Bill Bottrell is an American
record producer,
songwriter and musician, probably best known for his Grammy Award-winning collaboration with
Sheryl Crow.
Biography
Between
1967 and 1970, Bottrell attended Crescenta Valley Senior High in
La Crescenta,
California
, where he graduated in 1970 with a high school
diploma. He attended the University of
California, Santa Barbara
between 1970 and 1972, where he studied for a
Bachelor's Degree in Music.
In 1974, he married Elizabeth Jordan, whom he met in high school.
That same
year, Bottrell got his first job in music, as an engineer at
California Recording Studio in Hollywood
. In 1978, he moved over to Soundcastle
Studios in
Silverlake, where he met
Jeff Lynne, who eventually hired him to
engineer for
ELO. In 1979
his daughter, Adrianne was born.
The 1980s were spent freelance engineering
between Europe and Los Angeles
, with clients including: The Jacksons, ELO, Michael Jackson, Madonna, George Harrison, Starship and Tom
Petty. Daughter Laura was born in 1983. He worked for
Michael Jackson at his house in Encino between 1984 and 1986,
recording tracks for "Bad". In 1987, Bottrell co-produced his first
record,
Aliens Ate My
Buick, by
Thomas Dolby. In
1989, Michael Jackson asked him to co-produce, engineer and write
songs for his album,
Dangerous, resulting in the biggest
U.S. number one hit, "
Black or
White". The song spent 7 weeks at number one on the Hot 100
chart.
Bottrell's son William was born under difficult circumstances in
1990. That year, Bottrell built his own recording studio and
founded a musical "think tank" called the "Tuesday Night Music
Club". One of the resulting acts was
Sheryl
Crow, whose 1993 debut album (produced and co-written by
Bottrell) was entitled
Tuesday Night Music Club. Her
single, "
All I Wanna
Do", from that album won the 1995
Grammy Award for Record of
the Year for Bottrell and Crow. The album won 3 additional
grammys and sold 10 million worldwide and influenced a generation
of female singers.
Bottrell was nominated for another Grammy for his work on
Shelby Lynne's 1999 breakout album,
I Am Shelby Lynne. During
the making of that album, he closed his recording studio and moved
his family of 5 to Northern California. His son, William, died
after falling off a cliff in 1998.
He was separated from Elizabeth that year, and divorced in
2000.
He has also worked with many other artists, including
David Baerwald,
Alisha's Attic,
Five for Fighting,
Rosanne Cash,
Lisa
Germano,
Kevin Gilbert,
Jasun Martz,
Linda
Perry,
Tom Petty,
Rusted Root,
Ben Jelen,
Toy Matinee and
Annie Stela.
In 1999, Bottrell formed a group called The Stokemen. This group
has become known around northern California for their cabaret-style
shows.
Discography
References
External links
Wikis
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