Butch Vig: The Soundtrack of My Life

She'd always buy the sheet music for whatever musical it was and figure out how to play it on the piano," Butch Vig said. "After I moved out and went to college, I'd come back for the holidays and we'd all gather around the piano. That was one of the songs she'd inevitably sing. [Streisand] holds those notes and her voice is so pure and ethereal. I used to imagine this angel floating up in the sky."

The first song I fell in love with:

Simon & Garfunkel – "Mrs. Robinson"

"I didn't see The Graduate until much later [the song was in the 1967 film], but my mom pointed out to me that the lyrics were very topical at the time, in the late '60s. My parents would throw parties and put the song on, and my brother and sister and I would grab tennis rackets as guitars and sing along," said Vig, unable to hold back his grin.

The first album I bought:

The Who – "Live at Leeds"

"I met Roger Daltrey when a band I was in, Fire Town, signed to Atlantic Records. We went and did the new music seminar in New York in 1988 or '89. Ahmet Ertegun, the president of Atlantic, called all of us into his office to take a photo with all the [other] new artists, and Roger Daltrey had a solo record out. I was like: 'Holy shit! That's Roger Daltrey!'" Vig emphasized with astonishment. "We lined up and he was right next to me. He kept smiling the whole time!

A few years later I was on tour with Garbage in New York. We're staying at a hotel and I get in the elevator to go to soundcheck, and as the door opened, Pete Townshend was in the elevator. I was about to choke. I was so scared, I just stood there staring at my feet, thinking 'I should tell him I'm in a band and I'm a record producer and that The Who is my favorite band.' 'I didn't say a damn word. I kick myself over that.'" Butch Vig said with disappointment.

The first concert I ever went to:

Glen Campbell – Dane County Coliseum, 1960

"My parents took me to see Glen Campbell at the Dane County Coliseum, about 90 miles from my hometown in rural Wisconsin. It was an amazing show, but about three or four months later, [a friend's] dad offered to drive us to a rock show. We had two options, Steppenwolf or Jimi Hendrix. And we chose Steppenwolf. I didn't know who Jimi Hendrix was, and Steppenwolf had some big radio hits and were awesome. It was the first time I saw people smoking weed. Years later I kicked myself knowing I could've seen Jimi Hendrix play," Butch Vig emphasized.

The song I wish I had written:

The Verve – "Bitter Sweet Symphony"

"My wife and I got married in the woods in Northern California, and we played this song as we walked into the ceremony. I love it for its grandeur – and the lyrics Richard Ashcroft wrote. It sounds timeless."

The song I do at karaoke:

1910 Fruitgum Company – "Yummy Yummy Yummy"

"I'm really bad at karaoke and the only way I can get up and do it is after two or three glasses of wine," Butch Vig says, laughing. "This was a one-of-a-kind gem from the '60s. I've actually also played it on guitar twice with a band in a pub. It usually goes over pretty well because it's really easy to pick up on the fly."

The song I can't get out of my head:

Original Cast Of A Chorus Line – "Sing!"

"When I go to bed at night, whatever I've been working on in the studio sticks in my head and drives me crazy. My daughter Bo does theater music reviews and wants me to sing 'Sing!' with my wife for this fundraiser she's doing for a school. It's pretty complicated, there's a lot of back-and-forth singing between the two, and both sets of lyrics have to finish together. Can we really pull this off? My daughter insists we do it, so it's going to take a lot of rehearsals to get up to speed."

The song I can no longer stand to hear:

Steve Miller Band – "Abracadabra"

"I hate this. I think it's one of the worst songs ever written. It's just: 'Abra-abracadabra, I want to reach out and grab ya / up, down, we go round and round and round / Abra-abracadabra, I want to reach out and grab ya.' The lyrics are worse than the worst poet. Whenever it comes on the radio, I have to turn it off immediately."

The song that makes me want to dance:

Ramones – «Blitzkrieg Bop»

"Every time I'm about to go see a band, I still put on the Ramones because they just pump up my adrenaline. It's the greatest punk rock record ever recorded. How can you not get your adrenaline going when you listen to the first Ramones album?"

The song I want played at my funeral:

Joseph Arthur – "In The Sun"

"I like melancholy songs. A lot of people at funerals want something uplifting, so people don't feel sad, but I think it's okay to remember life and feel alive. Sad music always makes me feel alive. Joseph Arthur touches on something in the lyrics. It makes you acknowledge that you still want him. It makes me tear up every time I hear it. And after that, we'll raise a beer to celebrate."

The song that reminds me of recording with Nirvana:

Nirvana – 'Something In The Way'

"This was the hardest song on 'Nevermind'. The other songs we tried to play came together pretty quickly. Then we go back and I think about Kurt [Cobain] adding some guitars or doubling some vocals.

We tried to do "Something In The Way" in the studio and it didn't work. The drums were too big and loud. When Kurt tried to play it on an electric guitar in a studio, he just couldn't get it. The sound was too intense. So out of frustration he went into the control room and started playing it on the couch. And I said, 'Wait, let's record it here.' So I kicked everyone out of the control room, brought in a microphone, unplugged the phone, and recorded him there on the acoustic guitar. Then we built the song from that.

So out of frustration he went into the control room and started playing it on the couch. And I said, 'Wait, let's record it here.'

"We moved from the big studio to the small studio and I had to go back and add Krist [Novoselic] and Dave [Grohl], and that was hard because they were used to playing all together and now they had to play on an acoustic track. I told Dave to play softer. 'You need to play it quiet!' But Dave can't do that. He'd play it beautifully every time, but it always got louder.

After five or six takes, one finally nailed it, with really nice dynamics to it. You can't get more intense than that song. The band was in great shape making 'Nevermind'. They were thrilled to be there and played incredibly. I didn't know at the time that they'd been rehearsing every day for four or five or six months. They'd just gotten a credit card and were staying at a place with a pool out toward Malibu. It was a tough time for them and they played beautifully, everyone was upbeat, and it turned into a great record. We did it in 16 days, really fast."