He co-produced 2007's country-influenced Lost Highway with singer Jon Bon Jovi, guitarist Richie Sambora and producer Dan Huff, and two years later reunited with Bon Jovi and Sambora to produce The Circle, before recording and co-producing four new songs for 2010's Greatest Hits. Shanks first joined force with Bon Jovi in 2005, when he was one of several producers on the band's studio album Have A Nice Day. Note the wall of amplifiers to the right! John Shanks's room at Henson is stuffed to the gills with guitars and other instruments. Shanks, who is originally from New York and began his music career as a guitarist in Melissa Etheridge's band, has been nominated six times for a Grammy, and in 2005 received the much-coveted Producer Of The Year award. Legendary record company executive Clive Davis has called Shanks' records "the sound of Top 40 radio” and credits him with being "the father of that guitar-driven kind of pop sound”. Throw in Shanks' involvement with country acts that include Keith Urban, SheDaisy and the Wreckers, and his influence can be felt almost everywhere. If this isn't impressive enough, Shanks also manages to straddle two normally mutually exclusive worlds, with pop credits including Miley Cyrus, Kelly Clarkson, Take That, Westlife, Ashlee Simpson and Backstreet Boys, and rock credits such as Van Halen, Fleetwood Mac, Robbie Robertson, Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette and, of course, Bon Jovi. John Shanks, meanwhile, has, as a guitarist, songwriter and producer, been involved in over 60 million record sales, which include more than 40 number one singles and close to 100 number one albums. Predictably, it doesn't exactly endear them to the critics, but with an estimated 120 million album sales to date, this is hardly going to give them sleepless nights. The group's staggering success has been built on their capacity for marrying anthemic heavy rock with ultra-catchy melodies, which has made them, ever since their 1986 breakthrough album, Slippery When Wet, the archetypal stadium rockers. Shanks is talking about Bon Jovi's 12th studio album, What About Now, the band's fifth number one album in the US, and their ninth in a row to reach number one or two in the UK. The production is very dense, but it also feels very open.” We did a lot of layering, with loads of guitars and keyboards, and loops and beats and percussion. But 95 percent of the songs were written on an acoustic guitar, so they all started from that place where it's about the lyrics, the melody and the chords, and we then built them up from there.
#ALWAYS BON JOVI ACOUSTIC FULL#
It is full of small details coming in at various places that you're more likely to notice with headphones on. The production of the new Bon Jovi album, for example, has lots of ear candy. Everything should take you on a rollercoaster ride. My favourite records,” says producer extraordinaire John Shanks, "are always those that are cinematic, that take you on a journey, with interesting things flying past you all the time - hooks, harmonies, melodies, counterpoints, details in the arrangements - that connect you to the lyrics and the emotion they try to convey. Nearly 30 years after they burst onto the scene, Bon Jovi continue to top charts worldwide. John Shanks at Henson Studio C, his ‘home from home’.
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