Why Butch Vig turned down producing Van Halen
Ever since the 1990s, Butch Vig has always been one of the unassuming legends of rock and roll. Despite being the mastermind who helped create the sounds for artists like Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins, Vig usually helped the act get to where they are while never having to be the kind of domineering presence you see out of most hotshot producers. When he got the opportunity to work with icons like Van Halen, Vig admitted that he had to baulk at the chance.
Then again, Van Halen always seemed to have a system that worked whenever they went into the studio. Ignoring the dumpster fire that occurred when they made Van Halen III, half of the band’s best material came from Eddie working away on riffs in his garage before returning to the rest of the band and making the greatest music anyone had ever heard.
By the time the band started working on masterpieces like 1984, they hardly needed a producer anymore. As much as Ted Templeman may have worked wonders for them at the time, Eddie would be in the producer’s chair more often than not, making sure every instrument sounded right in the mix and levelling the vocals so David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar came out loud and clear.
When the 1990s rolled around, the band needed a change of scenery. Since the biggest names were turning to the world of grunge music, Vig was suddenly being seen as a major power player in the game, working his magic on Sonic Youth before eventually making Nevermind by Nirvana one of the biggest albums of the decade.
While Eddie would still take the reins with the Gary Cherone version of the band, the band admitted that needed some sense of direction after going back into the studio. After doing the impossible and reuniting Eddie and Roth for the first time in years, Wolfgang Van Halen convinced his father to unearth some songs for the album A Different Kind of Truth, which also meant reining in the band.
Going down the list of potential producers, Vig was at the top of the band’s list most of the time, having continued working on his production credits for bands like Against Me! As well as providing the low end to Garbage. Despite any producer with a working pulse would probably love to work with someone like Van Halen, Vig had to politely decline after thinking it over for a bit.
During the production cycle for Foo Fighters’ Wasting Light, Vig got the call to work with Van Halen before being talked out of it, saying, “I was curious and interested, and then I called a couple of people, and they said, ‘You don’t want to go down that path. It’s a nightmare trying to get them to focus, trying to get Eddie [Van Halen] to focus, and it’s going to be a thankless job…so I passed on it”.
Listening to the album, it’s easy to see what Vig was talking about, too, with Eddie’s guitars being right up front and all but drowning out most of the decent basslines that Wolfgang was playing behind him. Although Vig shut down the chance of working with the hard rock legends, there was some vindication later in his career, turning the knobs for the song ‘Cut Me Some Slack’ featuring Dave Grohl with Paul McCartney.
