a jigsaw puzzle of all things, just to try to like, let my mind wandered a little bit. And I thought, well, this is really stupid. Let's go do something. Now. We've got nothing but time. So I went and started taking some golf lessons. And there is no one on planet Earth. That sucks at golf more than me.

Chuck Shute: 1:05

Me. No, I'm worse. I guarantee you. Yeah.

Beau Hill: 1:09

But anyway, that's, that's what I was. That's what I did. And I didn't zoom anybody during. During the pandemic. I just stayed busy in between golf and jam and then mixing. That's what I did. That's a great

Chuck Shute: 1:25

yeah, I need to get more into golf. I'm really bad. But I like the thing that I love about is the golf courses. I live in Arizona right now. And they have some of the most beautiful golf courses you'll ever see. And I just thought I'm so terrible. I don't want to like embarrass myself and yeah. Well, have you gotten

Beau Hill: 1:46

on there if you ever want to not embarrass yourself? Okay.

Chuck Shute: 1:49

All right. Yeah, let's go together and just be terrible. I think that's what I always I only golf with people who are terrible. The people that actually love golf, and are really good. I'm like, you don't want to golf with me. I'm really bad. But it's fun. It's fun to go. Yeah, yeah. Or like Top Golf. That's another fun thing I've ever done that. I haven't done that. No. Okay. Yeah, cuz it's fun. It's kind of like bowling. Like it keeps score and stuff. And you can just, it doesn't matter if you screw up on that, because then you're not you know, there's not people behind you waiting to play and all those kinds of things.

Beau Hill: 2:16

I spend most of the time on the driving range, because, you know, I'm still trying to get my stroke down. I'm still trying to be able to figure out okay, I only wanted to go 50 yards, not 150 yards. Right. Right. And so I'm about two hours every day on the range. And it's tough because it's six o'clock in the morning. It's already 90. Oh, but it's same in Arizona.

Chuck Shute: 2:39

Oh, yeah. No, definitely. Especially. And then summer you basically just, I mean, I think there's people that steal golf in the summer, and I think they're crazy. But I mean, from like, October through May, it's like amazing to golf. I think it's some of the best weather. I mean, you know, it's great. So I'm ready. That's cool. So golf, that's cool that you're able to I mean, you find yourself able to do more different hobbies now that you have the time that you can relax a little bit you don't have the record company, the back to back albums, the pressure I mean, you're you're kind of are you kind of semi retired in a way.

Beau Hill: 3:16

No, I just I work when I want to, I don't work when I don't want to my wife and I travel extensively. All over the world. We've actually been to every continent on planet Earth, believe it or not.

Chuck Shute: 3:29

Okay, wait a minute. Now we got to talk Antarctica because I am fascinated by Antarctica. You've been to Antarctica twice. And what was Did you see anything crazy? Like there's all these conspiracy theories about it? I just put it online. I don't know. No, it

Beau Hill: 3:44

was just it's it's otherworldly. It's, it's very beautiful. And the first trip we just we just went on a small boat. And then that company, Kanaan actually built an icebreaker, a proper icebreaker so that you know, you could really travel into areas that that most people can't go. And so now we've done it twice. It was just great. I'll do it again too. If I can.

Chuck Shute: 4:16

Yeah, cuz isn't there's a lot of Antarctica that has never been explored.

Beau Hill: 4:21

That's my understanding as well. Yeah. And but it's it's a it's a really fantastic trip. I mean, coming in. You hit a couple of small islands. There's one island that has 1 million penguins on it. Wow, no people at all. Just 1 million penguins.

Chuck Shute: 4:40

And they must live in harmony because yeah, there's no people to screw it up.

Beau Hill: 4:43

No, there's and I don't think that there's well, there's natural predators in the ocean. But once they get up on land, I mean it's the weirdest thing because you can it's just mile after mile after mile of elbow to elbow penguins. It's kind of hard to even imagine. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 5:03

Did they have any predators like the polar bears eat them or what other animals were

Beau Hill: 5:07

there are polar bears down on Antarctica, the polar bears are up north.

Chuck Shute: 5:12

Okay, so there's so there's penguins. What other animals? Are there?

Beau Hill: 5:16

Penguins, walruses? Uh, a lots of birds and stuff like that. But I don't I don't think anything eats the penguins until it gets in the water. And then of course, you know, you've got whale sharks and sharks and all sorts of other fun things going on lots of whales. I mean, lots of orcas down there.

Chuck Shute: 5:36

Did you see a lot of orcas and whales? Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's really cool. I'm from Seattle, and I lived there for most of my life. And I moved to Arizona, but I went back and I did a whale watching and we got lucky. And we got to see a what do you call it? A pod of orcas? Beautiful. Just amazing to see. So yeah, cool stuff. Well, anyway, so we should probably talk some music or people are gonna get mad at me. Why do you bow Hill on and you talked about Antarctica, so. But yeah, that sounds fascinating to me, too. But yeah, music. Your path is so fascinating to me. I'm just really into people's path to success. And like, how did you get there? I mean, you ended up being this, you know, record producer award winning multi multimillion dollar, you know, record producer, how did you go from? I guess it starts really with the rat album. But you started before that it was you started as a janitor and a producer as a production assistant, basically, at this studio. So how long was it when you? I think you were 17. At that time, when you first produced the first rat album, how long of a span was that your journey to when you basically kind of made it at that point?

Beau Hill: 6:42

Well, the the rat record we did in 83. And so I was going to college in Colorado. And that's when I got a job at a small jingle studio. And I started out as a janitor. And but I had always loved being in the studio, because I was in the studio a couple of times with my high school band. And I mean, my rock and roll band, not the high school band that played football games. And, and I really just fell in love with the whole process. So I wanted to be around it as much as possible. And so I would do my job. And then I would go sit in the corner in the studio and keep my mouth shut and and watch what people were doing. And then after a while, I think something happened. One of the assistant engineers didn't show up and they needed and the engineer was screaming for somebody to to work on the patch bay. And I said I could do that.

Chuck Shute: 7:45

And so I had watched other people do it, right?

Beau Hill: 7:48

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I said and I asked questions, and I hung out and when Pete When the maintenance guys were in there, I'd go in and drive them crazy. And you know, how do you do that? Why do you do this? Why do you do that? And, and you know, and they taught me and then I kind of worked my way up to where I was like actually engineering. But again, these are jingles. You know, these are 42nd jingles in high school bands and public bands and choirs and church things you know, nothing serious at all. And, and I was in the studio one day by myself and this giant guy walks in. And he says my name is John P Werth on the starting fullback for the Denver Broncos. I've got $10,000 and I want to make a rock and roll record. Can you help me?

Chuck Shute: 8:45

I haven't heard this story before.

Beau Hill: 8:48

Yeah. And and I said absolutely. He had no music. So all of my broke musician friends that were songwriters check a cow get get them some some business. He had no band. And so all my broke musician friends, including myself. Check check. And he was a great guy. And he gave me season passes to the Broncos the first year they ever went to the Super Bowl.

Chuck Shute: 9:17

Oh, wow. That's awesome.

Beau Hill: 9:19

And now the record the record was was medium at best. It didn't sell anything other than to the Denver Bronco fans. But it was you had to start someplace. So that was actually my first real bonafide production that I actually got paid for.

Chuck Shute: 9:38

Wow that I didn't know that part of the story that's really interesting. And then Didn't you also you convinced the studio owner to allow you and your band to kind of work after hours and so you started experimenting with different things. What are Is there any weird techniques that you discovered because I know like the Guns and Roses are what brings to mind is a Guns and Roses song a dead horse with Mike clink where they use the Nutcracker, did you find any weird things like that? That you?

Beau Hill: 10:05

Yeah, well, first of all that that part of my life, I think I managed to make some of the worst recordings ever on planet Earth. But I was learning and I was experimenting, right. So you know, we would get a magazine, and they would say, Roy Baker is using plus nine on ag for tape or something like that. So I'd race out and get some ag fatigue, come in, crank it up to plus nine, and see what happened. And so it was a lot of that kind of experimenting. And okay, so let's see, if we like this mic, then let's try this one. If we like this pattern on the mic, let's try this one. Let's do them out of phase and see what happens. Let's, you know, it's always just a lot of technical kind of malpractice. But it led me to okay, this works. This doesn't work. This is my style. This isn't my style. And yeah, and so we would go in there from about nine o'clock at night until four or five in the morning and play all night long. And then we had the, the winger brothers were in there with me in that time period as well. So it was a it was a great time, and I was really lucky that I was able to convince the studio owner that, you know, hey, I'll get better, I'll get faster, we'll get more people, you know, you'll make more money, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

Chuck Shute: 11:35

is their expenses at that point. Because obviously now with computers, you can just rerecord and stuff. But at that point when you're experimenting, does it cost money to use the tape and stuff? Is that something you would just pay for out of pocket? Or?

Beau Hill: 11:48

Yes. I mean, yeah. And and for a broke musician, you know, a real a two inch tape was a pretty precious commodity back then. But yeah, I mean, you could, and we did stupid stuff. Like we'd use the same roll of tape over and over and over again until the backing fell off. And you couldn't use it for anything. But it was I mean, it was a very, very important part of, of my development. And I don't, I don't know how other engineer producer musicians have done it. But I don't know how I could have possibly wound up where I wound up without having had, you know, two years of of the most ugly noises ever.

Chuck Shute: 12:37

Well, yeah. And didn't you also learn a lot from working with record producer Keith Olsen? And can you talk about any of the records that you got to see him? Record? Like, which bands was he working with when you watched him?

