THE MOJO INTERVIEW

One of the Last Great Record Men, the ‘Artist’s A&R’ in the Golden Age of Warner Brothers and beyond, counsellor to Prince, Van, Randy, Elliott Smith and more, shares his wisdom. “Producing is hard,” says Lenny Waronker.

BOB MEHR

SAT IN THE KITCHEN OF HIS WEST LOS Angeles home on an early winter’s day, absorbing the first of many questions, Lenny Waronker closes his eyes and bows his head in a state of deep concentration. Waronker – one of the business’s most storied producers, A&Rs and label execs, and among the most loved by musicians – ascribes this prayerlike posture to a childhood spent on Hollywood studio soundstages, witnessing classic film scores being recorded. His father, Si Waronker, was a violinist who’d later help corral orchestral musicians at 20th Century Fox for Oscar-winning composer/conductor Alfred Newman. “My father wasn’t a strict man, except in that environment,” recalls Waronker. “When the orchestra were ready to record, a bell would ring. He would say to me, ‘Don’t move.’ He might’ve said…

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MOJO (Digital) - 1 Issue, May 2025

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