John Parks from Legendary Rock Interviews spoke with legendary producer/engineer/mixer Toby Wright (SLAYER, KISS, ALICE IN CHAINS) recently about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Legendary Rock Interviews: How did you become involved with METALLICA?

Wright: "Yeah, Lars is great, he’s a very inspirational guy. They invited myself and a guest out there too which I thought was just amazing and he said that about how they wouldn’t have been there without me but somehow I doubt that (laughs). I got involved with those guys again because of One on One Recording studios. They were looking for a place to record “And Justice For All” and came to check out the room and ended up camping out for the duration and I did engineering. I guess I was sort of instrumental in some of the sounds on that album, like the kick drum sounds were Lars and my creations and also working with them on singles and things prior to the Black album. That was pretty much my involvement with them."

Legendary Rock Interviews: Obviously the band that you are most well known for is arguably Alice In Chains. It is sad that two of the nicest guys in the group Mike and Layne are no longer with us but to this day those records are still selling. How did you come to get involved with them?"

Wright: "When 'Man in the Box' came out I just really, really got into them and was like 'Man, I really LOVE this band' and I kind of sought after them and befriended their A&R; guy Nick Terzo. I just kept asking him how I could involved with the band and he was telling me 'Well, you know they’re kind of involved with Dave Jerden and this and that' and telling me that they were basically taken care of. All of a sudden one day he calls me and says there’s an opportunity to work with them on a couple singles for a movie soundtrack and asked if I’d like to do that. I was so into the band I would have worked on demos for them (laughs) so I was like “Sure, I’m down for anything fuck….let’s do something”. It turned out to be the two songs for the Last Action Hero soundtrack, 'What The Hell Have I' and 'A Little Bitter' so I went out to Seattle and met with the boys and had a really good time recording those songs. After that, Andy Wallace mixed that material and the band didn’t like it at all. It was pretty interesting when I wasn’t told about it and walked into Scream Studios at their old location in Studio City and Andy Wallace was sitting there mixing my tracks. I was like 'What the hell is that and who are you and what the fuck is going on here?' (laughs). So I called up their A&R; guy again and was asking him 'Nick, what the hell is going on here?' and he was like 'Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you we’re gonna have Andy mix this' and I said 'Oh, thanks for telling me I appreciate it' because they paid me and everything. As it turned out though, the band hated the mixes so when it came time to do the next EP which was Jar Of Flies they called me. Jerry Cantrell called and said 'Hey dude, do you wanna work on an EP with us?' and I said 'Fuck yeah, let’s do it.'"

Legendary Rock Interviews: Paul Stanley is no stranger to studio work and production. He’s produced various things over the years including the last couple of KISS albums. Did you get a strong sense of his ear and production techniques while working with him?

Wright: "Oh absolutely. He is a very, very talented man in that regard. He knows what he wants sonically and what works for the band. Gene is also very good as well, in many cases it would be Gene who would really have a feel for what a particular song needs and he’s equally able to make those decisions. They are both very capable and both have very good ideas and strong opinions and they are a very lucky band in that creative sense. It really depends on the material at hand. Paul has a certain thing and Gene has a certain thing and they do it great together."

Read more at Legendary Rock Interviews.