Legendary producer Michael Wagener recently sat down with the Decibel Geek podcast to give his final public interview. Retired since April 2021, Wagener had plenty of stories to tell in part one of this two-part final interview.

Numerous points from throughout his life are covered including his early years, influences, meeting UDO Dirkschneider in elementary school and the formation of Accept, his connection to Don Dokken and arrival in America, celebrities dropping by the studios in Hollywood, his methods in working with bands as a producer; both technical and mental and much more. A few notable quotes follow:

On firing a studio assistant during the recording of Stryper’s Soldiers Under Command album:

“It’s funny, I remember we were still doing one song; a few vocals. And I was in the other studio doing the mix for another band. I think it might have been Alice Cooper, I’m not sure. Then, all of a sudden, Michael (Sweet) comes into that studio and says ‘Can you come over there? I can’t work with the assistant.’ I go ‘Okay, I’m just gonna sit in the back and just watch a little bit.’ And Michael is just trying to hit that high note, which was impossible to hit, y’know? And, he sings and the (assistant) goes ‘Oh, that sucked.’ I go ‘Out, you’re fired. You’re fired right now, I don’t ever want to see you again.’ And, of course, Michael was, like, tense, you know? I sat down and we did it in the next ten minutes.”

On the only artist he’d unretire for; Vito Bratta:

“I wish the world would hear from him again and I would come out of retirement in a second to work with Vito. He is, pretty much, the only guy. We’ve talked and I’ve heard his side and I’ve heard his side about it and I do understand his side about it. It’s just sad that such a talent is, all of a sudden, gone but I do understand. But, he was, like, one of the very, very top guys.”

On projects that he was approached to do but had to decline going onto big success:

“For different reasons, yes. One of them was (Guns N’ Roses) Appetite For Destruction. I was approached to mix it. Back then, Alan Niven was their manager and Alan, Don Dokken, and I were staying at the same house. So, Alan Niven asked me if I could do it and, for some reasons, I turned it down. That was quite an expensive mistake.”

On how he’d get A&R people on board with his choice for an album single:

“My job was to circumvent the A&R people and what you would do at the time is ‘Okay, we want this song to be the first single.’ So, you invite the A&R people down to sing background vocals on that song. So now, that was their song and they were involved and it’s the first single. And it was always like, you would record it and by the time they left the studio, you’d erased it. And then later on, ‘Oh, I can hear myself!.’ ‘Oh yeah, we can hear you, clearly.’”

On the influence of  Roy Thomas Baker and Mutt Lange on his career.

“Roy Thomas Baker did the first four Queen albums. Everything I liked, after that, from Journey to The Cars, and everything; he was always my idol. And then, when Def Leppard came out and AC/DC, it was Mutt Lange. So, between the two, they were very excessive in different directions. I asked Roy one day, ‘We need a big room to do the drum in for the Dokken album’ and he goes ‘Rent the Forum’ and he meant it.”

Listen to part one of Michael Wagener's final interview via the audio player below: