Backstage Spotlight™
November 2003 Recording Engineer Obie
O'Brien - Page 5
MBADC: Then after the Crush tour, you were a big part of putting the
live album, One Wild Night, together. What was the process involved there?
Did you and the band listen to a lot of tapes, or had Jon and Richie remembered certain
performances?
Obie: Oh man. We’d recorded quite a few venues. I listened to every song at every
venue. And the great thing about doing that record was, the guys let me pick out the stuff
I really loved. Since I was a producer on the record, I had a lot of say on what we used.
And my whole thing about that was, to not do tons of repairs. I mean, there are warts and
mistakes on that thing, but that’s part of the experience. But I wanted it to have
the impact—even though it’s being played on your CD player and on your regular
speakers. I wanted to make the impact of a concert translate.
MBADC: I think you succeeded. I really liked it.
Obie: Well you know, I saw a couple of very nice reviews of it, which is unusual for
us in the first place for the critics to give us a thumbs up. But I’m proud of that
record, you know? I still listen to it and go, "I think this a great representation
of the band." Some of that stuff is from quite a while back, and I remembered the
show in Johannesburg that we did when they did "Rockin’ In the Free World"
[in December 1995--Ed]. And I remember when I was recording that thing going, "Man,
this is phenomenal!" So I pulled that out, and there are a couple songs from the
early days in Japan [in 1985—Ed], so yeah, there were some things I remembered. Not
even writing them down—they just stick with you. But I thought that was a good
representation of the band as they progressed as musicians and as songwriters and as
performers. And I especially hear it in Jon’s voice, when they’re doing "In
and Out of Love" and "Runaway," those early ones, and you go, "Wow! He
was a kid!" He was a kid.
MBADC: He sounds like, if Jon had a little brother that sounded like Jon Bon Jovi?
That’s what it’s like.
Obie: Right! And you listen to him, and you realize, this guy’s voice has just
gotten--as he’s matured his voice has got more character, and he’s got more
control of the full range of his voice. He wasn’t a guy who, because of all the
singing at all the shows, hurt his voice and lost pieces of it. If anything it was the
opposite. I mean, it’s just like a guy who learned to play whatever instrument over
the years. Playing experience and life experience all goes into that. Because you play
with your heart, you don’t play with your brain.
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