John Lennon and Aerosmith producer Jack Douglas dead at 80
Jack Douglas, the producer famed for his work with artists from John Lennon to Aerosmith, has died aged 80.
Douglas was a stalwart of Record Plant Studios, often being cited as the “sixth member” of Aerosmith due to his prolific work across their albums, and also having been the last person to record Lennon on the day he was killed.
The sad news of the producer’s passing was announced via a Facebook post from his family on May 12th, which explained that he died the previous night.
The statement began, “A note from Jack’s family. He passed away peacefully on Monday night,” before adding, “As many of you who follow him know, he produced great music, and lived a colorful life. We know that he touched many of your lives.”
Signing off the announcement with “he will be missed”, the family encouraged followers to share personal memories and stories about Douglas in the comments of the post.
Douglas was largely known for his iconic body of work with Aerosmith, becoming increasingly closely bound with the band after engineering and producing a selection of their most famous albums including Toys in the Attic, Rocks, Get Your Wings, and Draw the Line.
In a 2024 interview with Far Out, Douglas said this experience of working with Aerosmith was “the pinnacle of their ’70s work, I became a friend, a confidant and a sixth member of the band.”
However, one of his most startling legacies will undoubtedly be his co-production role on John Lennon’s Double Fantasy, becoming the last person to ever record with the former Beatle in the hours before he was murdered on December 8th, 1980.
Describing Lennon to Far Out as “such a great person and a huge star and so humble,” he added that the musician “was very open to suggestion and very easy to work with. He took direction without any problem. He would let me comp his vocals without being in the room saying this one or that one; he left it totally up to me. There was a lot of trust.”
As such, having struck up a close relationship, Douglas stood in as Yoko Ono’s representative in front of the world’s media in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.
Consequently, he said he sadly “went into post-traumatic stress syndrome,” as a result, adding, “That lasted for years. I hid out, I did drugs, tonnes of heroin. I was pretty messed up from that whole thing.”
Despite this, Douglas continued to have an illustrious career, revealing that he had worked on ‘American Pie’ by Don McLean as well as the first album by The New York Dolls, thus securing his status as one of music’s most acclaimed producers.
Having originally had no professional experience in the music industry, the producer started out as the janitor at Record Plant,and once said in an interview. “I would beg other engineers if I could just sit in on their sessions so I could learn, and I worked my way up.”
He began by working out of hours with local bands and artists, often creating demos for them for free. However, this was the ticket that eventually secured Billy Joel his first record deal with Columbia in 1972.
No cause of death has been disclosed.
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