In 1985, A&M\u2019s parquet-floored Studio A was where Quincy Jones gathered the all-star congregation that recorded \u201cWe Are the World<\/a>\u201d in a marathon overnight session; in 2014, Daft Punk evoked the studios\u2019 wood-paneled splendor in a performance of \u201cGet Lucky\u201d with Stevie Wonder at the 56th Grammy Awards.<\/p>\n A soundstage on the property has seen nearly as much history, including filming for TV\u2019s \u201cThe Red Skelton Show\u201d and \u201cSoul Train\u201d and the production of the Police\u2019s MTV-defining music video for \u201cEvery Breath You Take.\u201d More recently, Mayer and his bandmates in Dead & Company took over the soundstage to workshop their cutting-edge residency<\/a> at the Las Vegas Sphere, not long after Mayer cut his most recent solo LP, 2021\u2019s \u201cSob Rock,\u201d at Henson.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to come here even if I didn\u2019t quite have anything to do,\u201d says the Grammy-winning singer and songwriter known for his romantic ballads and bluesy guitar heroics. \u201cI just wanted to be around music \u2014 to have a place to go as an artist to find some structure in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, with an eye on preserving the spot at a moment of widespread upheaval in the entertainment industry, Mayer and his business partner, the filmmaker McG, have finalized a purchase of the lot, which they bought for $44 million from the family of the late Muppets creator Jim Henson and which they\u2019ve renamed Chaplin Studios in honor of the silent-film giant who broke ground on it more than a century ago.<\/p>\n Their vision for Chaplin, which takes up half a city block between Sunset Boulevard and De Longpre Avenue, is ambitious. \u201cWe\u2019re doing our best to create kind of a Warhol\u2019s Factory thing of like-minded artists bumping into each other to do their best work possible,\u201d says McG.<\/p>\n And the duo already have some powerful support behind them.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of my friends and I were very happy to see that Henson was being taken over by some great people,\u201d Paul McCartney tells The Times in an email. The rock legend, who made 2001\u2019s \u201cDriving Rain\u201d and 2018\u2019s \u201cEgypt Station\u201d at Henson, admits that news of the studio\u2019s changing hands left folks in his world \u201cworried that it might not be handled sensitively.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, we realize now we have no reason to be as John Mayer and McG seem to be doing a fantastic job in keeping the famous studio alive.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, the challenges they face are real: Thanks to advances in cheap audio equipment \u2014 and with the economics of streaming having cut into once-lavish recording budgets \u2014 even A-list artists often opt these days to record at home rather than shell out to book into an old-line studio like Chaplin. (Consider that at least two of the songs nominated for record of the year at February\u2019s Grammys ceremony \u2014 Billie Eilish\u2019s \u201cWildflower\u201d and Chappell Roan\u2019s \u201cThe Subway\u201d \u2014 were constructed primarily at home.)<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone with a computer and a microphone has a studio,\u201d Mayer says, and that\u2019s not even accounting for the proliferation of music conjured up by AI out of the digital ether.<\/p>\n On the film side, the ongoing exodus of production<\/a> from L.A. raises natural doubts about the ability to keep a soundstage busy with clients \u2014 doubts, one presumes, that led the owners of Occidental Studios near Echo Park to put that lot up for sale last summer.<\/p>\n \u201cThe real estate guys weren\u2019t necessarily saying what a prudent business move this was,\u201d says McG, who directed the 2000 blockbuster \u201cCharlie\u2019s Angels\u201d and executive produced TV\u2019s \u201cThe O.C.\u201d \u201cBut it\u2019s not about the dividend or the monthly spit-out. I admire John for throwing down.\u201d<\/p>\n Says Mayer: \u201cI love doing things that people tell me aren\u2019t gonna work. That\u2019s how I know I\u2019m onto something.\u201d<\/p>\n McG inside the soundstage at Chaplin Studios.<\/p>\n (Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Mayer, 48, and McG, 57, are lounging on a December afternoon in Mayer\u2019s ranch-hand-chic office, which occupies what once was the mill where wood for Charlie Chaplin\u2019s movie sets was cut. Last night the co-owners threw a holiday party for the studio\u2019s staff and friends; McG breakdanced \u2014 \u201cMy neck hurts today, but I got through it,\u201d he says \u2014 while Mitchell turned up and played the piano in Mayer\u2019s personal Studio C, where she liked to work in the \u201970s.