Lee Aaron on Working with Bob Ezrin During ‘Call of the Wild’

Lee Aaron on Working with Bob Ezrin During ‘Call of the Wild’

Lee Aaron cut her teeth as one of Canada’s pioneering women in hard rock, and her 1985 album Call of the Wild captured her at a key turning point, pairing big riffs with the now-classic ballad “Barely Holdin’ On.” For the record she teamed up with legendary producer Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd), who not only served as executive producer but also contributed keyboards and percussion, giving the songs a raw, live edge that pushed her sound closer to the arena scale she was chasing at the time.

Working with Ezrin in her early twenties, Aaron has said she was in awe of his track record and intensity in the studio, and the collaboration helped cement Call of the Wild as a defining chapter in a career that would span 18 albums and earn her gold, multi‑platinum sales and a place in Canada’s rock history.

full in bloom: How was it working with famed producer Bob Ezrin on Call of the Wild?

Lee Aaron: I worked with Bob Ezrin when I was only 23 years old, and I was completely in awe of him and everything he had accomplished. He brought in guitarist Dick Wagner, best known for his work with Alice Cooper, to lay down a few tracks and to pitch us a couple of songs. I think Bob also wanted an old friend from his glory days around while he was in Canada, because from his perspective we were really just a bunch of kids.

Was he sober at the time?

Well, at one point he locked John Albani and me out of the control room for hours while he experimented with a mix idea for the intro of “Barely Holdin’ On.” When he finally let us back into the studio, he had stripped the intro of every instrument except a click track and the vocal. John and I were stunned. This was what had taken five hours. Was Ezrin sober? No, he was not. It was pretty clear that a portion of our production budget was being spent on a few extra “luxuries” that had nothing to do with gear or studio time.

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