Beau Hill: 12:50

Okay, well, how I met Keith was pretty interesting. My high school rock and roll band had gotten a gig. This was the the same year that Woodstock was happening. And so everybody was doing pop festivals and rock festivals all over the country. And there was a rock festival up in Lubbock, Texas, and for some, and I don't remember who connected the dots, but anyway, we got contacted, please come out and play. And we did. And there was a there was a promoter from California. I forget what his name is. He he and a financial backer named Marco Perko. How could you not remember that and they came, they came to that show, they saw my band, they said, Well, we think you're really good. We'd like to do some demos with you. Okay. And I was living in Dallas. And so they called me up and they said, Okay, we're gonna fly out and we're gonna bring our engineer Keith Olsen. And so Keith was a staff engineer at sound city at the time. And he came out in ran our session, and more or less produced it because no one else knew what the hell they were doing. And Keith and I became really good friends. And so I was still in high school. And he called me up and he said, Hey, listen, I'm doing some. I'm gonna produce a couple of sessions. Do you want to you want to fly out and sit in? And I was like, Yeah, long weekend, no problem. And, and there's a fun Stevie Nicks tie in here. That's pretty amazing.

Chuck Shute: 14:33

Oh, yeah, I definitely wanna talk about Stevie Nicks.

Beau Hill: 14:37

So I flew out and slept on the couch. And I went to the studio with him every day and he was doing Dominic Toronto. And David Foster was working for him as a studio musician. So I met you know, oh, Actually David was working playing keyboards on Alice Cooper that I think Keith did. Now I may have that wrong. And then he was doing an all girl group called Bertha. And in, I don't really remember all the other groups, and then he started doing Buckingham nicks, ah, which was pre

Chuck Shute: 15:31

Fleetwood Mac and.

Beau Hill: 15:33

And so, to digress slightly, one of the days that I was sleeping on the couch, I was woken up by all by a lot of noise in the living room. And that is when I met Stevie Nicks Keith's maid. And that's that's how I met her.

Chuck Shute: 15:53

Yeah, what was your first impression of her? Because I know people know. She's obviously an amazing singer, but, and she's very beautiful now, but especially back then. I mean, she was a complete knockout. She was totally gorgeous, right? Yeah.

Beau Hill: 16:08

And she and Lindsey would barter for studio time with key so she would come down and clean clean the flat or kids house. And, and I don't know what Lindsay did fix the car mowed lawn, something like that. But anyway, they it was a barter thing. And Keith was very interested in them. And so that's kind of how Buckingham Nicks started. And then I will let me see where am I in my timeline. Okay, so Keith and I had become friends, he'd already recorded my band, I'd gone to California. And then about a year later, I packed up my band and said, Okay, we're going to California. And so we went out there and starved. And but I kept going into the studio with Keith all the time. And learned as much as I possibly could, as a matter of fact, I mean, he is he is clearly the the foundation of my production and engineering career. I mean, every single day, what would keep do? And it's so that, you know, we just kind of progressed from there. And then I left California because I was starving too much. And I came to Colorado to go to school, just in case I needed to get my law degree, or something to make ends meet. And then I went to the studio, and I was starting to do all these demos, like we already talked about. So about a year and a half in, I wound up with about, I don't know, 15 or 16, two inch masters of stuff that I had written or I'd written with my pals or whatever. And I sent some of them to Keith. I said, Just point me in the right direction. What am i What are you hearing? That's right, what's wrong? And he was very compliment. He said, I think these are great. And he was at that time, he was now becoming Keith Olsen famous producer. And he was being managed by Irving A's off at Frontline Management from the Eagles fan. And so he took the demos and played him for Irving. And Irving said, Get this guy out here riding. So Keith picked up the phone and call me and he said Irving wants to meet you and can you come out and I went yeah. And so I went out. And this is not a fishing story. Irving setups, six appointments for us. And Keith Keith, lugged me around and we went to six different record companies and I had six different offers in one day.

Chuck Shute: 18:55

And this was with your band airborne is the first with what became

Beau Hill: 18:59

airborne. Okay, this was just Bowhill jerking around in the studio making demos and some of them sounded okay. And so I had I had to deal me it was very funny because we would go in these in the record president's office, and they all knew keys and I was like, Hi, Keith, how are ya blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Keith said check this out, stuck set in and I was conscious hanging out standing in the doorway. And he No one knew who I was nor should they should they have. And you know, and all these guys were listening to this project that the hot producer Keith Olsen brought in and said, Hey, this is my new fine, and they're all going crazy going oh my god, this is really great. When can I meet these people? And he said, Well, he's standing in the door. That was that was me. So I've walked in and met everybody and and you know very honestly I said look, I've got some guys I really love playing with but we don't really have band yet. And so everybody was more than willing to kind of let that go for the moment because they knew that you know that based on Keith's reputation and Irving's reputation, finding people to fill in the ranks of a new band was not going to be a big problem. So that's kind of how that whole peoples and beginning the genesis of my

Chuck Shute: 20:27

But then what happened with airborne so I know that van fell apart, right?

Beau Hill: 20:32

Well what happened with airborne was we got we picked Columbia and got come trying to anyway, the head of a&r of Columbia at the time was senior moment. Anyway. We really liked him, everything was really great. The record was done. Everybody was very excited about it, there were the rumor that we were gonna go out and open for the cars. And then all of a sudden, the a&r guy, writes us a letter. And he says, best of luck, I'm leaving to become president of RCA. And so we're sitting there with a record ready, ready to come out. With no one driving the bus. No one. And so you know, it came out in specs buttered round a little bit here and there, but there was no energy behind it from the label. Because, you know, our rabbi had gone. Nobody else knew who the hell we were or why we were there or anything else, nor did they care, which was fine. I mean, it wasn't fun at the time, but. But now that I understood the business a little bit better, I got it. But so the band basically broke up. John Pierce and Mike Baird, were LA studio musicians very successful. And they decided to stay in LA. And I went back to Colorado to my old studio with my guitar player, David zajicek. And Larry Stewart, who was also a guitar player, singer. And we started working on airborne to same drill. So I'm doing jingles during the day. And I'm but I'm very focused, I understand, okay, this is what we need to do to make the to make a master record. And then the idea was, I thought, well, I'll just record it myself here. And then we'll take it and sell it. And that was a lot. That looked a lot better on paper than it did in practicality. And also because I was back in Colorado, so it wasn't like I could walk down the street and see John Kolodner, or somebody like that. So anyway, so that thing fell apart. At a certain point, it was just it was we couldn't glue it together anymore. So at that point, I said, I really need a break. So I moved to the Bahamas, and became a divemaster.

Chuck Shute: 23:11

Oh, I didn't know this part of the story, either. Wow.

Beau Hill: 23:14

Yeah, it was in the Bahamas. And I became a divemaster. And I was working at a small Hope Bay Lodge on Andros Island in the Bahamas. And I'd been there a few months. And then I got a call from Keith Olsen. And Keith said, Hey, what are you doing? I told him, we sort of caught up and he said, Listen, I just got a call from Bud Prager, who was foreigners manager. And he said, foreigners looking for another member to go on tour, the guy that that can sing and play keys and guitar. Would you be interested in auditioning? I was like, Sure. So I jumped on a plane and went up and met with but and somehow between when I left the Bahamas, and like three or four days later, when I wound up in New York, they had already picked the guy that they wanted. But Bud was gracious enough to have a meeting with me. And he listened to my stuff, and said, Yeah, look, I'll keep an eye out and blah, blah, blah. So not too much happened from that. And I was crashing at a friend's house. And he was literally just kind of like a new friend. And I was going through his record collection. And I found a record from a band called Spider, which I knew about. And I and I was familiar with the record, and I was just chatting with the guy and I said, Man, whatever happened to these guys, they were really great. You know, Holly Knight was writing all the material and all that he said, Oh, well, they're they're good friends of mine. And, and their keyboard player just left, which was Holly had just quit. And I said, Can you get me an audition? Can you connect me with these guys? And he said, Yeah, they're real good friends of mine. So long story short, I auditioned. They said, Sure, let's go. And Spider was being managed by Bill a coin of Kiss and Billy Idol fame. And so once the band was filled out, he liked what he was hearing, blah, blah, blah, and got us a deal on chrysalis, and the name of the band was Shanghai. And we did the Shanghai record. And back in those days, when you finished your record, and you deliver it, there's usually about a three month set up time to get the promo gone to get the I don't think they were doing videos yet. But anyway, to get to get the record set up properly, and to get it put in the various marketplaces that you needed to go. And while that was happening, I got a call from a guy in Texas. Hey, would you come down here and CO produce these demos with me? Well, I was just sitting in New York writing at that point. So I said, Sure, love to. And I went to New York, or to go back to Dallas and started recording a group called the sirens, which was Sandy Stewart. And I don't remember exactly. Oh, yeah. So and then we were sending these demos. Over to back to Keith in in LA. I was sending him stuff. You know, what do you think? How's it going blah, blah. And in Keith played him for to Jimmy IV. And Jimmy was dating Stevie at the time. Stevie fell in love with this stuff. Now that she had no connection that I was the guy that was sleeping on Keith's couch. I was just, I wasn't I wasn't my name wasn't even mentioned. Because I was a nobody broke musician. And I was helping my friend produces stuff. So Stevie, when they were when Fleetwood came through Dallas, she wanted to go to the studio and meet Sandy and do everything and, and while I was down there, I called Kip and his two brothers, and they had a song called Heather. And so I asked Stevie, I said, Would you mind doing a background vocal on Heather for us? And so I've got it. I've got a set of free winger of Kip and his brothers. Doing a song called here there with Stevie Nicks.

