The Beatles and The Rolling Stones shared quite a bit throughout the 1960s: the public’s attention, chart space, tour rosters, and, for one brief moment, an engineer and producer. Although a reasonable assumption in hindsight, when the one-time replacement for George Martin first received a call from the Fab Four, he thought it might be the latter band prank calling him.
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And to be fair, that does sound like something Mick Jagger would have done.
This Beatles Engineer Thought the Rolling Stones Were Pranking Him
Glyn Johns has enjoyed a prolific, revolutionary, and star-studded career as a recording engineer and producer. While most people associate John with his recording techniques, particularly of drum kits, he also had a hand in creating some of the most iconic music of the 20th century as a colleague to The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, The Who, and Eric Clapton. Despite this impressive resume, Johns was still incredulous when his reputation and expertise led to his receiving a call from The Beatles.
Paul McCartney first called Johns to discuss recording a live album as well as the rehearsals that led up to the band’s first public performance since 1966. “The call from Paul to proceed with the idea he’d had was a complete shock,” Johns recalled in a 2025 interview with Rick Beato. “I thought it was [Rolling Stones frontman] Mick Jagger taking the p***. I was obviously, like the rest of the world, a fan of The Beatles. It was a very unusual project.”
Somewhat awkwardly, Johns didn’t realize he would be replacing the Beatles’ usual producer, George Martin, in this capacity. It wasn’t until after he started attending the rehearsals that he realized the band was not only looking for a recording engineer but also a producer. However, there was no ill will between the two colleagues. In his memoir Sound Man, Johns recalled Martin taking him out to lunch to assure him there were no hard feelings. “What a gentleman he is,” Johns wrote.
In the End, He Was Glad His Tenure Was So Short
Glyn Johns worked on some of the most monumental albums of The Beatles’ career, but his tenure with the band as a whole was brief. He was the principal engineer for the infamous Get Back sessions that made up the band’s last released album and film, Let It Be, and the 2021 documentary mini-series The Beatles: Get Back. The group’s final project would be Abbey Road, of which Johns was only a small part.
“I started the Abbey Road sessions, and then I went off to America to do something,” Johns told Rick Beato in 2025. “They very sensibly decided to go back to George [Martin] and Geoff Emerick, who finished [the album]. And thank God they did, because it ended up much better than when I left it.”
He was less kind about the final product of the last album the Fab Four released, Let It Be. Johns received an engineering and mixing credit for the album, but the role of credited producer went to Phil Spector, who, according to Johns, “puked all over them, turning the album into the most syrupy load of bulls*** I have ever heard.”
Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images
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