“ONE night at Sound City, I was doing some rough mixes and saw this band in the hallway from Arizona who came through Madison a bunch of times. They were called the Sidewinders. They were recording with Dave Briggs, who Nirvana had turned down. David was friendly and invited me to come and listen to him mix Neil Young. He was tracking the Sidewinders by day and then mixing Neil Young’s Weld after that.
“I went in around 11pm. David was taking these big swigs of whisky and then putting the bottle right back on the console. The guitar was so loud through these big speakers, I was having to surreptitiously put my fingers in my ears. It was crushingly loud. I am a big Neil Young fan and felt I had to make it through at least one song, but at the end I said I had to get out of there. My ears were ringing from these sheet-metal guitars pounding out the speakers.”