Chuck Shute: 27:44

Yeah, I heard this story. This is so crazy to me. I'm surprised this is not on Wikipedia anywhere. There's no I couldn't find a YouTube demo of this song. But it sounds fascinating. Hmm.

Beau Hill: 27:55

Well, if I had a working cassette player, I could play it for you. So anyway, the the, the muddy part of this was we're, we're doing this record, Stevie falls in love with Sandy. And, and her writing skills and everything else. And she calls Doug Morris, president of Atlantic and says, I want you to sign this girl. And Doug was like, why? I mean, what, why would I why? And she said, Doug, I love this artist, and if you don't sign or I'm quitting, or something like that. And so Doug, Doug said, Okay, begrudgingly So, and he didn't want her on Atlantic, so he put her on modern records, which was Paul fish skins sub label, which I think was Stevie was the only artist on modern, I think. But anyway, modern was a subsidiary of Atlantic. And so what happened was the guy that I was supposedly co producing the thing with, I would do them I would record everything and mix it. And then Doug said he wanted to hear rough mixes every week because he thought this was absolutely scatterbrained, you know, for him to go sign an artist because Stevie was going to get pissed at him if he didn't. And, and the guy that I was working with, Well, I'll tell you who it is. Took my name off the off the mixes and took MCs credit for himself and start sending them to Doug. Wow, this is really great. Bah, bah, bah. And so we're finished recording, we're getting ready to take it to LA to mix it. And it's Sandi submitted, you know, said okay, I need a ticket for Bo and a ticket for Bill and a ticket first for whoever, and then came back. Who the hell's bow is that oh, he's the guy that's that's been producing and mixing this stuff. No, he's not. It was Mr. X. No, you're on. Mr. X didn't do anything. He sat in his office while Beau was in there mixing. And I co wrote a couple of things with Sandy as well. So gigantic brouhaha. So they begrudgingly lead me along out to California. And it's like, it's like, time to get to work. Let's make the record. Let's finish it. Bla bla, bla, bla, bla, and Sandy. So I want Bo to do it. And, and Doug said, this is just making me crazy. I have no idea who this bow guy is. So here's what we're gonna do. I'm coming to California tomorrow. And we're gonna sit down and hash this out. So, okay, so Doug came, came to sound city. Jimmy was there, Shelly Akkus was there, Mr. X was there, I was there. And Sandy. And Doug walks in the door. And he says, Okay, I know how we're going to figure this out. I'm going to, I'm going to sit right next to Bo. And he's going to mix the record live right in front of me, and then I'll make a decision. So he gave, we're at Sound City, Studio B, he gave me one pass to set up the mix to at least get the returns correct to be to get a basic balance. And then he came and sat right next to me. And he said, Okay, mix it. And I did. And I mixed the whole record, live in front of him. And then he walked out. And everybody was expecting me to get canned and to get fired off of it. And Doug walked out, walk right over to to Jimmy IV. And he said, This guy's mixing the record. And he pointed at me. So we finished the record. I'm back in New York. Now my Shanghai record still has not come out yet. And so probably spider. Yes. And so I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to be doing at this point. And then three weeks after I finished Sandy's record, I got a call from Doug's office. And do you have a moment to speak to Mr. Morris? I was like, of course. And so Doug got on the phone. He said, Hey, listen, I'm going to sign this rock band from California. If you'll produce them. Will you get on a plane and go see them with me tomorrow? As really? He said, Yeah. I said, Yes, sir. I'd love to. And the thing that endeared me to Doug, among many things, was I figured, I'm gonna sit in coach, and he's going to sit in first class. But he didn't he sat in coach with me. It would have been cooler if you guys would have sat in first class together, though. It would have but but the fact that he did that, I thought, I just thought well, that's, that's pretty exceptional. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 33:01

So because I know you said something about to the effect of when you were 11 that they decided I want to do I want to make records. But I mean, there was you know, you had an audition or an offer to maybe audition for foreigner, you had these two other bands. At that point. Were you okay with giving up the dream of playing in a band? Because, you know, there could have been a part of you that had an ego that said, No, I'm not. I don't want to mix stuff. I want to play in a band. But you, you wanted to make records more than you wanted to play in a band. Right?

Beau Hill: 33:29

Yeah. And to be completely honest, I mean, I was, you know, my career was going nowhere. And I was getting really sick of eating top ramen every day, or a 75 cent slice of Degas Dino's pizza. And so I was keeping all my options open. So I figured if Shanghai takes off from there, great, if anything else takes off. Great. And so I went to California with Doug. We said, Yeah, we're going to do the deal. And, and that's what started what really started everything. And then, based on the success of rat, I mean, my next decision was pretty easy. Because I was getting people lined up that want to work with me that were going to pay me a ridiculous advance at least ridiculous to me back in those days. And so it was it was pretty easy. So when Shanghai came out, it you know, same thing, it's sputtered, and had upheaval at chrysalis at that time. And over and basically everybody was just threw up their hands. And I said, Okay, that's fine, because I was in the middle of making a record with rad.

Chuck Shute: 34:39

So then, when did you work with Stevie Nicks? Because you worked on one of her records, you co wrote some songs, although you didn't get credit and I thought you heard you say something like Prince came in to record with her story.

Beau Hill: 34:52

Well, this was on. I forget if it was Wildheart or one of those. Anyway, we had Sam Wendy and all her crew was in town at the same time that Stevie was in town in the same time that that Jimmy and Shelly, and you know, we were all just kind of there. And the songwriting part, what was songs that I had written with Sandy, that Stevie swooped in and said, I liked that. I want to take that. And Sandy gave it gave them to her. Much to my chagrin and dismay, because they were obviously they became hits with Stevie. And I think they could have become hits with Sandy. But Sandy felt well, I don't want to put any any words in her mouth, but she she wanted to be cooperative with Stevie as much as she could. Really

Chuck Shute: 35:52

interesting.

Beau Hill: 35:53

Yeah, it it was, it was weird. I mean, cuz I COVID got

Chuck Shute: 35:58

the songwriting credits for it then, right. Ah, she got the song, right. These are her songs that she wrote or somebody else wrote for her. For Stevie, for so you said Sandy gave the songs to Stevie.

Beau Hill: 36:09

So Sandy Hook the songs? Yes, Sandy and I. And if you look on the label copy of Stevie solo record. You'll see you'll never see my name show up as a writer because of Mr. X. But you will see my publishing company small hope music.

Chuck Shute: 36:31

Okay, yeah. So because like I know, if anyone was if anyone falls and nothing ever changes, though, and nightbird. Those are all three co written with Sandy Stewart. Right. And you were those ones that you co wrote as well. You just didn't get credit?

Beau Hill: 36:46

Yeah, well, I think they credited my publishing company. But Mr. X wanted to had an axe to grind. And so he wasn't going to do anything that was going to help me.

Chuck Shute: 36:56

So this Mr. X like he, he made it in the business. He was just stepping over people to get there.

Beau Hill: 37:03

Not really.

Chuck Shute: 37:05

Oh, just the earliest juncture he was still a factor.

Beau Hill: 37:10

Yeah. I mean, it was he was in the right place at the right time. Okay. And he was sort of the conduit with the whole Stevie Nicks Jimmy IV in connection with all that crazy stuff.

Chuck Shute: 37:23

And you still don't want to say his name after all this? No.

Beau Hill: 37:28

It won't. It won't change anything. It won't make anything any better.

Chuck Shute: 37:31

Yeah. So what was your relationship like with Stevie Nicks? Like, did you guys hang out? Because I know that I read something about like, how she had a cocaine thing. Did you ever see her do cocaine? Like, she seemed kind of naive about it? Like, oh, I didn't know it was gonna be bad for me or whatever.

Beau Hill: 37:48

My lips are sealed. Oh,

Chuck Shute: 37:51

you're a class act, Bo. I like it. I like it. Yeah.

Beau Hill: 37:57

Well, I guess we hung out to whatever extent that I was, I was with Sandy, because Sandy was around Stevie all the time back in those days. And I was around Sandy all the time. And, you know, so yeah, we were I think I was more of a bother than anything else. I was just like, part of, part of the troop. And, and again, nobody knew me from a knothole I hadn't sold any records. I hadn't done anything meaningful at all. And so Stevie was being and I think, in all fairness, she was being quite generous. To let me hang out without her, you know, calling security you say get that asshole off my couch. You know?

Chuck Shute: 38:44

What did you notice? Just watching Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, two of the greatest songwriters of all time. Were they always like working? Or do you think they just had such creative genius that they could hang out, relax. And then when it was time to write songs, they get the hits just came to them?

Beau Hill: 39:02

Well, I wish I could tell you something a little juicy, but I never saw them writing at all. I mean, the stuff that they it was done. You know, here's your acoustic guitar played the song by Mmm. And they play it. So that was done, I think probably up in San Francisco in those days. And then when they came down, the songs were done. And Keith just needed to record them.

Chuck Shute: 39:25

Sure. Okay. So you get the job with rat, we got to talk rat. I know you've talked a lot of these stories before. How crazy it was you got fired every time they made a record and such. But you made an interesting comment on the first record out of the cellar, how the band was kind of destitute when they got signed, and then they had massive success relatively quickly. And you said something about how that can mess with somebody's head. Can you elaborate on that? I'm just very curious about that comment. It sounded really interesting.

