{"id":405501,"date":"2026-02-03T11:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T11:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/405501\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T11:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T11:17:10","slug":"steve-lillywhite-on-producing-the-rolling-stones-at-their-most-divided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/405501\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Lillywhite on producing The Rolling Stones at their most divided"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Grammy-winning producer Steve Lillywhite has opened up about one of the toughest studio experiences of his career, describing his time working with <a href=\"https:\/\/guitar.com\/artists\/the-rolling-stones\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Rolling Stones<\/a> as \u201chell\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the Word in Your Ear podcast, Lillywhite reflects on producing the band\u2019s 1986 album Dirty Work \u2013 a record made during one of the most tumultuous periods in the Stones\u2019 history.<\/p>\n<p>According to the producer, tensions between <a href=\"https:\/\/guitar.com\/artists\/mick-jagger\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mick Jagger<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/guitar.com\/artists\/keith-richards\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Keith Richards<\/a> at the time were running so high that the two barely interacted in the studio.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI worked with Keith and Mick when they were not talking to each other at all,\u201d Lilywhite recalls [via <a href=\"https:\/\/ultimateclassicrock.com\/steve-lillywhite-hell-rolling-stones\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">UCR<\/a>], noting that the pair spoke to one another for \u201cmaybe one hour out of the whole time that we were making the record.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was hell,\u201d he adds. \u201cThey literally weren\u2019t [in the same room].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With the band\u2019s two creative figureheads keeping their distance, Lilywhite found himself stuck in the middle, relaying messages back and forth between them: \u201cI would have one come up to me go \u2018blah blah blah blah. And I would go and say [the message] to the other one. And he would go, \u2018You tell him, blah blah blah blah.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI say I was [American diplomat] Henry Kissinger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the challenges, the producer says the experience left a lasting mark on how he approaches recording sessions. One key lesson? Keep the studio doors open.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI learned this from The Rolling Stones: Never stop people coming into the studio. Always have an open-door policy,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen people come in, and they listen to something, I sort of hear it through their ears. So there might be something that I\u2019m, subconsciously, I\u2019m thinking it\u2019s not quite right, but it hasn\u2019t come to the conscious yet. Whereas when someone\u2019s in there listening, and I\u2019m playing them a rough mix, I go, \u2018Got it. Now I know what we have to change.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grammy-winning producer Steve Lillywhite has opened up about one of the toughest studio experiences of his career, describing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[10240,96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-405501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-artist","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}