Bob Clearmountain

Bob Clearmountain (born January 15, 1953) is an American record producer.

Described by Sound on Sound magazine as having "his name on more hit records than anyone else in the history of popular music", he is well known for his work with major acts, including Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Roxy Music, The Pretenders, and Bryan Adams. He has mixed some of the most iconic live shows in music history, including Live Aid, The Concert for New York for 9/11, and most recently, the Foo Fighters Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concerts at Wembley Stadium and The Forum. Records he mixed have won eight Grammys. His most recent nomination was for Best Immersive Audio Album, "The Savior". He has also been nominated for five Emmy Awards, winning two for Saturday Night Live's 40th Anniversary Special and 25th Anniversary Rock-n-Roll Concert. As a teenager, Clearmountain had many friends who were musicians or aspirants. He loved music, and played bass guitar in a bar band, but felt he did not want to rely on these capricious beings for his career. Always more interested in the technical side, Clearmountain had a makeshift studio at home equipped with a two-track reel-to-reel tape recorder, some microphones and a talkback. He also loved to make tape recordings of the band's concerts. According to an interview with Sound on Sound, Clearmountain was immediately attracted when he entered a professional recording studio for the first time.His band had been making a demo recording at Mediasound Studios on 57th Street in New York. Determined to make a career in the technical side of the music business, he visited frequently and pestered the studio for a job. He was eventually hired as a gofer. Clearmountain claims that after making about two deliveries, he found staff at the office had been looking for him – they had apparently been expecting him to be working on a recording session, as an assistant engineer. The star-struck new assistant engineer found that his first session was with Duke Ellington.According to Clearmountain, he was hired as Chief Engineer at the Power Station (now Avatar Studios) as they were opening in around 1977, and had a say in designing the recording studios and choosing the equipment as a rock music studio.Clearmountain also played bass on the Dead Boys' first album, Young, Loud and Snotty, before Jeff Magnum rejoined the group.