Don Was was born Donald Fagenson in Detroit on September 13, 1952. A hitmaker in his personal proper with Was (Not Was), producer of a whole lot of key albums by everybody from the Rolling Stones to Bob Dylan and from Bonnie Raitt to Brian Wilson, he’s additionally been president of Blue Word Information since 2012.
Was oversaw the thrilling new growth of Blue Word in its seventy fifth anniversary yr of 2014. He presided over the emergence of Gregory Porter and different contemporary abilities similar to Robert Glasper and José James, the signing of Aaron Neville (for the My True Story album, which Don co-produced with Keith Richards) and the re-signing to the label of jazz nice Wayne Shorter.
However Was additionally continues in his roving temporary as a massively in-demand, A-list producer. He performed on the solo album by Benmont Tench from Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, produced multi-million-selling John Mayer’s Paradise Valley launch and labored with the late French famous person Johnny Hallyday. He additionally helmed Vanished Gardens, the collaborative album by Charles Lloyd & The Marvels and Lucinda Williams. Was additionally conquered the difficult process of finishing the manufacturing of Gregg Allman’s excellent Southern Blood album after the good artist’s dying in 2017.
He’s been the Stones’ studio confidant since 1994’s Voodoo Lounge and produced their final studio set, 2005’s A Larger Bang, in addition to Raitt’s career-changing, Grammy-winning 1989 landmark Nick Of Time, Dylan’s Below The Purple Sky in 1990 and much too many different necessary albums to say.
With the groundbreaking dance-R&B-pop band Was (Not Was), which he based with longtime pal David Weiss (aka David Was), he emerged on Island’s ultra-cool Ze label in 1981. The band have launched 5 albums up to now and produced such memorable tracks as “Out Come The Freaks,” “Walk The Dinosaur,” “Spy In The House Of Love,” and their remake of “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone.”
In the meantime, again at Blue Word, Was presided over the corporate’s momentous eightieth birthday celebrations, a milestone noticed with nice creativeness and scope. Within the studio, the early 2020s have seen him working with Ryan Adams and, once more, with Mayer, on his eighth set Sob Rock. Additional underlining his ardour for music of many stripes, in 2021 he began presenting The Don Was Motor Metropolis Playlist on Detroit’s NPR station WDET-FM, which he co-hosts with Ann Delisi.
Take heed to our playlist of 21 nice studio moments (amongst a whole lot) created by one of the vital multi-talented musicians of the period.
