![]() The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has honored Mutt in the rock, country, pop, Latin and soundtrack categories. “Other producers have passed between genres, but no one has been so successful at it or gone to the extremes he has.” “Mutt is a single-minded hitmaker-one of the great writer/producers of all time,” declares Michael Greene, president and CEO of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, the professional organization that hands out the Grammies (Mutt has four). And of course, there’s his proudest accomplishment: Shania, who went from Nashville neophyte to international megastar after hooking up with Mutt as partner, producer and spouse. There are the New Wave heroes: XTC and The Cars. There are the pop stars: Britney, the Backstreet Boys, Michael Bolton. There are the long-hairs: Def Leppard and AC/DC. Featured photos include Bryan Adams, whose collaboration with Mutt resulted in two multi-platinum albums and three of the best-selling singles of all time. The best evidence of this is a wall in Mutt’s house picturing the acts he’s worked with. He’s widely regarded as one of the most consistent hitmakers in the music business, crafting mass-appeal records in a wide variety of formats. Add it up and you’ve got a Howard Hughes-scale aversion to the spotlight.īut where it counts, Mutt has all the recognition he needs. The first thing you learn about Mutt is that he’s reclusive. I can dream, can’t I? Robert John “Mutt” Lange is about as likely to have me over for tea and conversation as he is to launch a line of pet supplies for the extra cash. And then without any prompting at all, he unravels the story of his life and career, how the son of an African asbestos miner became a pop music mastermind whose manic perfectionism and easy command of rock star egos has helped produce seven of the top 100 records of all time. When the control room falls silent, Mutt settles back in his chair and closes his eyes. They’re a bit on the repetitive side, sure, with hammy wink-wink lyrics about something vaguely naughty (Mutt’s catalogue includes songs called “I Wanna Be Your Underwear” and “Velvet Tongue”)-but like all his best songs, they’re carefully crafted to generate a moment or two of pure uplift coming from crappy car speakers one miserable morning on the way to work. From the first note, you can hear Mutt’s trademark-the songs are huge and regal, slinky and hummable. Settling in behind his console while blowing steam off a mug of herbal tea, Mutt plays the rough mixes of a few songs he and Shania have been working on. Next he leads the way to his studio, a vast spot-lit sanctum decorated with a few of his multi-platinum albums (AC/DC’s Back in Black, Shania’s Come on Over, the Backstreet Boys’ Millennium). But hey-the taxes aren’t as brutal, the people are nice, and it’s easier to keep a low profile. It wasn’t easy, he says, making the transition from the mansion in Lake Placid to the estate in Tour-de-Peliz. He laughs about that and then turns serious, his slight South African accent going soft. The Swiss “freakin’ ch-teau,” as the missus calls it. We tour the grounds, past the stables where we run into his wife grooming one of her five horses-“Hi, Shania!”-and then he gives me the tour of the house, with its sweeping southern views of Lake Geneva. His hair is long, blond and shaggy in a style that hasn’t changed much since his glory days of the mid-‘80s-the headbanger’s ball may be long over, but at 52, Mutt’s keeping the faith, God bless him. He welcomes me at the front door of his 19th-century Swiss ch-teau wearing his usual outfit-Hawaiian print shirt, baggy pants and slip-ons. He may be a multimillionaire record producer and songwriter with unparalleled power in the music industry, but he’s also a regular sort of bloke, a former cover-band bassist who took his nickname from a beloved basset hound. The first thing Robert John Lange says when we meet is that I should call him Mutt. Good training for my run-in a few years later with another evasive celebrity, Mel Gibson. Investigative profile of pop genius Mutt Lange, a press-shy knob-twiddler behind chart-toppers as diverse as AC/DC, Tina Turner, the Backstreet Boys and Shania Twain.
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