Legendary Producer Peter Collins Dies at 73

Legendary record producer Peter Collins — who has a history of working on every genre imaginable from pop to rockabilly to ska to, of course, metal — has sadly died at the age of 73. Amongst his great metal albums include Queensrÿche’s classic Operation Mindcrime, Suicidal Tendencies’ The Art of Rebellion, Alice Cooper’s Hey Stoopid, and Ultraspank’s Progress.

According to an interview with Journal on the Art of Production, Collins got his start in the 1970s and got his first hit in 1979 for a song called “Rockabilly Rebel” by British rockabilly band Matchbox. According to a profile done for Sound On Sound, this brought him to the attention of Pete Waterman who put Collins in charge of producing a mod-rock band called The Lambrettas.

Waterman and Collins found their paths diverging in the mid-80s as Waterman’s focus was on dance pop while Collins wanted to focus more on rock music and full albums as opposed to singles. After producing a track for Gary Moore who was opening for Canadian prog-rockers Rush in the mid-80s, Collins started producing records for Rush.

Some of the bands that he worked with offered tributes to the late producer on social media. Queensrÿche had this to say on Instagram:

“We are saddened to hear of the passing of the legendary Peter Collins, who worked on our albums, ‘Operation Mindcrime,’ ‘Empire,’ and ‘Here In The Now Frontier.’ His amazing talent and input producing those albums were a huge part of their success.

“He was a complete legend in the studio, his personality was infectious and was affectionately referred to as ‘Mr Big.’ Peter is also known for producing such acts as Rush, Gary Moore, Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper, and many more.

“Our condolences to his family and friends. You will be greatly missed…RIP”

We would like to offer our condolences to Collins’ family and friends and all the artists he’s worked with.