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JIM GAINES, GRAMMY-WINNING PRODUCER AND ENGINEER,
DIES AT 83

It is with great sadness that we share the news that Jim Gaines passed
away peacefully in his sleep on the morning of November 9, 2024,
surrounded by family and friends after battling a prolonged illness.

From a mail boy at a radio jingles’ studio to one of popular
music’s most celebrated producers and engineers, Jim Gaines’
life story reads like an Horatio Alger tale: an adventure
that extols the virtues of hard work and determination.
Anyone who knows the Grammy winner will tell you,
Jim Gaines has earned his reputation as one of the most

humble and generous men in a notoriously ruthless
industry. These attributes served him well through five
decades in the music business, where he has left an
indelible mark on the music of artists such as Huey
Lewis and the News, Carlos Santana, Stevie Ray
Vaughan, Steve Miller, and countless others. His love
of blues music earned him a Keeping The Blues Alive
award in 2003.

Jim Gaines was born on October 2, 1941, in the small
town of Parkin, Arkansas, before relocating—thirty
miles southeast—to Memphis in the early 1950s.

Following his high school graduation, Gaines began
working at Pepper Tanner, one of the world’s largest
producers of commercial jingles. After a year of
working as a “gofer”, where he largely helped around
the mailroom, Gaines approached the chief engineer and offered to take over the role of making
tape copies. “I created a role in the company for myself that hadn’t existed, and that was my
start,” he remembered. For the next eight years, Gaines continued to climb the ladder within
the company, moving from mixing to tracking, to eventually supervising satellite studios
around the region.

George Thorogood had this to say about Jim, “Mr. Gaines’ expertise as a top-of-the-line producer
was surpassed by his classy personality.”

Back in the day Carlos Santana shared “Jim Gaines is a masterful craftsman. He understands
capturing the sounds of eternity and infinity. I am forever grateful to Jim for sharing his
knowledge, wisdom, and heart with me."

Bob Trenchard of Catfood Records, a long-time friend and colleague, remembers him “as a true
gentleman, always so down to earth and respectful. He was one of the best men I have ever
known. Our loss is heaven’s gain.”

In 2022 Jim was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, at which he said, “I'm a lucky
guy. I'm just a hard-working hillbilly from Arkansas, and I've been very lucky throughout my
career to be involved with all these great artists. That's the way I look at it.”

Betsie Brown
Blind Raccoon Records