Steve Lillywhite says working with The Rolling Stones was “hell”
Producer Steve Lillywhite, who produced The Rolling Stones’ 18th studio album, Dirty Work, has confessed that working with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards was “hell”.
Speaking recently on the Word in Your Ear podcast, Lillywhite opened up about the formative experience, sharing, “I worked with Keith and Mick when they were not talking to each other at all.”
He added that, at that time in 1985, the continual infighting between the duo meant that they spoke to each other “maybe one hour out of the whole time that we were making the record.”
Lillywhite admitted, “It was hell. They literally weren’t [in the same room].”
As a result, the producer was put in an awkward position, revealing. “I would have one come up to me go ‘blah blah blah blah. And I would go and say [the message] to the other one. And he would go, ‘You tell him, blah blah blah blah.’”
As a result of this curious role, Lillywhite likened himself to an American diplomat: “I say I was Henry Kissinger.”
Thankfully, the producer was able to take some lessons away from the experience: “I learned this from The Rolling Stones: Never stop people coming into the studio. Always have an open-door policy.”
He went on, “When people come in, and they listen to something, I sort of hear it through their ears. So there might be something that I’m, subconsciously, I’m thinking it’s not quite right, but it hasn’t come to the conscience yet. Whereas when someone’s in there listening, and I’m playing them a rough mix, I go, ‘Got it. Now I know what we have to change.’”
Of course, Dirty Work eventually hit the markets; despite mixed critical reception, the full-length was a top 10 hit in more than a dozen markets. It went on to achieve platinum status in the US. Due to the strain in their relationship, the band never toured the LP.
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