Rubb’n Elbows – Season 1 / Ep 4 with guest Bill Szymczyk

Bill Szymczyk (/ˈsɪmzɪk/) is an American music producer and technical engineer best known for working with rock and blues musicians, most notably the Eagles in the 1970s. He produced many top albums and singles of the 1970s, though he retired from the music business by 1990. He re-emerged in the late 2000s, taking on select projects including the 2007 Eagles album Long Road Out of Eden and the 2008 eponymous debut of Brian Vander Ark.
Unlike many music producers, Szymczyk has no background as a musician. He was originally a sonar operator for the U.S. Navy and took some audio production classes as part of his Navy training. Besides his work with the Eagles, he has produced hit songs and albums for such diverse artists as B.B. King, Joe Walsh, The James Gang, and Elvin Bishop.
Growing up, his first introduction to music and electronics was when he built his own crystal radio from a kit. Using his radio, he became a fan of blues and R&B while listening to a station out of Nashville, Tennessee.
He joined the United States Navy in 1960, where he worked as a sonar technician. It was in the Navy that he took his first course in radio and television production. Upon leaving the service in 1964, and without much of an idea of what to do for a post-military career, he enrolled at New York University’s Media Arts School.
After producing the James Gang’s first three albums, he followed singer-guitarist Joe Walsh when he left the band, first as a solo artist with the Szymczyk-produced albums Barnstorm (the first recorded at the Caribou Ranch studio) and The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get and later with the Eagles. His most prolific collaborations have been with Walsh; the two have made over 15 albums together in many settings. Walsh himself moved to Boulder, Colorado in 1971 in order to work with Szymczyk and the location would inspire one of Walsh’s biggest solo hits, 1973’s “Rocky Mountain Way”. Besides work with Walsh in his band The James Gang and as a solo artist, he also brought Walsh in to work on several albums he was doing with other musicians, using him as a session player for the B. B. Kingalbum Indianola Mississippi Seeds and the Michael Stanley albums Michael Stanley and Friends and Legends. It was at Szymczyk’s suggestion that the Eagles bring in Walsh to give them a “rock” edge; Walsh has remained a core member of the band to this day.
His long relationship with the Eagles began with their 1974 album On the Border, an album he took over from London-based producer Glyn Johns. He would be the sole producer for the next three Eagles studio albums, including 1976’s Hotel California, the first to feature Joe Walsh. Szymczyk was instrumental in giving the Eagles a more “rock sound” and helping them to move away from their country rock roots.
Among the other acts he worked with extensively through the 1970s include Michael Stanley and the J. Geils Band. While working with The Outlaws, he coined the term “Guitar Army” to describe the band’s sound; the name continues as a nickname for the band. He worked in the studio for the Edgar Winter Group’s biggest hit, the Rick Derringer-produced “Frankenstein”, and later produced Derringer’s best known solo album All American Boy and its hit single, “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo”. At the start of the 1980s he was a highly sought-after producer, and worked on such albums as Bob Seger’s 1980 album Against the Wind and The Who’s 1981 release Face Dances. During this time period, Szymczyk produced such hit singles as Elvin Bishop’s “Fooled Around and Fell in Love”,[10] The Who’s “You Better You Bet”, The Eagles’ “Hotel California”,[10] and Bob Seger’s “Against the Wind”.