Producer Joe Hardy helped ZZ Top modernize its sound
Producer and engineer Joe Hardy was best known for a decades-spanning working relationship with Billy Gibbons, from helping ZZ Top modernize its sound in the ’80s to assisting Gibbons’ solo recordings outside the trio. His storied career also included collaborations with Al Green, Alice Cooper, the Replacements, Booker T and the MGs and Steve Earle, among dozens of others. Hardy died at his Houston home this week after a short illness, as reported by the Commercial Appeal in Memphis. He was 66.
A Kentucky native, Hardy moved to Memphis to become a rock star, playing in a band called the Voice of Cheese. The band recorded for Ardent, the Memphis soul and rock label associated with the storied Ardent Studios. When the
“He was a true innovator in a field where many just did it by the book. He threw away ‘the book’ and wrote his own.”
Billy Gibbons, ZZ Top
band failed to get any traction, Hardy recast himself as a recording studio dweller, working as an engineer, producer and mixer at Ardent. The Ardent Studio has had a rough run in recent years: founder and producer John Fry and producer John Hampton both died in 2014.
“We were like a family at Ardent,” said Jody Stephens, drummer in the storied band Big Star, who now serves as CEO at Ardent. “And we’ve lost so many. But guys like Joe, Fry and John Hampton, all three were absolutely brilliant. And from a technical point, Hampton and Hardy were brilliant musically, too. They were so comfortable with themselves, which allowed them to be really great and
Hardy worked with a wide array of roots and rock musicians like Alex Chilton (Stephens’ bandmate in Big Star), Jason & the Scorchers and the Staple Singers in the ’80s. In the early ’80s, ZZ Top headed to Memphis to record its eighth album at Ardent.
Gibbons said Hardy and the band had “an instant connection.”
Thus he began his long friendship and collaboration with Gibbons, starting with “Eliminator,” an album that turned ZZ Top into international superstars.
Hardy had a reputation for being on the front end of new musical technology, and ZZ Top was looking to push its Texas blues roots toward a sleeker, modern sound.
“The result took our audio signature … to new sonic frontiers,” Gibbons said.
“Eliminator” would sell more than 10 million copies.
In 1988, when singer-songwriter Steve Earle sought to move toward a harder-edged, rock ’n’ roll-influenced country sound on his third album, “Copperhead Road,” he enlisted Hardy.
Hardy also logged time in the ’80s with the Replacements, mixing and engineering the band’s “Pleased to Meet Me,” as well as working with Georgia Satellites. He produced Tom Cochrane’s “Mad Mad World” in 1992, which yielded a big hit with “Life Is a Highway.”
More recently, he produced and engineered “Perfectamundo” and “The Big Bad Blues,” two solo albums released by Gibbons. He can also be heard playing keyeccentric.” boards on ZZ Top’s most recent album, “La Futura.”
“My friend played a huge role in our lives,” Gibbons said. “He was a true innovator in a field where many just did it by the book. He threw away ‘the book’ and wrote his own.
“Joe will be missed but, in a very real sense, we’ll be able to always hear him.”