Chance Encounter Landed Shanks Van Halen Producing Gig (A Top Story)

In a new interview with Guitar World, Shanks explained how he landed the gig with Van Halen. "I was working in my room, Studio C, and David Lee Roth was across the hall working on solo stuff," says John. "He stays in the studio. He's always in there doing something. It's like a boxer � he's always training. He's always writing and trying stuff and experimenting. He's always creating. It's just staying ready. So he comes in the studio and he's working on a project. I don't know what it was specifically. I introduced myself one day and we chatted a bit and became social. He's very bright and communicative, and we would talk about his dogs, photography, songs, and the current state of pop music."

"I'd met Eddie a couple of times [through a mutual colleague]," continued Shanks. "I got a call, I'm sure through Dave talking to Eddie, because I think collectively they come up with, 'Let's try this guy,' or 'Let's have a conversation with John.' I know they talked to a couple of other people too. Anyway, Eddie called. I went up to the house and met with Alex, Dave, Eddie and Wolf, and they talked about scheduling and what they wanted to do. Somehow we worked it out so we recorded at Henson." - more on this story

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