Led Zeppelin Lost a Key Secret Member on This Day, April 7, 2013

Led Zeppelin’s four members wrote and performed the band’s best songs. Guest musicians occasionally assisted, but Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham did the heavy lifting. Yet the quartet had plenty of help behind the scenes, and they lost a key secret member when Andy Johns died on April 7, 2013.

Andy Johns was like a secret Led Zeppelin member helping Jimmy Page on several albums

Page spent years working as a session musician and stuck with it even when he detested it. Why? Because the skills he learned working behind the scenes were invaluable. Page figured out how to mic instruments in the studio, engineer and mix songs, and salvage takes when things went wrong.

In short, he knew what to do in the studio and expected the same from those he brought on to help. Page clearly trusted Andy Johns.

Page produced and helmed every Led Zeppelin album, but Johns was a key secret member whose name appeared in the credits several times. He engineered Led Zeppelin II and Physical Graffiti, helping create and perfect the sound each member put to tape. Johns engineered and helped mix Led Zeppelin III and IV, Houses of the Holy, and the posthumous Zep album Coda.

Johns died on April 7, 2013, at age 62, but not before he left his mark all over several iconic classic rock albums.

Johns recorded the drums on Led Zeppelin’s ‘When the Levee Breaks’

Johns joined Page working on every Led Zeppelin album from 1969’s II through 1975’s Physical Graffiti. He was basically an unofficial Led Zeppelin member. You can make a case for every one of those records being among the greatest classic rock records. Picking a signature Johns moment isn’t easy, but we’ll nominate one.

He recorded John Bonham’s drums on Led Zeppelin IV closer “When the Levee Breaks.” Page often indicated the natural environment — setting up Bonham’s kit in a stairwell and miking the drums distantly — accounted for the massive, echoey sounds. 

Page was lying. In truth, Johns finessed a primitive echo device while recording the beat to make Bonham’s drums sound larger than life. He and Page worked overtime to mix Led Zeppelin IV after a set of speakers in one studio provided a false sound that wasn’t what the guitarist wanted.

The sound technician left his mark on several iconic classic rock records

Johns didn’t lend his skills only to Led Zeppelin. Several classic albums from the era feature Johns’ name in the credits:

• Blind Faith’s Blind Faith
• Derek and the Dominos’ Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
• The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St., Goats Head Soup, and Tattoo You
• Television’s Marquee Moon
• Rod Stewart’s Blondes Have More Fun

Johns routinely worked with notable bands such as Free, Jethro Tull, Cream bassist Jack Bruce, Mott the Hoople, Humble Pie, and later-era Van Halen.

Led Zeppelin lost a secret, key, unofficial member when Andy Johns died. But not before he significantly impacted their music and that of other classic rock artists.

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