Jack Douglas: Lennon's Producer | The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan

The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan

Billy Corgan

Music, Arts, Performing Arts

4.6 • 731 Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2025

⏱️ 94 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Billy Corgan sits down with legendary rock producer Jack Douglas for an intimate, no-frills conversation that runs straight through the heart of classic rock history—from John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Imagine, and Double Fantasy to Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper, the New York Dolls, and beyond. Jack tells the wild story of Lennon recognizing him from a Liverpool newspaper, pulling him into the studio to escape Phil Spector. He breaks down the making of Aerosmith’s first three albums, why some iconic solos on Get Your Wings weren’t Joe Perry, and how Cheap Trick at Budokan (actually Osaka) became a power-pop landmark through sheer studio ingenuity. Along the way, you get rare behind-the-glass insight into working with George Harrison, David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, and what great producers really do: protect the song, the band, and the vibe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I mean, crossing the North Atlantic in November is no fun on a little tin can of a ship.
0:07.0	Word got out that maybe we had been smoking pot after the session was over,
0:14.0	and then Yoko would get like pissed off at us.
0:17.0	And she'd call us, and John and I looked at each other and before I could do it John would
0:24.6	ooh.
0:25.6	In amongst all this, here comes Aerosmith.
0:30.6	You know, I never said no to them.
0:33.6	Yeah, what was your role in this?
0:35.6	How was that get Getaway Garver.
0:44.1	Thank you so much for being here. Longtime fan. Here we are together. Talk nerd stuff,
0:49.7	recording and, of course, the Bacchanol that is rock and roll. You've been in the epicenter of it now for a good 50, gosh, 50 plus years. 50 plus years, yeah.
0:55.5	Yeah.
0:56.6	So, even though it's the most obvious thing in the world, I'd like to start with the day you met John
1:02.7	Lennon because it seems to me it's the watershed moment of your life because the moment you meet
1:07.0	John Lennon, your life literally does change.
1:09.5	Right.
1:10.0	It's not like you met him and then your life changed later. I mean, your life changed the day you met John Lennon, your life literally does change. Right. It's not like you met him and then your life changed later.
1:11.9	I mean, your life changed the day you met John Lennon.
1:15.3	Yeah, it did, but...
1:17.4	Is that fair?
1:20.9	I don't know if it's totally fair because I was on some kind of path already.
1:27.2	But maybe you... But I. But this was unexpected.
	...

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