Beau Hill: 39:54

Well, when you go from like the guttersnipe which is, you know, living below the poverty line. And then 12 months later, you're filing a tax return for 1.2 million. Sometimes that, you know, not everybody can handle that kind of dynamic range. And don't forget, you know, like, Warren was 19. When, when that phenomenon happened, and in the other guys, you know, they were a little bit older, but But nonetheless, it's going from, I'm sure, it's probably the same with like professional athletes,

Chuck Shute: 40:37

I was thinking the exact same thing, that's a great analogy.

Beau Hill: 40:39

If you go from rags to riches literally. And, and the movie business, the record, business, and sports are the only things that I can think of right off the top of my head, were that type of dynamic could could actually happen. And sometimes people are mature enough to understand that this is not normal, and in and conduct themselves accordingly. And then there's those others that are like, wow, this has happened, I'm going to be on this gravy train for the rest of my life. I'm taking my girlfriend to Paris for lunch.

Chuck Shute: 41:20

Yeah, I mean, it is interesting, because it's different than let's say if they won the lottery, and it's just pure luck. I mean, it sounds like I read Stephen Pierce's book. And it sounds like he had a very strong work ethic, like they really grind, at least I don't know about the rest of them. But from what he could say about himself, he really grinded and, and pushed to get his band to where they were like he was, you know, having to argue with or, you know, convince club owners to have their band play and all those kinds of things. Like they really pushed for their band to be where they are. And then when I got there, it's like, but maybe it was still kind of a shock.

Beau Hill: 41:56

Well, you know, I don't know that part of Stephens history, you know, the pre Atlantic years, you know, other than little bits and pieces that I that I picked up. But yeah, I mean, Stevens always seemed to me like he was, he was very determined to make it happen. And it Steven and I developed a very unusual relationship. But it worked. So we didn't mess with it too much. What was

Chuck Shute: 42:31

unusual about it?

Beau Hill: 42:32

Well, for the first record, as you as you probably know, rad did not want me to produce it, right. And they didn't particularly like me, I was thrust upon them. And they begrudgingly had to accept me. And in that process, they had no reason to trust my judgment, they had no reason to listen to anything I had to say. And I wouldn't, I wouldn't blame him one single bit. So every suggestion from an arrangement point of view, or from a melodic point of view, any suggestion that I came up with, was, generally speaking, met with a giant fuck, you know. And after a while, I was making melody suggestions to Steven, and he went, Okay, I'll try that. And then it that relationship just grew. And so it became, okay, what do you want me to sing here? And I'd hum it to him over over the mic. It's okay. Once you try this, and then put one of your A's on the end of it or something like that. And he did. And then the guy and the guys in the band started listening to it. Nice to go. Oh, yeah, I guess that's okay. And so by the time the second record came around, the I really realized what a monster I had created inadvertently, because Stephen stopped coming to the pre production rehearsals. He just wouldn't come. And everybody in the band was starting to get a little pissed. And so they confronted Stephen, they say, Hey, man, you got to start showing up to pre production. He said, Why? Bo's got to write the parts for me anyway. So why do I need to go to free production and drive? He's just going to change them anyway.

Chuck Shute: 44:30

Yeah. So Stephen, he trusted you enough to make those decisions. At that point, he kind of knew that you were going to win out your decisions.

Beau Hill: 44:41

Well, yeah, but But I kind of understood I kind of understood Stephens strengths and weaknesses. And so I obviously tried to steer everything that was going to be his strength. I mean, Steven was no pushover don't don't get me wrong. And if he didn't like something that I told him, you know, he'd say no, that that complete crap. I'm not doing it. But for the most part, we kind of became one, I guess without that sounding too weird. Yeah, but, but I kind of understood him and he kind of understood me. And then we just kind of worked it that way.

Chuck Shute: 45:21

Yeah. Well, I've had Steven on the show. I've had one on the show. Both were very seem pretty mellow, easygoing, guys, very respectful. I've never had blots on the show. But I've seen interviews. I know you said he's been difficult to work with. But what was I haven't seen a lot of interviews with Warren at least nothing recent. What was his personality, like in the studio?

Beau Hill: 45:42

He was he was generally pretty quiet. And I would, I would say, almost reclusive. But he didn't have a real explosive, bigger than life. Personality, at least not around me. And, you know, he did all his talking with the guitar on. And, and that's, I mean, he played so many solos, and I'm sitting there trying to figure out, okay, I need to say something to justify my job. I'm sitting there going, I can't I can't improve on this one bit. It's perfect. Just leave it alone. You know, which is kind of weird, because. But I did learn over over the years is that the the least amount of input that I had, the better it was, cause I had to learn how to just shut up and just accept a great performance when it's just lay right out there in front of me. And just go, Wow, very good. Thank you. And your story. Oh, there you go. I'll get there.

Chuck Shute: 46:54

Yeah, no, that's and then you had obviously multiple albums that were successful with them. But talk about the album that you worked with. Alice Cooper explained this to me, because it says CO produced the constructor album, it says CO produced with Michael Wagner, who's also one of my favorite producers. Did you guys do separate songs? Or did you work every song together?

Beau Hill: 47:16

I did all the recording all the arrangements, everything. And then when we finished the record, they wanted Michael to remix it. And I guess that was part of his negotiation with them. That was that he wanted to CO production credit. And, you know, and I had, again, I had very little wiggle room. I had nothing to say about I mean, Shep said, This is what I want to do. And that's the way it's going to be. So I went okay. So Michael, and I never actually were in the studio together ever.

Chuck Shute: 47:51

Did you ever meet him? Because he you guys are such two of my favorite producers. You You're so both so similar. I think in a lot of ways. A lot of you both produced warrant for one. I mean, you produce a lot of the similar sounding bands.

Beau Hill: 48:06

I think that I have met Michael a couple of times, but literally, it was just median. Hey, man, how's it going? Good to see it. So, no, we never really collaborated work together on anything. And you're right. I mean, he is a really, really, really good producer, for sure.

Chuck Shute: 48:24

Did you have other I mean, I guess Keith Olsen because he was kind of like your mentor. But it was our other producers that you were friends with. You could commiserate about like, oh yeah, Don't you hate it when bands do this? Or production techniques or anything? Sam? Sam Taylor. Yeah. Who wait, remind me who that I'm probably gonna sound stupid for not knowing who that is. Is that That's a producer

Beau Hill: 48:47

of famous kings X.

Chuck Shute: 48:50

Oh, I love Ken. I've had Doug on twice. He's uh, yeah, he's I think kings axe is brilliant. very underrated, for sure.

Beau Hill: 48:58

very underrated. Yeah, Sam and I became friends and is actually best man at his wedding. And he is like, one of one of my absolute favorite producers. And so he and I, we could we could talk about the jerky personalities of certain members of certain bands. And at the same time, we could also talk about now how the hell do you get that guitar sound? You did what? You know. And so and we could we could have that conversation back and forth. And Sam is also tremendously talented musician and writer. And I think he was the director of all of those kings X videos as well. So he was like, fully hands on with everything.

Chuck Shute: 49:43

Yeah, that's a band that I just did a little segment on my YouTube channel. 10 most underrated bands and they were on that list because I think they really are super underrated. And it always seemed like whenever I read interviews, other musicians would always say that was one of their most favorite influential bands. At the time,

Beau Hill: 50:01

I couldn't agree more. It was they were very influential to me. And, and I just we were Wenger was playing at Santa Monica Civic. And I went to our agent in because I knew that kings X was out in that part of the universe. And I said, can you get them to open for us? And he, he made it happen. So kings X opened for winger at Santa Monica Civic. And I was backstage, and I saw Sam. I knew who he was, he didn't know who I was. And I walked up to him. And I said, I just want you to know that you were one of my favorite producers. And he didn't realize that it was me until months later. Wow. I shook his hand. And I said, Great job. That was it.

Chuck Shute: 50:50

That's cool. Because that's the time before social media. So people like I remember seeing your name on all the backs of these records. But I don't know that I had ever seen a picture of you until years later when the internet came out and stuff because they don't put your picture in the album notes for some reason. Maybe they should have to ugly. Well, tell me about this. I don't think I've ever heard you talk about this project. Did you work on this hearts of fire soundtrack you produced and arranged some songs with was a Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton and Ron wood. Did you work with those songs? Or which ones did you work with on that?

Beau Hill: 51:29

Oh, yeah, we did. Yeah, I had the I was finishing up dance and undercover. And Fiona was already in England doing principal photography for the for the film. And, and I was supposed to deliver all of Fiona's music. And so I got over there. And I was I was done. My music was ready to go, ready for principal photography. And I got a call from the director Richard Marquand, who did the second Jedi movie or whatever Star Wars movie. Yeah. He did that one. And, and he and I went to his trailer, and I said, Yes, sir. I did not just met him once before now. And I was you know, he's the boss. And so I was like, Yes, sir. And he said, Well, I've got a real problem. Dylan was supposed to have music ready yesterday for principal photography. And I just got a call from the studio. And those guys are down there. And they're burning through tape, and they haven't gotten one song done. Would you please go down and fix that? I suggest, sir. So I went to air, London. No, no. townhouse, townhouse London. And I walked into the control room. And they had one of the second engineers was running the session. So basically, all he was doing was he just kept putting on reels of tape, running it, and then they would jam or fart around doing whatever they were doing. And so there were like, 15 reels of two inch piled up on the floor. And they hadn't gotten one song out of the batch. And so I go to the control room glass, and I look outside. And I see Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Ron wood, Eric's drummer Henry spin, Eddie. And I was just sitting there going, Wow, what a weird life I lead.

