Andy Johns dead at 61

Wally Moyers · Post by **Wally Moyers** » 10 Apr 2013 5:23 pm

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/ ... dead-at-61

Very sad! I had the pleasure of working with Andy with Bobby Keys and Ace Liquidators at Broadway Studios. He was a great engineer. He could get the best drum sound I ever heard, taught all of us in Lubbock a lot. I still use his mic'ing technics for drums and guitars.. He would use two SM 57s.on guitar amps. One on the edge of the speaker cone and one in the center. He would check for phase and then blend the brightness from the center with the warmth of the edge for the desired tone and buss them both to tape.. No eq needed... It was also the first time I ever used room mics for drums. He wanted the biggest most reverberant room we had to record the drums in, until that time we used small booths filled with sonex... Great ears, nice guy... Too young!

Larry Bressington · Post by **Larry Bressington** » 10 Apr 2013 6:41 pm

Thanks for sharing Wally...A very interesting Read.

Chris Boyd · Post by **Chris Boyd** » 10 Apr 2013 7:27 pm

Very sad.. and only 61..

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 11 Apr 2013 6:03 pm

Wow, had no idea Andy had.cut in.my hometown...what a treat for you to get to work with him, Wally...I am a huge fan...

Wally Moyers · Post by **Wally Moyers** » 11 Apr 2013 8:40 pm

John,

Working with him was a game changer for me, it was somewhere around 1985.. Of course I learned so much from him but his compliments about my work and ear helped give me the confidence to continue producing and engineering. I remember at the end of the sessions, he asked me to bounce it down. I always called it a mix not a bounce, I said mix it, and he said yeah, bounce it... Lol He flew back a few days later and listened to all the "bounces" and said, great bounce! thats all he said. His tracks basically mixed themselves they sounded so good.. He ended up using my mixes for the demo he was pitching to the record company...kind of cool I thought.. Its amazing how the right thing at the right time can help you along... Obviously, I am a big fan also, sad that he died so young. At the time I thought he was a lot older than me, turns out he was only two years older... I guess he had a tough life style.. RIP

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 12 Apr 2013 5:41 am

One record I've always loved is the Bobby Keys Instrumental album that was produced by him.

Wally Moyers · Post by **Wally Moyers** » 12 Apr 2013 5:57 am

Bobby is from Wilson Texas, about 20 miles from Lubbock. I have a ton of Bobby Keys stories, most of them I couldn't share here. I always enjoyed playing with Bobby.. At the end of the sessions with Andy, the band couldn't pay the bill. Bobby called Keith Richards and the next day we had money...

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 12 Apr 2013 10:01 am

Interesting Wally! Was that with with your steel or another instrument that you picked up to play with him? Standard guitar maybe?

Wally Moyers · Post by **Wally Moyers** » 12 Apr 2013 10:42 am

Joachim,

I was on steel. He would play with various bands at local clubs around Lubbock some in the eighties. One week we played at the Red Raider club for 7 nights. He was kind of down on his luck at the time so didn't have a car so I would pick him up and take him to the club and back every night. Bobby is a nice guy but has been on top and bottom like a lot of famous rock musicians. I also did some large outdoor local concerts where we were both in the band. On those he would usually be featured as an artist also.. During that time when he was living back in Lubbock, I would use him in the studio some also.. He's a great player with a really unique tone.. I have had the opportunity to work with some great sax players over the years. One of the best was Don Wise, we had a 8 piece band in the early eighties, Terry McBride was also in that band. Don went on and played with Delbert McClinton for about 15 years until he retired a couple of years ago... I produced 4 CDs on Don in the late 90s and early 2000s. This is a link to one of those with Delbert on vocals that we did at my studio here in Lubbock. Delbert is from Lubbock also.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-pTijml0Cs

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 12 Apr 2013 11:56 am

Thank you. I like his playing too.

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 12 Apr 2013 11:29 pm

Very cool, Wally...I pass through Lubbock now and then, and would love to hook up sometime. I grew up there, but my family moved to Cambridge, Mass just before my senior year of high school in 1970....(talk about some culture change)...I would love to hear some of those tracks

Craig Stock · Post by **Craig Stock** » 22 Apr 2013 7:34 pm

Very cool stories Wally, I too lived in Lubbock during the early 80's attending Tech, what great memories.

Andy was Glyn's younger brother and was most known for his work on the Stones' 'Exile on Mainstreet' album, but you already knew that.

Here is a link to his obit from the Boston Globe.

RIP Andy, job well done

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obitua ... story.html

Wally Moyers · Post by **Wally Moyers** » 2 May 2013 7:20 pm

Thanks Craig, I hadn't seen that.. Right place at the right time.. That was an interesting time in the rock scene...