Some insight on Jimmy Iovine

[G-Bee]

I read this interview with Tommy Stinson, the bassist of (the new) Guns n' Roses. He talks a bit about Jimmy Iovine, and instantly it made me think about Dr. Dre's Detox. Read for yourself:

Chinese Democracy took all of 10 years to make. What was the recording process like? I mean, you couldn’t have been working at it every day for 10 years.

TS: At first we were in there a lot. We were working on the writing aspect of it, but it just kept going on. We had [Interscope Chairman] Jimmy Iovine intervening in a not-so-productive way, and we had other guys coming and going with nutty ideas. My summation of the whole thing is that Interscope, when they took over Geffen, really led Axl to believe that Jimmy Iovine would be involved, and would help get this record done and make it happen. But basically what he did was let it completely fall apart. Then he had this great idea to bring in [producer] Roy Thomas Baker to make it sound better. All he did was re-record everything three or four different times, trying to make it sound like something it didn’t need to sound like, and spend $10 million in the process. My two cents on the whole thing is that I really think Jimmy Iovine fucked the whole thing up.

It was a bummer. Most of the songs that are on the record now were done 10 fucking years ago. But all the talking heads in the mix were saying, “Make ’em sound better! Make ’em sound better!” So we kept redoing this and that. And it ended up coming back down to the same fucking songs that they were 10 years ago, except that now they were a super-dense mishmash of a bunch of instrumentation. That whole era pretty much sums up what happened to the record industry. Those kinds of people, making those kinds of decisions and not really helping the artist.

[MistaNova]

My two cents on the whole thing is that I really think Jimmy Iovine fucked the whole thing up.

Too bad no one around (and including) Dre (at least not those who Jimmy brought) has the balls to say that...

[Suga Foot]

interesting, props for posting

[krzieg]

very interesting indeed........i dont care for DETOX anymore.

after all the wait I know it's going to be a disappointment

[dubsmith_nz]

Well that doesn't bode well for Detox

[Dre-Day]

well i'm sure jimmy came with ideas for Detox.
but i think he wanted the album to be released a long time ago.
he even made jokes about it.

i still think dre is mainly responsible for the delays

[Matty]

nice post.

dre & jimmy are definitely both to blame for detox...delays and the lack of/unusual direction of associated material (akon, i need a doctor, awful eminem hooks).

i like the quote that the finished product in that case ended up summing up the decline of the industry as a whole. out of touch execs making bad decisions. all the signs point to detox being something similar.

[GangstaBoogy]

Props for posting this. I don't listen to Guns & Roses so I had no clue that was an Interscope project. Crazy shit so that means Detox isn't the first 10 year project Jimmy Iovine was involved with.

Yeah good luck with Detox.

[HighEyeCue]

Chinese Democracy was basically Axl and a bunch of replacement players in the mix, not really a Guns album if you asked me. I mean the bassist makes a good point about Jimmy but like Dre-Day said earlier Dre is probably mostly to blame for the delay since he is such a perfectionist and seems to have a bit of lost confidence in himself.

[Teddy Roosevelt]

Chinese Democracy was basically Axl and a bunch of replacement players in the mix, not really a Guns album if you asked me.

Chinese Democracy had some nice songs, but a real Guns N Roses album has Axl AND Slash.

[Teddy Roosevelt]

That whole era pretty much sums up what happened to the record industry. Those kinds of people, making those kinds of decisions and not really helping the artist.

Truth. Let the artists make the music and the execs promote and release the music.

[Jimmy H.]

Truth. Let the artists make the music and the execs promote and release the music.

Easier said than done, especially with the music business being in such shitty shape. Fact is mainstream music is a compromise. Nobody is giving out millions of dollars for these projects, just to sit down and have no say. This has never, ever, been the case. Contrary to how most feel, I think Dre is in a far better spot than most. Interscope needs Detox badly but Jimmy never pulled the kill switch on that one. He's letting Dre take his time. But there's a reality to it as well. Money talks and bullshit walks. 

[Russell Bell]

Chinese Democracy was basically Axl and a bunch of replacement players in the mix, not really a Guns album if you asked me. I mean the bassist makes a good point about Jimmy but like Dre-Day said earlier Dre is probably mostly to blame for the delay since he is such a perfectionist and seems to have a bit of lost confidence in himself.

i hate it when people say that about gnr of today.  wheres that same statement for ac/dc, van halen, etc.  axl rose is like the barry bonds of music, no matter what he does, sometimes terrible egomaniacal shit and sometimes nothing bad at all, the media hates the guy and has projected this image towards the public who has eaten it up without any questions.

if you listened to chinese democracy, you'd know that the spirit of gnr shows throughout that album.  yeah the players are different, but really, who cares?  if you dont like the music, cool, but dont let the axl negative hype cloud the songs.

[Dre-Day]

Truth. Let the artists make the music and the execs promote and release the music.

Easier said than done, especially with the music business being in such shitty shape. Fact is mainstream music is a compromise. Nobody is giving out millions of dollars for these projects, just to sit down and have no say. This has never, ever, been the case. Contrary to how most feel, I think Dre is in a far better spot than most. Interscope needs Detox badly but Jimmy never pulled the kill switch on that one. He's letting Dre take his time. But there's a reality to it as well. Money talks and bullshit walks. 

yeah.

[Teddy Roosevelt]

Truth. Let the artists make the music and the execs promote and release the music.

Easier said than done, especially with the music business being in such shitty shape. Fact is mainstream music is a compromise. Nobody is giving out millions of dollars for these projects, just to sit down and have no say. This has never, ever, been the case. Contrary to how most feel, I think Dre is in a far better spot than most. Interscope needs Detox badly but Jimmy never pulled the kill switch on that one. He's letting Dre take his time. But there's a reality to it as well. Money talks and bullshit walks. 

I'd have to disagree. I doubt Iovine played much of a role in the Death Row days. There's a difference between approving/signing off on a project and actually micromanaging it. Iovine has been doing the latter for some time now.