Producer Andrew Watt Opens Up About Working With the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney

The 35-year-old New Yorker says he put himself on the line to potentially take the heat if the Stones record fell flat.

Producer Andrew Watt, speaking to The Times, has opened up about the weight of working with two of rock’s most enduring institutions: The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney. The 35-year-old New Yorker, whose recent production credits span Iggy Pop, Pearl Jam, and Elton John, describes the stakes plainly and the experience of being quietly interviewed by Mick Jagger over tea before the Stones project ever got off the ground.

Andrew Watt on the Pressure of Producing the Rolling Stones

Watt is direct about where the risk lands when a producer takes on a band of the Stones’ stature. “If I make the shittiest Rolling Stones album of all time, it’s on me,” he tells The Times. “It’s not on them because they can play You Can’t Always Get What You Want for the rest of their lives. I put myself on the line to potentially get the shit kicked out of me.”

That candor, he suggests, is also what he brings into the studio. Asked whether the Stones are willing to take direction from a producer three decades their junior, Watt is unapologetic. “I’m a New Yorker. I say what’s on my mind. I am here to produce, to give my opinion — otherwise what the fuck am I doing? So I do. On everything. And these guys were gracious enough to come down to my level and listen. They might not agree with me, though.”

The Mick Jagger Tea Interview

Watt says the path to working with the Stones began with an invitation to tea with Mick Jagger, which he initially took at face value. He was working with pop star Dua Lipa at the time when the invitation arrived.

“If you talk to anyone who’s worked with the Stones, they’ll say the same thing: there’s always a point where it’s informal, but Mick is interviewing you,” Watt explains. “We were chatting, listening to music, and suddenly Mick was grilling me: what my process was, what I would do with the band. I thought we were just having a cup of tea and some biscuits.”

It is a dynamic that will surprise few who follow the band closely. Jagger has long been regarded as the Stones’ de facto business mind, and the idea that he would vet a new collaborator through casual conversation rather than a formal meeting fits the band’s well-documented operating style.

Paul McCartney’s Energy Leaves Watt Speechless

Watt is equally effusive about his experience working with Paul McCartney, zeroing in on the former Beatle’s physical stamina. “Paul McCartney has more energy than you and I combined,” he tells interviewer Will Hodgkinson. “Paul is playing two-and-a-half-hour shows each night, he gets on the bus with his boys afterwards, a margarita is poured for him — he’s unbelievable.”

McCartney, who has maintained one of the most demanding touring schedules of any artist his age, has become something of a benchmark in the industry for longevity. For Watt to single out his energy as remarkable, given the caliber of artists Watt now routinely works alongside, says something about the impression McCartney leaves on collaborators.

A Decade of Overdelivering on a Promise

Watt’s ascent to the top tier of rock production is one of the more striking stories in the genre over the past several years. He first came to wider attention as the least-known member of California Breed, the Los Angeles power trio he formed with Deep Purple and Black Country Communion vocalist and bassist Glenn Hughes and original drummer Jason Bonham. The band released their self-titled debut in May 2014, Bonham exited in June of that year, and by January 2015 Hughes had decided the project had run its course.

At the time of the split, Watt pledged to “continue the quest to bring rock n roll back to the people that are hungry for it.” Eleven years later, the résumé speaks for itself. Beyond the Stones and McCartney records, Watt has produced Iggy Pop’s 2023 album Every Loser, Pearl Jam’s 2024 album Dark Matter, and Elton John and Brandi Carlile’s 2025 collaboration Who Believes in Angels?. He also co-wrote and produced songs on Madonna’s forthcoming Confessions II, performed alongside Slash and Duff McKagan at the Grammys as a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, played in Eddie Vedder’s backing band at the Ohana festival, and appeared on US television alongside Michael Stipe.

What we know

• Andrew Watt produced albums for both The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney within the last year.
• Watt was working with Dua Lipa when he received an invitation to tea with Mick Jagger as a prelude to the Stones project.
• Watt described Jagger’s informal meeting as a covert interview about his process and what he would do with the band.
• Watt also produced Iggy Pop’s Every Loser (2023), Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter (2024), and Elton John and Brandi Carlile’s Who Believes in Angels? (2025).
• Watt co-wrote and produced songs on Madonna’s upcoming album Confessions II.
• Watt performed alongside Slash and Duff McKagan at the Grammys as a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne.
• California Breed, which included Watt, Glenn Hughes, and Jason Bonham, released their debut album in May 2014 and announced their split in January 2015.

The take

Andrew Watt’s trajectory is worth examining in the context of what has happened to rock production more broadly over the past decade. For much of the 2000s and early 2010s, legacy rock acts tended to work with producers who either came from within the genre’s old guard or leaned on safe, polished approaches that rarely challenged the artists. Watt represents a different model: a musician-producer who came up playing guitar, who can credibly sit in a room with Mick Jagger or Keith Richards and speak the language of the music rather than just the language of the console.

His willingness to be blunt, which he describes as a New York trait, is actually a fairly rare quality in producers working at this level. The bigger the legacy act, the more likely collaborators are to defer. That Watt explicitly rejects that dynamic, and that the Stones apparently responded to it, suggests the band was looking for genuine creative friction rather than a caretaker.

The McCartney observation about energy is also telling. Watt has now worked with artists across a wide age range, and singling out McCartney’s stamina as something beyond his experience with anyone else is consistent with what McCartney’s own band members and crew have said publicly for years. At this point in his career, Watt is less a rising producer and more a de facto custodian of the classic rock canon, which is a remarkable place to be at 35.

Why it matters

For classic rock fans, Watt’s comments offer a rare, candid look at what it actually takes to produce bands whose catalogs are untouchable. His acknowledgment that the reputational risk falls entirely on the producer, not the artist, reframes how listeners might think about these late-career records. It also signals that the Stones and McCartney are actively seeking collaborators who push back, which bodes well for the creative ambition of whatever these projects turn out to be.

What’s next

Watt’s production work on the Rolling Stones album and the Paul McCartney project has been confirmed, though release details were not specified in the interview. Madonna’s Confessions II, which includes Watt’s co-writing and production contributions, is also forthcoming. Elton John and Brandi Carlile’s Who Believes in Angels?, which Watt produced, is set for 2025.

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