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Andy Johns obituary

Consummate sound engineer who worked with some of rock's greats

In popular music, record producers are generally credited for the success or failure of an album. But often the contribution of sound engineers is equally important, through their imaginative attention to technical details. Although he produced numerous rock recordings, Andy Johns, who has died aged 62 after suffering a liver complaint, was a consummate engineer. Working on classic albums by the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, he was responsible for finessing the sound of Keith Richards's guitars and John Bonham's drums.

Johns was born into a middle-class family in Epsom, Surrey, and attended the King's school, Gloucester, after his parents moved to the west of England. He learned to play the bass guitar and after leaving school chose to follow his older brother Glyn into the music industry. Glyn went on to become a renowned producer of recordings by the Eagles, the Who and Eric Clapton.

Glyn found his brother a job at Olympic Studios in London, where many of the top musicians of the 1960s made their records. "In those days, you could go into one studio where Joe Cocker was working, and then you're working with Jimi Hendrix in Studio One or down the corridor, Eric Clapton is working," Andy recalled. He started as a lowly tape operator but swiftly became an assistant engineer and by the end of the decade he was supervising hit albums by such groups as Jethro Tull, Humble Pie and Free.

In the early 1970s, Johns was involved at different times with both Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. While the guitarist Jimmy Page had general supervision of Led Zeppelin recordings, Johns was often on hand to provide creative solutions or improvements to the sound. The most renowned example was a drum sound achieved at the Headley Grange studio in Hampshire in 1971. One of Bonham's drum kits was set up in the hallway of the Grange. Johns carefully lowered a pair of microphones over the banister of the staircase above and captured the sound which formed the basis of the song When the Levee Breaks on the group's fourth album. It has become one of the most emulated drum sequences in rock music.

Johns's stint with the Rolling Stones covered the albums Exile on Main Street, Goats Head Soup and It's Only Rock'n'Roll. Exile on Main Street was recorded at a mansion in the south of France using the group's mobile recording studio. Although Johns was the assistant to the album's producer, Jimmy Miller, he was often working alone with members of the Stones. "They could play really shabby," he said. "Then, over the course of five minutes, it would turn into magic. It was my job to capture those magic moments." In his autobiography, Richards laconically stated that when the band were recording It's Only Rock'n'Roll in Munich, Johns was fired for "hitting the hard stuff too hard".

Over the next four decades Johns was one of the most sought after and admired producers in rock music, with credits including Television's Marquee Moon (1977). In the late 1970s, he moved to Los Angeles, where he became the producer of choice for many of that city's heavy rock groups. Among those whose records he helped to craft were Cinderella, Van Halen, the guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani, LA Guns and Chickenfoot. The latter's eponymous 2009 album was a top 10 hit in the US. The group's bass player, Michael Anthony (formerly of Van Halen), said of Johns: "He really was like the fifth member of the band … He knew when we had a take. He would say, 'play it as many times as you want, but that is the one right there'."

Johns's most recent productions had included albums by the Steve Miller Band and films of live shows by leading rock bands, for release on DVD. He was also involved with various reissue projects include a set of 1971 tracks by Clapton's former group Derek and the Dominos.

Johns is survived by his wife, Anet; three sons, Jesse, Evan and Will (the last two became rock musicians); two grandchildren; and Glyn.

Jeremy Andrew Johns, record producer and sound engineer, born 1950; died 7 April 2013

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