Keith Olsen, producer of hit albums by Fleetwood Mac, Rick Springfield and many more, has died

Posted By: Staff
March 10, 2020 @ 5:40 pm
Music News

Barry Brecheisen/WireImage for NARAS

Barry Brecheisen/WireImage for NARASKeith Olsen, an acclaimed producer and studio engineer who worked on hit albums by artists from the 1970s through the 1990s, died Monday, March 9, according to BestClassicBands.com.

Among Olsen’s many notable production credits are Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks‘ 1973 Buckingham Nicks album, Fleetwood Mac‘s 1975 self-titled record, The Grateful Dead‘s Terrapin Station, Foreigner‘s Double Vision, Pat Benatar‘s Crimes of Passion and Precious Time, Rick Springfield‘s Working Class Dog, Santana‘s Zebop!, Whitesnake‘s 1987 eponymous album, Ozzy Osbourne‘s No Rest for the Wicked, and The Scorpions‘ Crazy World.

Prior to his career as a producer and engineer, Olsen played bass with the late-1960s garage-rock band The Music Machine, which scored a #15 hit with “Talk Talk.”

Paying tribute to Olsen, Springfield wrote on Twitter, “He had a golden ear and helped so many people reach their potential. I remember playing him my demos and he picked ‘Jessie’s Girl’ out of a batch of 15 songs and said ‘This is a hit.'”

The Scorpions posted their own homage to Olsen on their Facebook page, writing in part, “Keith was a wonderful guy and the making of Crazy World was such an inspiring journey, containing outstanding songs like ‘Wind of Change’ and ‘Send Me an Angel,’ which had the Keith Olsen touch on every note. RIP Keith…You live on in the music.”

You can check out a bio of Olsen at the website of his PogoLogo Productions company.