<\/p>\n As we talk, Mayer is sipping no fewer than three different smoothies \u2014 an approach he says he picked up from the late Apple founder Steve Jobs, who evidently would order multiple smoothies to ensure he wasn\u2019t missing out on a new discovery.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s something I relate to about that,\u201d Mayer says, his Double RL boots propped on a coffee table in front of him. \u201cI\u2019m gonna have this smoothie and a little bit of these other smoothies to figure out: Does that smoothie beat this smoothie as my all-time-favorite order? What if there\u2019s a smoothie out there in the world that you haven\u2019t tried yet that could be your favorite?\u201d<\/p>\n He puts down one cup and picks up another. \u201cThis one has wheatgrass in it,\u201d he reports. \u201cNot for me.\u201d<\/p>\n The singer met McG, whose real name is Joseph McGinty Nichol, in 2024 through the studio\u2019s longtime manager, Faryal Ganjehei. Each had ample experience on the lot: In the 1990s, McG shot music videos on the soundstage for the likes of Sublime and Smash Mouth; Mayer first recorded at Henson in 2005 when he cut a version of \u201cRoute 66\u201d for the soundtrack to \u201cCars.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d think John and I would have known each other just from around here or from Ari Emanuel\u2019s or whatever,\u201d McG says. \u201cBut this was actually a bit of an arranged marriage\u201d between two people who\u2019d separately heard rumblings that the Jim Henson Co. might be looking to move its operations. (The company, which makes a variety of children\u2019s television shows, is now headquartered at Studio City\u2019s Radford Studio Center.)<\/p>\n \u201cOne year in, we\u2019re still performing vigorous lovemaking,\u201d McG says of his and Mayer\u2019s union.<\/p>\n \u201cCan\u2019t wait to see that in Times New Roman,\u201d Mayer adds.<\/p>\n Herb Alpert, left, and Jerry Moss at A&M headquarters in 1966.<\/p>\n (Bettmann Archive \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n Charlie Chaplin, who was born in London, began building the lot in 1917 in a white-and-brown English Tudor style; he went on to direct some of his best-known films, including \u201cModern Times\u201d and \u201cThe Great Dictator,\u201d on the property. After Chaplin left the United States in 1952, the lot was used for episodes of \u201cThe Adventures of Superman\u201d and \u201cPerry Mason.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1966, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss<\/a> bought the place and made it the base for their A&M Records; they converted two of the lot\u2019s soundstages into high-end recording studios that drew the the likes of Sergio Mendes, the Carpenters, Stevie Nicks, U2 and John Lennon. Henson took over in 2000 and continued to cultivate what many of the studio\u2019s regulars describe as a cozy family vibe.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was truly my home away from home,\u201d says John Shanks, who produced hit records by Sheryl Crow, Miley Cyrus and Ashlee Simpson<\/a>, among many others, at Henson. \u201cMy kids celebrated birthdays there \u2014 they knew where the candy was in Faryal\u2019s office.\u201d<\/p>\n Mayer and McG say they\u2019re putting $9 million into improvements on the lot \u2014 \u201can up-to-speed-ovation,\u201d the director calls it \u2014 but have no plans to make significant structural or stylistic changes. Ganjehei\u2019s staff of around 22 engineers, techs and runners will stay on, as will artists who maintain offices and studios on the property, among them Daft Punk\u2019s production company and the duo of Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve all seen places we loved get renovated and then you go, \u2018Yeah, I don\u2019t like it there anymore,\u2019\u201d McG says.<\/p>\n Such as?<\/p>\n \u201cThe Four Seasons on Doheny,\u201d Mayer responds. \u201cThey took out the old dining room and put in a Culina, and it\u2019s no fun anymore.\u201d Of Chaplin, he says, \u201cThis place has a beating heart. All we have to do is effectively not kill it, right?\u201d He laughs. \u201cJust stay away from the big red button that says, \u2018I got an idea.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Adrian Scott Fine welcomes that attitude.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s what we like to hear \u2014 it\u2019s not what we often hear,\u201d says the president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated to historic preservation. \u201cWhen places transfer out of long-term stewardship, that always raises our spidey senses: What does this mean for the future? Sometimes they go into safe hands with the next owner. Oftentimes it means radical change, loss of character, maybe demolition or redevelopment. So we\u2019re very hopeful when someone says that because it doesn\u2019t happen enough in L.A.