77. ALAN PARSONS – Musician, Songwriter, Audio Engineer & Record Producer

Alan Parsons
Alan Parsons

Grammy Award winner Alan Parsons

Alan Parsons is an English audio engineer, songwriter, musician and record producer best known for his work on The Alan Parsons Project. He began his career at the age of 19, where he worked at Abbey Road, assisting in the production of the last two Beatles albums. In 1974 he received his first (of more than a dozen) Grammy nominations for his work on Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon. Through his work on The Alan Parsons Project, which was formed in 1975, Alan has had several top 40 hits including Eye in the Sky, Games People Play and Don’t Answer Me.

Alan joins us today to talk about his incredible career, including his recent Grammy nomination, his latest album “The Secret” released April 26, 2019 (his first album in 15 years), as well as his 2019 tour. We also discuss his experience watching the Great American Total Solar Eclipse in 2017 and his free concert on July 13, 2019, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11.

About Alan

Grammy Award winner Alan Parsons was born into a family with an impressive history in entertainment. His great-grandfather was the celebrated actor/manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. His mother was an actress, professional folk singer and harpist and his father, Denys Parsons, an accomplished pianist and flautist as well as the author of many books. The late Oliver Reed, film actor was a cousin. His uncle, David Tree was also a film and stage actor.

Alan was fortunate enough to work as assistant engineer on the last two albums by The Beatles and after he qualified as a fully-fledged recording engineer, he went on to work with Paul McCartney and The Hollies among many others. But it was his contribution as engineer on Pink Floyd’s classic The Dark Side Of The Moon that really got him world attention. That soon led to striking successes as a producer – notably with Pilot’s Magic, John Miles’ Highfly and Music and Steve Harley’s (Come Up And See Me) Make Me Smile. He also produced the hugely successful Year Of The Cat album with Al Stewart and two albums with American prog rock band Ambrosia.

In 1975 he met Eric Woolfson who not only became his manager, but joined forces with Alan as a songwriting and performing partner for what became known as The Alan Parsons Project. The APP’s debut album, Tales Of Mystery And Imagination based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe paved the way for a signing to Clive Davis’ newly launched Arista label and a string of hit albums, namely I Robot (1977), Pyramid (1978), The Turn of a Friendly Card (1980), Eye in the Sky (1982), Ammonia Avenue (1984), Vulture Culture (1985), Stereotomy (1986) and Gaudi (1987).

Alan’s longtime hobby has been performing magic, and he regularly attends the legendary Magic Castle in Hollywood where he is a magician member.

Alan lives on an organic avocado ranch in Santa Barbara, California with his wife Lisa and numerous farm animals and pets.

For more information, visit alanparsons.com

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