Legendary Rock Producer JACK DOUGLAS, Who Worked With AEROSMITH And CHEAP TRICK, Dead At 80

Legendary rock producer Jack Douglas has died at the age of 80. According to a statement from his family, he passed away peacefully on Monday night, May 11.

With 40 gold and platinum records and several lifetime achievement awards to his name, Douglas has played an integral role in the creation of the most celebrated music ever crafted. From engineering such masterpieces as John Lennon's "Imagine" and engineering/producing the Lennon/Yoko Ono Grammy Award-winning "Double Fantasy" to engineering/producing several of AEROSMITH's groundbreaking multi-platinum albums to CHEAP TRICK's self-titled debut album and their historic "Live At Budokan", his work helped set the template for many records to come.

As a Record Plant staff engineer, Douglas also forged working relationships with Patti Smith, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT, THE NEW YORK DOLLS, CHEAP TRICK, STARZ and most notably AEROSMITH. Douglas engineered and produced many of AEROSMITH's albums in the 1970s, including "Get Your Wings" (1974),"Toys In The Attic" (1975),"Rocks" (1976) and "Draw The Line" (1977),all of which have gone multi-platinum. "Toys In The Attic" and "Rocks" broke AEROSMITH into the mainstream and have become highly influential, with both albums ranking among Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time".

Jack's close relationship with AEROSMITH extended beyond producing and engineering, as Douglas was also a musical contributor to the group when they came up short of material on their projects. For example, Douglas helped write the band's 1978 hit "Kings And Queens". He was often given the nickname of "the sixth member" of AEROSMITH, due to his close relationship with the band. Douglas was replaced as producer by the band for the 1979 release "Night In The Ruts", but Douglas was to again work with the group on 1982's "Rock In A Hard Place" and several of AEROSMITH guitarist Joe Perry's solo albums.

For much of the late 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, AEROSMITH worked with other producers, but in the mid-2000s, they re-united with Douglas on the 2004 blues covers album "Honkin' On Bobo". Douglas also produced the band's latest album, "Music From Another Dimension!" , which came out in November 2012.

Jack Douglas bio courtesy of Phoenix Audio