Now Spinning Music Magazine - Artist Interviews and Music Reviews · Phil Aston

Richard Digby Smith Interview on Free, Led Zeppelin, Sparks, Black Sabbath Deep Purple

·1 hr 1 min·4 clips

A shirt sleeve caught Kossoff’s pickup switch, and the click became part of the Heartbreaker mix.

Phil Aston welcomes Richard Digby Smith for a wide-ranging conversation about a life spent in and around classic rock studios. The interview opens with the reissue of Digby Smith's book 1, 2, 3, 4, now returning as an e-book and in a new version with a brand new cover. From there, the discussion moves back to his Birmingham and Solihull roots and his decision to leave home at 19 for London and the music business. That early jump sets the tone for what follows. Digby Smith looks back on work at Island Studios during the early 1970s. He talks about sessions with Free, Traffic, and Bob Marley, and the ease with which those names sit alongside the rest of his story. The chat gives particular attention to Free and Paul Kossoff. Digby Smith remembers Kossoff with warmth, and that affection comes through even when the sessions were chaotic or late. There is a clear sense of long hours, loose edges, and serious guitar work being pushed across the finish line. One stretch follows the recording of the second Backstreet Crawler album in Los Angeles. He recalls working through the last night on a handful of remaining guitar overdubs and guiding Kossoff through the final details at the piano. The story is vivid because it stays specific. Digby Smith describes the practical side of keeping a session moving when a player is not at full sharpness. He also circles back to how much of that era depended on endurance, instinct, and a willingness to keep going until the tape was ready. The episode widens out to his later work with Black Sabbath. It also reaches Deep Purple's 50th anniversary release of Made in Japan, showing how far his career has travelled. Phil Aston keeps the conversation open and conversational, letting the memories breathe instead of rushing them. That gives the interview room for small side roads and personal recollections. By the end, Digby Smith comes across as exactly what Aston calls him: an unsung hero who helped shape the sound of records people still return to. The result is a calm, generous portrait of a working engineer whose story runs alongside the history of the music itself.

As heard by us

A warm studio-floor history lesson with memory, craft, and classic-rock weight.

Richard Digby Smith's route through early-70s Island Studios, working with Free, Traffic, and Bob Marley before later sessions with Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, gives the discussion a steady sense of authority.

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Why you'd press play

Hear classic rock stories from the control room with engineer Richard Digby Smith, spanning early-70s Island sessions with Free, Traffic, and Bob Marley through later work with Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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