As reported yesterday, Grammy-award winning mix engineer Mike Shipley - who has been prominent in the global music industry for several decades, having worked on projects with combined sales in the hundreds of millions - has passed away.

Among many others, Shipley worked with DEF LEPPARD on a number of albums/projects including their legendary string of albums, Pyromania, Hysteria, High N' Dry, Adrenalize.

Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott has paid tribute to the studio wizard: "I'm devastated to hear of the passing of Mike Shipley. He was a fantastic engineer and a good guy. Nothing got past him if it wasn't up to scratch, hence Leppard's nick name for him, 'bat ears'. From the High & Dry album in 1981 to the last thing we did together, 1993's Two Steps Behind he was a joy to work with. RIP Shippers."

According to Wikipedia, Mike Shipley first became interested in a recording career while at school in the UK in the early 1970s. He completed high school in Melbourne, Australia, but quickly returned to London, where he got his first big break working for Wessex Studios, home to huge acts including QUEEN and THE SEX PISTOLS. His first engineering sessions were during the punk-music explosion of the late '70s and early '80s and included recordings with the likes of these names and others, including THE DAMNED. His contemporaries at Wessex included producer Roy Thomas Baker, Chris Thomas, and engineers Tim Friese-Greene and Bill Price. Asked to work with THE CARS, Shipley went to Los Angeles in 1984, where he had since been based.

Shipley either produced/mixed some of the following hard rock/heavy metal classics: AEROSMITH (Just Push Play), VAN HALEN (Best Of Both Worlds), SCORPIONS (Savage Amusement), RATT (Detonator), WHITESNAKE (Restless Heart), WINGER (Pull), VIXEN (Rev It Up).