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Business News Obituaries
Willie Mitchell dies
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 6 January 2010
Willie Mitchell, musician, record producer, owner of the Royal Studio in Memphis, and a former chief of the city’s Hi Records, has died aged 81.
Trumpeter and bandleader Mitchell began his record producer career with the Home Of The Blues record label, before moving to Hi Records as both a recording artist and producer.
He took over the running of that label in 1970 and oversaw its most successful period, during which the company and Mitchell himself worked with numerous artists, perhaps most notably Al Green.
Although his period running Hi Records ended at the end of the seventies, he continued to produce and head up the Royal Studio complex until his death, working with the likes of Rod Stewart, Keith Richards, Bob Seger and John Mayer along the way. Last decade he started to work with Green again, producing 2003 album ‘I Can’t Stop’ and 2005’s ‘Everything’s OK’.
Mitchell’s son Lawrence confirmed his father died yesterday morning, having suffered a cardiac arrest on 19 Dec.