Chuck Shute: 53:37

Basie raising,

Beau Hill: 53:39

it was pretty crazy. And so, you know, I went introduced myself and said, You know, I was trying to be as diplomatic as possible and said, Listen to Richard wanted me to come down and just see if I could lend a hand and Eric, and Henry's Benetti were completely sober. totally sober. Dylan and Ron would were not so

Chuck Shute: 54:06

and so it was like just drunk or was there drugs involved or what

Beau Hill: 54:10

my my lips are sealed that can tell you that we had half of the band that was focused, and the other half of Shall we just say different focus. And so I took some time, and I scanned through, you know, the tapes to see if there is anything in there that I could resurrect. And I found a couple of a couple of things that I okay, we can clean this up here and fix this and do that blah, blah. And you know, an Eric was was sort of looking at me with with these giant eyes kind of going. Thank you. We need it somehow. And so anyway, long story short. The dumb shit kid from Texas is produced A artists that I grew up with, and I actually had Eric, Eric Clapton said well about how was that? Was that okay? Would you like for me to try another one? Is Eric Clapton talking to me, and I just shook my head. I couldn't believe it. But he, you know, they said, Bo's gonna produce this and Eric was so respectful and so professional. And, and he made it happen. So we did those songs. And and then we had to do one other one, a John Hiatt some, Bob insisted on doing a John Hiatt song. And I had to fly down to Nashville. Because John wanted a personal meeting with me to see if, if, if I was qualified enough to produce one of his songs for Bob Dylan. Anyway. And so I did, and he was absolutely lovely, nice guy, you know, gave me the thumbs up said, okay, sure, here's, take the song I forget, had a dream about you, baby or something like that. I don't remember if that was the title or not. And took that over and recorded that. And then in, in keeping with my normal routine, all of my musician friends, including Kip red, David Rosenberg that I could get on the session, to give him some money, and to give them even more, some more recording credits. So those guys helped me out tremendously. And I'm trying to remember that and we took the thing up to Canada. We did some recording up there. Oh, yeah, that's where we did the final, the final big concert scene was done up in Canada anyway, was the worst movie ever. And but it was, it was really a great experience for me, because, and I and I shied away from doing more film work. Because there are so many acids that have to be kissed up and down the line to get anything done. I need to sharpen a pencil, hold on, we got to get approval, up and down and up and down and up and down. And so that experience, I decided, okay, this is not for me, because the bureaucracy. And that was a Lorimar film. So it wasn't like it was, you know, a big Sony bazillion dollar production. It was Lorimar. And, you know, they still spend a lot of money on it. But the whole the whole way that the movie, at least that particular movie ran was so countered to the way that I work because, you know, I'm a producer, I make decisions. And I follow through on my decisions that there are good ones great, the bad ones. So sorry, I'll try better next time. But for me to have to wait, you know, five hours to yes, you can sharpen the pencil, but you can only sharpen it three rotations. Or you have to get more improved. That was where I just completely lost it. Yeah. But I'm glad I had that experience because then I knew where not to focus my attention.

Chuck Shute: 58:36

Yeah, well, did you do you ever get to have fun? Like after you guys finished the song? Did you get to go out and have a celebratory drink with Bob Dylan? Ron would or era Diet Coke with Eric Clapton?

Beau Hill: 58:47

Yeah. We would go over to to Bob's trailer, and, you know, have a session Ender. And And Eric, not so much. I mean, he he wasn't actually on set, he just did music. And so once we finished at the in the studio, then he went home. I don't know where Ron would went. But, you know, I was I was with Bob because his trailer was right next to ours. And you know, we drove back and forth together and stuff like that. So I bought a time with him.

Chuck Shute: 59:30

That's cool. That's cool. Well, one of my favorite bands. I'm sure you can probably tell warrant we got to talk warrant. I know you've told some of these stories before but the cherry pie thing I wanted to clear this up because I think I heard I think maybe you just misspoke, but I thought you said something. I've heard you say it in both interviews, multiple things that it was done was a Don urner is that is named diner diner. Sorry. So diner was the one that said hey, we need another song on this record. But then I also thought I heard you say that You said that we need another song on this record. So but it was coming from Dawn right?

Beau Hill: 1:00:05

Yeah, both things are true. Okay. Don told me, I told the bank.

Chuck Shute: 1:00:09

Okay, so what would you do you have a lot of interactions with Don, he sounds like kind of a fascinating guy. Because on the one hand, you could you could argue that, hey, you know, he's this greedy record executive just cares about money. But on the other hand, I mean, he was right. I mean, they wrote that song, it was a hit and made a lot of money. There's people are still playing that song and movies and commercials today. So do you have any interactions with him?

Beau Hill: 1:00:34

Not too much. Because Donnie was east coast. We were obviously west coast. So you know, the interaction was not not too much with me. I mean, and he would always go through Tom Hewlett. And Eddie, when Rick the management team for warrant. He was that was usually the way that the information was passed to and from. And he had he had a brother. That was like, really, really super big. In I want to say at Columbia, Donnie, and something else minor. Anyway, the two brothers were very were a real powerhouse in the record industry at that time. Yeah, they

Chuck Shute: 1:01:26

said, they read something like he was the youngest president of Columbia Records, or Sony record, whatever it was ever, like, he was clearly like, kind of a prodigy in that position, which again, maybe maybe people don't like those kind of record execs. But I mean, they did have a role in that business in the 80s. And 90s.

Beau Hill: 1:01:45

His his older brother sort of broke the glass ceiling in advance for him. And, you know, with his older brother, as his tutor, basically, I think, I think that's the way that that went. But, you know, I was not privy to the inner workings of Columbia in the same way that I was at Atlantic. So I took more of just like, classic, you know, work for hire producer. Do your job. Shut up. That's it. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 1:02:21

Well, so for the people. I'm sure. Most people if you're Warren fan, you know, the story that Mike's lamer was the guy that played all the solos on the first two records, except the song cherry pie. It was actually CC Deville from poison for people who don't know that story. I mean, it's in the credits or whatever. It wasn't like they're trying to hide it. But what what was the story behind that? Why did you guys get CC for that one song? What did he just happen to be there that day? Or why did you guys get him?

Beau Hill: 1:02:46

Well, CeCe was very nice guy. He was he would not have been my choice to do that. But Jenny wanted to get a starting slot on the poison to her. That was it. That was the long and short of it. So

Chuck Shute: 1:03:04

like, does he call him? Does he know him? Or does he have the record people did make that call or something or

Beau Hill: 1:03:08

I don't remember how they how they did it. I was just informed that this is what we're doing. And, and I went, No, this is not going to work. And then it was wink wink, nudge nudge make it work.

Chuck Shute: 1:03:24

Ah, but is he playing? You didn't replace his solo on that one?

Beau Hill: 1:03:29

No, I didn't. But it it was a lot of work to get what we got. Let me put it that way.

Chuck Shute: 1:03:34

Wait, tell me this story. Why Why so is this when he was doing he was the coked out to write that 9090 or 89. Ellipse?

Beau Hill: 1:03:49

It was. It was a very challenging session for me. Let me put it that way. Isn't that

Chuck Shute: 1:03:54

kind of your role sometimes is you're kind of like a babysitter with these guys. You're the adult adult babysitter.

Beau Hill: 1:04:00

I'm the babysitter and I'm a psychologist.

Chuck Shute: 1:04:04

Okay, so was there was it just he was a little, like, frantic or was there was there wasn't like disagreements on how it should sound or something like that. Right?

Beau Hill: 1:04:13

Well, no, it was. It was so off to my ear. The you know, the approach. I mean, everything was just completely not what I what I had envisioned, and not what I would have done. But you know, I sort of come from the school that you, you sell your record in the first 15 seconds. If somebody doesn't like it, they've changed the station. They've thrown it out or whatever. And so I had to keep talking myself off the ledge and go and bow. This is a hit song. Your 15 Second rule applies to cherry pie, hands down. So if somebody likes the song long enough to get to two minutes and 20 seconds to listen to this crazy solo Then you're already there, you're home free. So don't go crazy with this. And I had to keep telling myself that all the time all the time, but nothing against Cece, personally, he is tremendously funny. I never I laugh till my my ribs hurt. But when it came down to, you know, to the nut cuttin Mike slammer, in my opinion, was 100 times better overall technician and guitar player, then CC was I mean, he, Mike is so good that I could say, Okay, I'm thinking of something with a little Spanish influence. I'm just making this up, but and he'd say, how about this room? Now I want something that's a little more Roman, do that CC was a little more you kind of you get what you get. And then I spent a good number of hours editing together, what became the final take on on cherry pie. So you had

Chuck Shute: 1:06:10

to edit, like edit notes and things are what do you mean, but

Beau Hill: 1:06:15

Well, what you do is, is you would comp it. So I would have had him play like a thumbnail, three solos on three different tracks. And then I would go through, and I would chart out on staff paper, or I would just make whatever notes I made. So I could get the best piece of this one with the best piece of the second tag with the best piece of the third tag, glue them all together and see if it if it floated. And so I would that was kind of my procedure with everything. And then I had like my bionic take of CC solo with X number of edits and, and then be okay, this is the best that we got. Let's try and beat it. And so then using that as a baseline, we would try to get a better performance. And you know, most of the time we could but what we were always keeping the best of the best of the best.

Chuck Shute: 1:07:19

And did you so did you have Mike Slimer play a solo like on the demo or something?

Beau Hill: 1:07:25

I don't remember To be honest, because the record was done. And so this was a this was a an emergency 911 session. And as I remember it, I don't think I don't think my camera ever played on it. I couldn't be wrong. I could not be remembering properly.

Chuck Shute: 1:07:46

So what did Janie was Janie happy with CeCe solo did was because he's the one who wanted CC. So was he like, oh, yeah, this is perfect. This is what I wanted.

