Jack Nitzsche

After honing his chops in the early 1960s as a member of Phil Spector's famed Wrecking Crew, the enigmatic Jack Nitzsche would go on to have one of the most bizarre and storied careers in pop music. As songwriter, producer, instrumentalist, and all-around L.A. scenester, Jack Nitzsche was a key figure in the late-60s/early-'70s Laurel Canyon country-rock scene. While Nitzsche was a go-to studio man for many of the artists in that scene (most notably Neil Young), he was also a talented performer in his own right. Though personal demons, both real (alcohol) and imagined (an unhealthy obsession with the occult), prevented the mad genius from ever making his mark as a solo artist, Nitzsche remained active in the pop music world until his death in 2000.