«Most people don’t understand what I do for a living, but the role of producer is very similar to the role of director on a film.»
Interview conducted on July 3, 2025
Legendary producer Bob Erzin explained what a producer’s job actually entails, recalling how he transformed «Beth» by KISS from a «screw-you» type of song to a vulnerable ballad.
There have been many cases where albums lived or died by their productions, and most fans will know of at least one case where an otherwise good album got mauled somewhere during the production process. And yet, the technicals are but one part of music production, as Bob Ezrin, legendary producer behind Pink Floyd’s «The Wall», explained during a recent interview on CBC.
Ezrin, whose professional credentials also include «Destroyer» by KISS, Alice Cooper’s «School’s Out», Peter Gabriel’s 1977 solo debut and many more, noted how there’s a lot of people skills involved in being a producer, as it is his job to bring out the best in a group of people who might not be the easiest to deal with (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):
«Most people don’t understand what I do for a living, but the role of producer is very similar to the role of director on a film. You’re dealing with extremely talented, often very high-strung or complicated people, and you’re trying to get the best performance out of them you possibly can, on every level, in terms of their writing, playing, singing, whatever.»
«So you have to deal with them as humans, as personalities. So there’s a component of like a psychologist to the role, and a confessor, protector, and all of that had to happen.»
At the same time, there’s also the participation in artistic decision-making. Ezrin noted how it was his input that helped shape «Beth», which turned out to be the most commercially successful single for KISS in the States.
«The story about ‘Beth’ is that, politically, it was always important that the drummer gets at least one song. So, we went through a bunch of songs that Peter Criss had, and this was something that he had written with a friend of his, and it was called ‘Beck,’ I think about a girl named Becky. It was a little more jaunty, a little less vulnerable. It was kind of like, ‘Screw you, me and the boys are going to go playing’, and all this stuff.»
«So, I said, ‘Do you mind if I take that home, and play with it a little bit?’ And on that piano right there, I sat down and and I slowed the song way down, and I started to play that figure, with a little bit of a walking bass. And suddenly, it was almost like a lullaby. It just became this gentle, sweet thing. And then I tweaked the lyrics, because didn’t want it to be about, ‘Screw you.’ I wanted it to be about the singer being actually the one who was hurt.»
We are sharing with you also this excerpt from a 2002 interview, just the part where he talks about KISS
So in the case of projects like Pink Floyd’s The Wall or the KISS records. Both had instances of members of not getting along or being «well» per se. How did you go about dealing with conflicts and flakiness? Like Ace Frehley just «not being there»...
Well, we don’t want to overplay that. At time of working on Destroyer everyone was completely into it. Everyone was co-operating and trying their very best and certainly there were varying levels of proficiency on their instruments amongst the four players but everybody wanted to succeed. We worked really, really, really hard in rehearsal on that album to make sure that not only did we come up with interesting parts but that the band was capable of playing them well. So contrary to the urban myth that there were a lot of session players on that album — in fact, the band played virtually everything. There are a couple of guitar parts where I had to bring someone else in to help out because Ace was sort of missing in action, but that’s all really. The rest of it was the band or me, a few specialists — and of course there was the orchestra. But it was almost completely self-contained. And I think that the band should get some recognition for that because I think when you listen to things like «Detroit Rock City» you hear some powerful confident musicians playing really interesting parts. And, playing well beyond what their previous product had indicated they were capable of. They should get a pat on the back for having done that. And, the only way that they did it was by practicing — being in the rehearsal studio and practicing over and over and over again. We spent weeks in there — 8, 10, 12 hours a day, drilling the material until the band was really comfortable.
And does the rest just become a technical process?
No. Then the rest becomes exactly the opposite. The rest becomes an emotional process. Once you know what you have to do and how you have to do it, you then reach for the feeling. Because far too often, in the studio you go in with material that’s just recently been written. You’re only partially comfortable with it, if at all, and you spend a good deal of your time trying to play it well. And sometimes, that’s sort of «all consuming» and makes it difficult for the player who just experienced the music emotionally. So for most of the music that gets made at studios these days you don’t really hear that depth of emotion. And the recordings where you do hear that depth of emotion are either ones that exploded in the studio through a kind of chain reaction of invention and emotion or ones where the band has played them live for long enough that they’re comfortable with them, and bring them into the studio and just feel them — play them with all the emotion that they deserve. With the KISS guys, that’s what went on — and to a certain extent, the same is true with the [Pink] Floyd guys. We figured out the parts first and practiced, practiced, practiced — and then we recorded them.
And you obviously hold a ton of enthusiasm and energy to keep things going — but what else can one do to get the best performance out of an artist in the studio? I heard back in the day you used to be like a «coach» — even somewhat dressed in gym attire complete with a whistle?
The job is always at least two-fifths cheerleader. Every performer needs someone to feed off of when they perform and they need the adrenaline that accompanies great performance, which is hard to generate in the sterile environment of the studio. So, it is my job to get in there and pump people up and move them along. At the same time, I have to be the voice of calm and reason when things get too heated one way or the other. Yes, I brought a whistle to work with KISS. I also wore boxing shorts, gloves, clown shoes and a robe that read «Bobo — World Champion». I wonder where that robe went. I don’t wear robes anymore but I do arrange for surprises every once in a while. I love that. You need to give the performer the feeling that something big is happening while they’re working. They thrive off of that energy and will often reach beyond themselves when it is there.
Source: Bob Ezrin: Producing Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper & Kiss | Tape Op Magazine