Beau Hill: 1:07:57

I don't know. But oh, yeah. This got me the result that I wanted. So I'm happy.

Chuck Shute: 1:08:04

Okay, so as to get that he they did get that slot on the poison tour.

Beau Hill: 1:08:08

Yes, they did. Okay. And so

Chuck Shute: 1:08:10

he is he kind of went back and forth with that song. Because first, he said, Oh, I hate it. I'm the Cherry Pie Guy. Then later, he said, Oh, no, I didn't mean those comments. But to me, I felt like he just kind of let the the truth slip out. He wasn't real happy about that. But he knew that saying that publicly was probably not a good move for his career.

Beau Hill: 1:08:29

Well, I, I talked to JD, about three days before he passed. And we had a wonderful conversation. He was completely lucid. He was it was it was one of those kinds of things where, you know, you can not see somebody for five or six years. And then when you connect with them again, it's just like you saw him yesterday. And that was the conversation that we had. And he was lamenting about, you know, the Cherry Pie Guy and all that. And I said, Man, you're really looking at this wrong. You know, you have you have written a Rock Anthem that they will play at major league baseball games, and they'll play it forever. And who does that? You queen? Maybe ACDC you know, but it's a small handful of people that have actually written a song that 90% of the people will know exactly what song it is when you've played the second chord of the beginning of the song. And, and I said so I really think you're looking at this wrong. I don't at all I tell people proudly. Yes, I was the producer cherry pie. Because that's so hard to do to be able to connect with that many people over all this time and people still like it. Yeah. Wow. Well, he's

Chuck Shute: 1:09:56

done so many other great songs. Did you so you had that car conversation. Did you ever have any other conversations with him? Do you guys ever have like a deep philosophical conversation because I just think he's such a genius, songwriter. So underrated if you listen to some of the other tracks that are not maybe hits or whatever, just seems like a very interesting person that I would like to talk to, you know, I have a conversation about the meaning of life or something deep like that.

Beau Hill: 1:10:23

Yeah, we talked we talked about stuff all the all the time. And I would ask him, tell me, tell me what's behind. I saw red. Yeah. And, and we would, we would sit there and have a couple of vodka tonics, and he would, and he would tell me about him. So yeah, it was what is

Chuck Shute: 1:10:45

behind the song. I saw Rex. I love that song.

Beau Hill: 1:10:48

Well, it was it was something very personal to him, obviously. And he was he was a he was a really, really great guy. He was a lot of fun to work with. And a real super talent. And I kept telling him, I said, Man, if you ever if you don't make it as a rock and roll musician, you'd make it as a Baptist preacher. Be sure

Chuck Shute: 1:11:16

because that emotion and the heart and the passion

Beau Hill: 1:11:19

Oh, yeah, he did without without question. And he was also a tremendously funny. So when we would go and have dinner or something outside of the studio, we were both just cracking up the whole time. I'm missing he was a good guy.

Chuck Shute: 1:11:35

Yeah, that's so cool. Like so what like when you're doing a song like I saw read or another song that I think is really underrated, that you when you went back and you recorded the ultra phobic the song stronger now, which I think at the time, I remember him saying that he felt like that was the best song you ever wrote? How do you coach someone on getting the emotion out? Is that even part of your job as a producer to kind of, hey, you need to sing it with more for get more emotion out of this? Or is that something that you're you're just more sonically about getting the right notes and things like that?

Beau Hill: 1:12:07

No, I mean, because part of part of your job as a producer, you can't leave any stone unturned. And so if somebody has written the greatest lyrics in the world with the greatest melody in the world, but there are absolutely no heart behind it. It's going to come off flat. And, and one of my many jobs is to make sure that the it gets, you know, kick up the butt. And I want to feel it, because that's got to translate to you the listener. And if you're not if it's flat to you, well, it's flat that says it's no good. And Jamie, I never had that problem with him. I mean, he wore everything on his sleeve. And every time he went up to the microphone, I got 110% out of him always.

Chuck Shute: 1:12:59

I love to hear that. I know you didn't produce the third record, Doggy Dog. It was actually Michael Wagner, who we mentioned earlier, but I was curious, like, Did you ever hear any of those demos? Or do you think that they could have done something I love that album? But I'm just curious, like if they could have maybe changed it a little bit like maybe toned down the guitars not so dark and made it a little bit of a poppier record, because some of the demos I heard from that era, there's a song called pop music. I don't know if you've heard that one. The the song thin disguise, which maybe that technically was on the cherry pie, but they could have they could have put together No, Genie said, I don't want to make cherry pie part two. But what if they could have kind of just evolved a little bit and made it sound a little bit more like cherry pie? I mean, do you think that that could have been a strategy?

Beau Hill: 1:13:47

It certainly it certainly could have. But don't forget when Doggy Dog came out, was when all the hair metal music was unraveling in real time after nirvana. And so with that as the backdrop, I think they wanted to kind of grunge it up and Seattleite up just a little bit. Which, which was a shame, but I understood why they did it that way.

Chuck Shute: 1:14:20

Is that why they didn't pick you as a producer?

Beau Hill: 1:14:22

No. I was at Interscope. And so my contract with Interscope gave me one outside album per year, and that would have been Wingard.

Chuck Shute: 1:14:33

What about, would you ever go back and remix or remaster? Some of those songs like pop music or medicine man or those kinds of things and put out you know, unreleased Janey Lane warrants album.

Beau Hill: 1:14:48

Well, it's funny that you mentioned that because I just did that with kicks. Yeah, I really did blow my fuse and midnight dynamite. I loved that experience more than I can ever tell you? So yes, the answer is unequivocally yes. If somebody could get me a digital copy of the analog masters, I'm there.

Chuck Shute: 1:15:10

Or would you consider producing a new warrant album with their new singer Robert Mason, maybe bring in some co writers and make a classic sounding warrant album kind of similar to what I don't know if you heard the new skid row album. The gang's all here, but oh, God, it just I mean, it sounds like it's made in 1991. It's amazing.

Beau Hill: 1:15:30

Oh, no, I haven't heard it. But yeah, you know, I mean. It's the quality of the writing that may warrant so special to me. And if they wanted to do a new record, and if the quality of the writing was up up to par, then sure I would I look at it. But that's, that's really about all I can say there. You know, hypothetically speaking.

Chuck Shute: 1:16:04

Yeah, cuz I know you do mostly mixing at this point. But do you miss the producing like, sitting in the studio with a band, like old school for like a month and working through the songs? Like, that's got to be kind of fun, right?

Beau Hill: 1:16:18

Well, yeah, it's, it's like anything else, you know, it's got its good parts. And it's got its bad parts. But, yes, I mean, I spent decades as a studio rat, and I loved it. You know, and I guess, if I, if I could rewind the clock, and I could go back and have the quality studios, the, basically kind of unlimited budgets, so that I could sit in there and really, you know, drill down into the whole process, then, yeah, it was. But as as we watch the record business, morph into this new weird thing, whatever it is, you know, in the budgets became like, ridiculous. Ly small. You know, it's kind of when you're used to driving a Ferrari, then it's kind of tough to go back. And here's the keys to VW bus. So if you kind of get what I'm saying, yeah,

Chuck Shute: 1:17:29

no, it's definitely changed in so many regards that, yeah, I guess in ways it's good, because I think it gives bands, that wouldn't have a chance before that couldn't get signed, or whatever, it gives them a chance to be heard. But the problem is, now it's just such a flooded market, it's like trying to sort through all the music, you can't keep up with all the different bands and things.

Beau Hill: 1:17:50

Well, and the other. The other reason why just kind of mix now is a up, I've got my studio in my house. So I'm great there. And a lot of people can figure out how to get how to record a song on Pro Tools, for example, you know, in their basement in their underwear, but they can't figure out kind of how do I make this sound like a radio broadcast ready, final product. And it's just, you know, some of that stuff is, is going to become a lost art. Because, you know, there's the Michael Wagner is in the MES, that came up in the analog universe, and then kind of had to scramble the egg, and morph into digital and then kind of, but you take all of that knowledge and all of that. All the procedure that you learn from the analog universe, and all the restrictions from the analog universe, and then you just blow it up in the digital universe. So now you can, if you can think the idea digitally, you can probably do it,

Chuck Shute: 1:19:01

right, because you still there's still parts of like arranging and thing and like, hey, we need a solo here, or we need a background like a hey, on this part, there's so many different things that you can do. That's still a huge part for the real, like, music producer, rather than just doing Pro Tools or whatever.

Beau Hill: 1:19:19

Yeah, and, and especially, you know, I mean, my background is, is is composition. And so, you know, making sure that the song is set up in a particular way and it tells the story in a particular way and that you kind of guide the listener through the experience of that particular song. You know, like I saw read, it was a perfect example of that. I mean, if you really concentrated listen to the words, I mean, it took you on the journey all the way. And, you know, in that's a that's an art form that you can't get by I you know, turning on a, a drumbeat and rapping to it or something, or at least or I'm not smart enough to figure out how to do that.

Chuck Shute: 1:20:10

Yeah, no, I love I love that. And then like, I mean, I think it was such a ballsy move to put like a banjo and stuff on Uncle Tom's Cabin on cherry pie at the time. And that was very unusual, but it really still stands the test of time. In my opinion, I think that song is one of the greatest songs on that album for sure. Like, it's crazy. That wasn't a bigger hit.

Beau Hill: 1:20:31

It's a it was a favorite of mine. And I actually was kind of shocked that it worked as good as it did. Because I've never played banjo before. And the guys were in Japan. And I had a bunch of studio time with nothing to do. And so I taught myself how to play banjo, or that little bit on I'm not a banjo player, but I was able to fumble through it on that.

