Influential Punk Producer Glen 'Spot' Lockett Has Died at 72

Glen "Spot" Lockett, the punk rock record producer who influenced untold musicians with his audio engineering work on early SST Records releases by Black Flag, Husker Du and Minutemen, has died at 72, according to Consequence and Pitchfork.

Spot was hospitalized after a stroke last year and had been on oxygen after his fibrosis damaged his lung function in 2021, former SST Records co-owner Joe Carducci revealed.

Spot's resume is an impressive list of punk cornerstones, not all on SST. From 1980 to 1985, he worked on Black Flag's Damaged, My War and Slip It In, Descendents' Milo Goes to College, Minutemen's What Makes a Man Start Fires?, Misfits' Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood, Husker Du's Everything Falls Apart and many more.

Spot was also an accomplished photographer — he published a photo book about skateboarding in California, Sounds of Two Eyes Opening, in 2014.

"I hate to type out the words but... SPOT passed away after 10am today/Saturday (Mar. 4, 2023) at Morningside Healthcare in Sheboygan, Wisconsin," Carducci writes on Facebook.

He continues, "He had cancelled a planned photography exhibit in late 2021 when he found his fibrosis began to impair lung function. Since then he'd been on oxygen and was hoping for a lung transplant, but a stroke about three months ago put him in the hospital. I was hoping he was recovering speech but realistically he was not likely at his age and condition to become a candidate for a lung transplant."

Carducci Remembers Spot

Carducci explains, "SPOT didn't dwell a lot on his personal history but I believe he was born in Los Angeles, grew up in the Crenshaw neighborhood, moved to Hermosa Beach in the mid-70s, moved to his favorite Black Flag tour stop, Austin Texas, in the mid-80s and then to Sheboygan to be near his favorite Celtic music scenes in Milwaukee and Chicago. His father was Claybourne Lockett who was a Tuskegee Airman who flew British Spitfires and Spot told me once his mother was Native American and from New Orleans. His older sister has advanced dementia. SPOT was a musician and writer and photographer who spelled his name in all caps with a dot in the middle of the O. His principal sideline was as a record producer-engineer and an architect of the natural approach to recording a band in the punk era."

Carducci adds, "He started in Hermosa Beach playing and recording jazz and he took the primacy of live jazz playing into recording bands against prevailing attempts to soften or industrialize a back-to-basics arts movement in sound. When approaching the mixing board SPOT would assume an Elvis-like stance and then gesturing toward all the knobs he would say in a Louis Armstrong-like voice, 'This is going to be gelatinous!' His recorded work as player and producer is listed at discogs.com. I'll be going through his writing with an eye toward publishing a collection including his writings on jazz for the Hermosa Beach free weekly. He spent recent years writing the novel, Decline and Fall of Alternative Civilization, and producing a radio-like dramatization of it which is online. Last year he posted new SPOT music."

Mike Watt Remembers Spot

Bassist and ex-Minuteman Mike Watt also remembered Spot, calling his death "a terrible blow" and praising the producer who "recorded the minutemen's first stuff, I go way back w/this man. brother matt took this shot six years ago when spotski came to visit our pedro town."

Loudwire sends condolences to all affected by Spot.