English producer Steve Lillywhite has worked with some of the biggest bands on either side of the Atlantic, but he says nothing compares to the misery of making a record with the Rolling Stones in 1986.
Remarkably, it was a pretty good album: Dirty Work. Among its tracks were a pair of solid hits: “One Hit (To the Body)” and “Harlem Shuffle.” But tensions within the group were at a head. The animosity was so high that the Stones didn’t even tour for the album.
All of which points to just how bad the sessions were for Lillywhite, who was building an impressive portfolio as a producer. After early successes with the Psychedelic Furs, Peter Gabriel and U2’s breakthrough album, War, Lillywhite was recruited by Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and company to produce Dirty Work. It was the band’s first album for Columbia Records following a then-staggering $28 million, four-album deal.
From the outside, it looked like a major opportunity for an ascendant producer. In reality, it was anything but harmonious.
“I worked with Keith and Mick when they were not talking to each other at all,” Lillywhite tells the Word in Your Ear podcast. He estimates the longtime collaborators were together “maybe one hour out of the whole time that we were making the record.”
Although the Stones had already released three albums in the 1980s, this was a deeply fractured period in the band’s history. Jagger and Richards were locked in a power struggle over musical direction, while CBS — Columbia’s parent company—was actively encouraging solo projects, widening the rift between them.
Richards was still furious over Jagger’s decision to release She’s the Boss, his 1985 solo debut, which featured guest appearances by Pete Townshend and Jeff Beck. In his 2010 memoir Life, Richards memorably likened the album to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, quipping that “everybody had a copy, but nobody listened to it.”
It was hardly fertile ground for creativity. Still, the band pushed ahead with writing and recording what would become their 18th studio album, even as its two leaders remained openly hostile.
“It was hell,” Lillywhite says. “They literally weren’t in the same room. One would come up to me and say, ‘Blah blah blah,’ and then I’d go and repeat it to the other one. I was Henry Kissinger!” he adds, invoking the U.S. diplomat famed for negotiating détente and conflict resolution.
“I’m not the alpha male in any part of my life—except in a recording studio,” Lillywhite continues. “I’m very matter-of-fact. I’ve always said the role of a producer is to take responsibility for the quality of the end product. You have to know when to let things breathe and when to step in—and when there’s trouble ahead, cut it off before it becomes a real problem.”
Despite the dysfunction, Lillywhite held the line and delivered a record that eventually went platinum in three countries.
For Richards and Jagger, of course, conflict was nothing new. Speaking to Guitar Player, Richards once recalled being locked in a kitchen with Jagger until they’d written a song, as the band transitioned from covers to originals. Richards has also fallen out spectacularly with others over the years — most notably Elton John, after a particularly disastrous Stones gig. It wasn’t only Jagger who felt the chill.