Chuck Shute: 1:20:57

Yeah. And it's it also like isn't the story that's Janie's brother at the beginning, he was just messing around in the studio, and you just hit record and you're like, that's perfect. Let's just do leave it at that.

Beau Hill: 1:21:07

He was warming up. And it blew my mind so bad. I like left across the console and threw it into record. And I probably missed whatever the beginning of it was that caught my eye my ear in the first place. But I'm glad I got what I got.

Chuck Shute: 1:21:26

And you didn't try to have him take any do any other takes to just see what he could have.

Beau Hill: 1:21:30

No, that was it. It is and I was bound and determined I'm going to make this work somehow. Because he was just he was just ad libbing he was warming up and ad libbing. It wasn't necessarily in the correct tempo or the correct key or whatever. I don't remember exactly what happened. But I didn't care. Because it was so such a great performance that I you know, so every now and then you kind of have to color outside the margins a little bit and which we did on that song. But yeah, I kept it.

Chuck Shute: 1:22:06

Yeah, those are great. It's funny. I was I was also I was going to ask you about the soundtrack songs that weren't did but you didn't produce those the ones on the gladiator sat where they did the remake of we will rock you and think the power or whatever, those songs are really good too. But like you didn't even produce those somebody else.

Beau Hill: 1:22:24

I didn't do though.

Chuck Shute: 1:22:26

Yeah. Did you you just at that point you'd already left for Interscope to or is that?

Beau Hill: 1:22:31

Yeah, I was not allowed to do it.

Chuck Shute: 1:22:34

Yeah. So talk about your that job that you had at Interscope? Did you like it? Or it wasn't kind of really wasn't your thing, because you weren't really able to produce as many bands at that point?

Beau Hill: 1:22:46

Well, okay, I can give you my version of the universe. When I had never been a record company executive at all, I had no, I didn't really understand what that was about. And when we started Interscope, we had a completely blank slate. So we had, you know, a fully staffed up label with no product. And so it was like, oh, yeah, we got to get that product thing going. And so I spent a lot of my time. Initially, I wasn't in the office at all, I mean, I was out, trying to cobble together some deals with some smaller labels spent a lot of time in Europe, trying to get a couple of those small indie labels, just so that we had something. And as it turned out, the first thing that we had was Rico, Suave, who he was pretty weird. And then I developed a couple of a couple of Acts. And and then it just, it just fell apart. That for me, anyway, the, the politics were, that you had, you had to really navigate in a very astute manner, with the people that were involved there. And I can certainly take responsibility for myself that I was not very astute in my navigating with those personalities, I was just more of a What the fuck are you talking about? You know? And then that, ultimately, it didn't it didn't run very well, you know, on the on the the people that that I was talking with. And the other thing you know, the whole concept about you for an a&r meeting, which happened once a week and everybody sits around around the table and it takes hours and he get very little done. And, and so I kind of lost my patience with that. And I prefer to be in the studio working on something. So I guess I sort of ostracized myself from, from the Interscope culture just, I just, I didn't understand it. And what I did understand I didn't particularly like, but it was a situation that, that on paper, it looked really good. And Jimmy and I did a lot of a lot of meetings, a lot of everything for like, a year and a half before we actually officially did Interscope. I mean, we were talking to Irving AES off about doing a label with his record company, I think it was Republic at that time. And, you know, and so we, we were scratching, everything that was out there. So a lot of time was spent. And then when the the whole Ted field thing came up. We had already agreed, in theory, to doing a sublabel deal with Doug and Atlantic. We hadn't signed the paperwork or anything like that. And then Jimmy walks up to me one day, and he says, Listen, I'm not doing the deal with Doug. And I was like, what? He said, Nope, I'm gonna do it with Ted fields. I said, Who's that? And he said, Well, he's the owner of was it wasn't adequate vision. It was anyway. He said, This guy's worth $1.2 billion. And he's he owns the office building on Wilshire Boulevard, the 10th floor has already been carved out for Interscope. And his budget for the first was like $100 million or something. It was something crazy. And Atlantic had or had offered Jimmy and I 10 million. And so Jimmy being Jimmy went for the money. And he said, you know, Ted's got all the office space. He's got everything all covered. He's got he's got a budget of 100 million, I'm going with him. So that's how that happened.

Chuck Shute: 1:27:19

And that gave you a chance to sign a band that you were really gung ho about, right? I mean, it was there some bands that you were like, Oh, this guy love this band. I know you did. Some unruly child, I think was one and I don't know if Black Bambi was on Interscope. But those ones they didn't work out. But were those projects that you were excited about. At the time,

Beau Hill: 1:27:41

very black, Bambi was Atlantic. Okay. And that was a was a tragedy because of backroom politics, the manager did not get along with the powers that be at Atlantic. And so it doesn't have anything to do with the man and it didn't have anything to do with me. It was just, you know, oil and water didn't mix. And so it was like, see you later, you know, and Atlanta could ride off a baby band project like that and not blink an eye. As far as unruly child goes, I've absolutely loved that band. And there is a story to this. The record was done, finished. And we were going for a celebratory dinner at a Mexican food restaurant right around the corner from a&m Studios in LA. Hey, what let's get together for eight o'clock we'll have dinner, slam a couple of margaritas and high five each other and off we go. Okay, so everybody shows up and then Mark chose that moment to come out and become Marcy. They you know all about that, right?

Chuck Shute: 1:29:04

I don't know that I do away refresh my memory.

Beau Hill: 1:29:07

Okay, Mark free is no longer Mark free. He has an and he chose that day, that dinner next door to a&m Studios to come out. And so he came dressed like Laura Petrie from The Dick Van Dyke Show, full makeup and the whole bit, and I just sat there. And as soon as I saw him walk in the door, I went, we're done. We're toast. Because Mark was like, Robert Plant, you know, I mean, he was a big stud, lead singer. And now all of a sudden he came in and he was like I don't know. So I sat there. And I was just

Chuck Shute: 1:30:00

This is what the what year? Is this? Like? 1990? This is before this was kind of a trend. That's

Beau Hill: 1:30:04

yeah. Oh, yeah, you bet it was. And, you know, and at that point I was I was going okay, so let's, let's try to imagine what the next a&r meeting is going to be like, around this. And it did. It was not, wasn't taken very well. So everybody was expecting Led Zeppelin. And we got Tiny Tim. And that's, that's no reflection on Mark marks a great guy. Great, are Marcy is a great person and a great singer. And, and I wish her nothing but the best. But that one move at that one moment in time torpedo that record. And I think it also it also has certain negative effect on my standing within Interscope. If I were going to be completely honest, I mean, and I'm sure that people kind of held me responsible that I should have known or suspected or something, but I didn't, I wasn't looking for that. And I had no reason to look for it, because Mark showed up as mark every day. And so anyway, it was just another one of those. One of those tough, unexpected lessons that we learned in the record business.

Chuck Shute: 1:31:28

Yeah, but it's amazing. I mean, just because it seems like it's so hard to have a hit song and hit record, and you produce so many that were hits, like, your track record is still pretty good based on I mean, your whole career, it's pretty amazing that you had that many hit records.

Beau Hill: 1:31:43

But you're, you're absolutely tucan. But yeah, you're right. And, you know, cuz I've been asked this question before, and I came down to, like, there's three elements that I could associate with pretty much every hit record that I had. Number one, you had to have, by me, obviously, great material. But you had to have MTV, you had to have terrestrial radio, and you had to have impact at bricks and mortar records. And you had to have complete harmony between management label, agent, artist, producer, you had to have everybody on the exact same page. And when you had those elements together, then it was and you can probably talk to other people that have had similar experiences. And when those elements are present, then your chances of having success are exponentially kind of off the chart.

Chuck Shute: 1:32:55

Yeah, and so what would you say the formulas for success in the music business now because it's clearly changed quite a bit, right.

Beau Hill: 1:33:05

My, my idea of the formula now is Don't quit your day job.

Chuck Shute: 1:33:13

Okay, so what are your thoughts on like, I don't know if you know, I'm, I'm assuming you know, the story, but maybe you don't. But like all over Anthony, that kid was this, this little country singer and Virginia or something blows up with this song. And out of nowhere, just the thing goes viral. And but he's very, like anti music business. He wants to keep his ticket costs low or do free shows and things like that. What are your thoughts on him? Because I find I liked the song and I find that I find his personality. Very interesting.

Beau Hill: 1:33:43

Yeah, me too. I have to be honest, that the whole See, I'm not I'm not on Facebook, or any of that stuff, homie, don't do any of that. So I'm not sure how the whole the whole marketing and the likes and I don't like and I'm influenced, and I'm not influenced, I'm not really exactly sure mechanically how that works. Just because it's not anything that interests me in the slightest. So I don't really know what buttons this kid pressed to give him that overnight sensation. But clearly, he hit a nerve. And maybe that's the one benefit out of the sort of the digital social media thing is that if you manage to press the right button at the right time, you can start having his kind of problems, which are good problems to have if you're a guitar playing songwriting musician. Yeah. To be smart enough to know how to do all that stuff.

Chuck Shute: 1:34:52

It's interesting to me because he's, you know, he, which I think is cool that he wants to keep his ticket costs low or do free shows, but I feel like people are still going to make money off of him. And he's just not going to get a piece of the pie, right. So like he could do a free show him doing a free show at this place. But then the venue is going to charge people for parking, and they're going to charge $12 beers and you know, $10 hotdogs. And if he doesn't get any of that, it's like, he's not people are making money off him. And he's not getting a piece of the pie, which even if he want, he doesn't want the money, he could give it to a charity or something. So I don't know, it's kind of interesting.