\u201d<\/p>\n John Mayer, right, and McG inside Studio B at Chaplin Studios.<\/p>\n (Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n As a show of historical continuity, Mayer and McG initially wanted to call the property Chaplin A&M. But Mayer says he couldn\u2019t get Universal Music Group, which controls the A&M brand, to sign off on the name.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never seen fruit so close to the ground before,\u201d he says of the idea to bring back A&M. \u201cEveryone I spoke to did the thing that people at record companies do, where it starts to get very gauzy as it moves up the flagpole: \u2018Listen, I get it, but I can\u2019t get the person above me to see it.\u2019\u201d (Moss died in 2023, and a spokesperson for Alpert said he wasn\u2019t available for an interview. A UMG spokesperson didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.)<\/p>\n More disappointing, Mayer and McG say, was the Henson family\u2019s decision to take down the 12-foot statue of Kermit the Frog \u2014 dressed as Chaplin\u2019s Little Tramp character \u2014 that presided for 25 years over the lot\u2019s front entrance.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was important to the Hensons to have Kermit \u2014 that was expressed very early on,\u201d Mayer says of the statue, which the family is donating to the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. \u201cWe might have had the delusion of a reprieve. But they didn\u2019t change their mind.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI talk to people I know and they say, \u2018My kids go to school on La Brea, and every day we drive by and say, \u201cWhat\u2019s up, Kerms?\u201d\u2019\u201d McG says. \u201cIt saddens me that the people of Los Angeles won\u2019t be able to share in Kermit looking over them. If I sold Randy\u2019s Donuts to a barbecue place, I\u2019d hope the barbecue guy would keep the giant doughnut. It\u2019s in the \u2018I Love L.A.\u2019 video with Randy Newman<\/a>, OK?<\/p>\n Until recently, a 12-foot statue of Kermit the Frog presided over the front entrance to the Henson property on La Brea Avenue.<\/p>\n (AaronP \/ Bauer-Griffin \/ GC Images)<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t a McG thing,\u201d the director adds. \u201cIt\u2019s not a John Mayer thing. With the greatest respect, it\u2019s not even a Henson thing. Kermit, to me, had transcended all of that and become a part of the fabric of this community.\u201d<\/p>\n Did they make that emotional case to the Hensons?<\/p>\n \u201cWe tried,\u201d Mayer says.<\/p>\n And it fell on deaf ears?<\/p>\n \u201cIndeed,\u201d says McG. (A spokesperson at the Jim Henson Co. declined to comment.)<\/p>\n Mayer has seen the comments on social media blaming him for Kermit\u2019s disappearance, which is no doubt why he\u2019s eager to get the word out that it wasn\u2019t his doing. Yet the singer \u2014 a tabloid fixture since the days when he dated Taylor Swift<\/a> and Jessica Simpson<\/a> \u2014 says he\u2019s not tortured by his haters.<\/p>\n \u201cThey should be worried about what I think of them,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cHonest to God, sometimes I read stuff and I go, \u2018If only you knew \u2026\u2019 And I don\u2019t have to apply that to myself as a balm so I stop feeling bad. I\u2019m at the age now where I\u2019ve seen everything you could possibly write, and I\u2019ve survived.\u201d<\/p>\n Not so long ago, Mayer would happily jump into the rough and tumble of online discourse. \u201cBut don\u2019t you find yourself scrolling away from things so obviously designed to outrage you?\u201d he asks. The sun is starting to go down outside \u2014 this is the time of day, he says, when Chaplin\u2019s bucolic grounds remind him of Montecito\u2019s San Ysidro Ranch \u2014 and he\u2019s getting slightly philosophical.<\/p>\n \u201cMillennials had their brains ripped out by the things they read. Gen Z is beginning to go, \u2018I think a lot of these are bots.\u2019 And I think Gen Alpha will be the generation that looks and says, \u2018There\u2019s a whole bunch of clankers writing bulls\u2014. We don\u2019t care.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cMy years of trash talking or being critical of any artist in any way \u2014 I think they\u2019re over,\u201d he says. \u201cIt never felt as good as it feels to run into people in the hallway and be glad they\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n The sense of community Mayer feels \u2014 and is trying to nurture \u2014 at Chaplin is one reason he\u2019s optimistic the studio will succeed.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767354368_190_hqdefault.jpg\")
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