Beau Hill: 1:35:26

Well, then it for for a situation like that. If if he was asking my sage advice and guidance, I would say, get yourself the most cutthroat manager and attorney that you possibly can. And if and then you lay out the rules. These are the rules that I will play by and if not that, and then he won't get taken advantage of like the $12 beers and the $25 for parking and shit like that.

Chuck Shute: 1:35:56

Yeah. Well, so what Yeah, well explain why you're not on social media, just I would think you'd want to just just do it just for the fact to keep in touch with all these people, like, you know, the winger kids and you know, all these other bands and musicians that you've worked with, you don't want to, you know, have any interest in seeing what they're up to and chat with them?

Beau Hill: 1:36:16

Well, I do. I just just got back from the final kick show. Oh, to that. Wow. Of course I did. I wouldn't miss it. And well, here's, here's the thing, I guess, the people that want to find me can find me, you found me? Yeah. Right. So and it happens. I mean, I have artists from around the world, a lot of whom I've never met, reach out. Hi, how's it going? Blah, blah, blah, you remember us, we mixed soy and soy and bought. And it's the whole idea about like, sharing holiday photos and things of that nature. I don't want anybody to know when I'm home, or when I'm or not. And the people that I want to share a photo with, I just email it to them. So I've got an email list of like, 50 people. And if I take some great, mind blowing, earth shattering moment, on a trip somewhere, I'll send it and, and correspond that way. But the whole the, the whole social media thing has has, I never really understood it. And I've never really understood why people are so into it. You know, because if if somebody is is influenced, just because somebody else posted an opinion. And then to me, I'm like going home. I don't I don't get that. So because I have this funny thing of I make my own opinions. And the only person that really influences me that she who must be obeyed.

Chuck Shute: 1:38:05

Yeah, I think it is hard. Like, if you have a band or a podcast, such as myself, like you kind of have to be on social media, because that's how you get your name out there. That's how you but if you've already established a name for yourself, I guess. Yeah, maybe it gets you don't need it.

Beau Hill: 1:38:21

Well, I mean, you know, I could be totally wrong. But when's the last time you? You got a Facebook post from Mutt Lange? Ever?

Chuck Shute: 1:38:32

Now? Is he's not on social media either.

Beau Hill: 1:38:35

I don't think so. Yeah. I mean,

Chuck Shute: 1:38:38

there's a lot of because I'll find I you know, I have besides musicians and producers and people in the music business, there's people in the movie and TV business and authors and there's a lot of them that I check everything I check LinkedIn I check Twitter that they're not on there. And that's frustrating at least you have a website so I can find you but some of those people I'm like, I don't know how to find these people.

Beau Hill: 1:38:59

Yeah, in the the guys that I've worked with that that willing to stay in touch with me they do. Yeah, guys that don't want to stay in touch with me. They don't. And, and I'm okay with that. Either way. That's what

Chuck Shute: 1:39:13

I've noticed too is the older I get the smaller my circle gets, like I just have I have my girlfriend and a few close friends and family and and I don't need all the other I mean, I have the social media and I just post stuff and it's kind of like I want to just post and ghosts and just get away and not because I don't want to interact with all the the riffraff you know, just there's a lot of trolls and things that that's one thing that you probably are glad you don't have to deal with is people making comments. Like if you did post a vacation photo or whatever, people would criticize it or say it's crooked or whatever, you know, like just stupid things.

Beau Hill: 1:39:47

Yeah. I don't need that in my life. So you know, and I'm, I'm good. Get up, go to the driving range, hit the gym, come home. Mix a little bit. And then six o'clock. Open bottle of wine with my wife and life is good.

Chuck Shute: 1:40:07

What kind of wine do you like? Oh, I'm

Beau Hill: 1:40:09

a sharp guy.

Chuck Shute: 1:40:10

Oh, you'd like the whites? Yeah. Okay.

Beau Hill: 1:40:13

My wife is red toad. Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 1:40:15

I'd like her. I like Pinot Noir. That's my favorite.

Beau Hill: 1:40:18

Yeah, that's good. It's all good. Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 1:40:20

when you were in the 80s and 90s? I mean, I know you were just the nose to the grindstone. You're hardworking guy. I don't think that you went out and did a lot of partying. But there must have been one or two times where you were able invited to some maybe label party or something. You must have seen some crazy Hollywood Hills parties. star studded Is there any stories you have like that? Because just for an average guy that grew up in the suburbs, we don't have those kinds of stories, like, is there something that you saw that you can? I know, you're literally CEO, but is there something you can tell me?

Beau Hill: 1:40:52

Well, since since you've spoken to peers, he probably told you about rat mansion West, right? Uh,

Chuck Shute: 1:41:02

was that before they made it or after must have been after right?

Beau Hill: 1:41:07

It was kind of during, okay. Because they did a couple of gigs. You know, in the up and down Sunset, I think while we were doing the first record, and they always had had these crazy parties over at their apartment. And their apartment is one of those that was kind of a square with the swimming pool in the middle. And they called it rat match in West which, and they had a couple of apartments up there. And that thing was absolutely insane. And so, you know, there was that. And then there were also probably a few label things that got pretty out of hand. And, you know, in probably, if memory serves, there were probably a couple of late nights at the studio that that got pretty adventurous. And but generally speaking, and I mean, very generally. You know, I had, I tried to have a good time as much as possible. But I realized that I'm a day person. And so for me to pull an all nighter and be slam and vodkas at three in the morning, meant I was completely shocked for the next day. Right. And so I tried to, to, you know, tame it down just a little bit, to where I can still keep my regular schedule going. Well, you said like, rat

Chuck Shute: 1:42:39

was more fun on tour than they were in the studio, because it was like, there wasn't you guys were just, it was more of a social thing at that point, right? Yeah. Were they the who was the most fun band? If you were going to have that late night? Or was it warrant? Or was it rather a different band

Beau Hill: 1:43:01

it wouldn't have been rat, because there's there's too much internal strife with those guys. So it wouldn't have been them. It would have been Kix. It would have been Europe. And it would have been M warrant. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 1:43:19

That sounds fair. Yeah, I bet it would have been fun to be part of that. That blood sweat and beers tour. I just hear so many stories. That sounds like it was just a blast. It was you know, a warrant trickster and firehouse that seems like it would have been a really fun tour to hang out with on a night.

Beau Hill: 1:43:34

I'll I'll bet I didn't I didn't go on that on that tour at all. But um, I'm sure it was probably a riot.

Chuck Shute: 1:43:40

Yeah, very cool. Well, thank you so much for doing this great stories. I so many things that I'd never heard before. I appreciate you telling all the stories. I always end promoting a charity. Is there a charity that you want to promote here at the end?

Beau Hill: 1:43:53

tunnel to towers? What's it called? tunnel to towers?

Chuck Shute: 1:43:59

What is that exactly?

Beau Hill: 1:44:03

It's uh, Frank Silla is the CEO. And it it. They build houses and take care of mortgages for fallen soldiers and first responders.

Chuck Shute: 1:44:16

Oh, see, this is why I love doing this because I always find out about these charities. I've never I've never heard of that one. But it sounds amazing. That's great. And

Beau Hill: 1:44:23

tunnels to towers. And the reason why I like this is that 96 cents out of every dollar goes to help the vets or the Goldstar families things like that.

Chuck Shute: 1:44:36

That's amazing. I love that I will put that link in the show notes along with your website if people want to contact you. Shield mixing for them. Not obviously for free. It's your job. Right. So but you still work with a lot of bands. Yeah. Yeah, there was one I heard. I think they might have just recently broke up but it was called Dustbowl joke ease and you did a song for them. And I was like, Well, this is kind of a cool band. Like, is there a lot of newer bands that you've heard that sound good like that?

Beau Hill: 1:45:05

Yeah, I mean, if there's if there's, if there's no redeeming qualities, then I'll just politely say, thank you. I can't really help you. Yeah. So, you know, there's some redeeming quality and all of these little weird offshoot things that I do. And that keeps it interesting for me, because I have no idea how they recorded it, what mics, they use all I just get the result at the end. And it's kind of like, you know, if you if I was a chef, and I made beef stew, and I gave it to you, and I said, Okay, pick out all the green peas. You know, that's kind of what they do to me. It's I become kind of the musical janitor. They just give me this stuff. And it's like, fix it. But you love it. Yeah, I do. Yeah. And, and the more I do it, the more I realize I really can fix it.

Chuck Shute: 1:46:04

Yeah, I know. You're great at what you do. Thank you so much for doing this interview. And thank you just for your contributions with music. I mean, the music, you've made the music world so much better. To me, all these records that I've grown up with, I got to listen to you help me create those. So thank you for all that.

Beau Hill: 1:46:21

Well, you're you're absolutely too kind and it's my pleasure.

Chuck Shute: 1:46:25

All right. Well, thanks, Bo. We'll stay in touch. Okay, we'll do okay. Thank you for taking the time to listen to the full podcast episode. Please help support our guests by following them on social media and purchasing their products, whether it be a book, album, film, or other thing, and if you have a few extra dollars, please consider donating it to their favorite charity. If you want to support the show, you can like share and comment on this episode on social media and YouTube. And if you want to go the extra mile, you can give us a rating and review on Spotify, Apple podcasts or Google podcasts. Finally, make sure you're subscribed to the Show on YouTube for the video versions and other exclusive content. We appreciate your support. Have a great rest of your day. Shoot for the moon