Oakland, Calif -- Tom Werman's career took him from ad executive to A&R man to independent producer, all on his terms - but not without some controversy popping up 20 plus years later. In part two of a two part series (you can read part one here), Werman discusses who he would've liked to have worked with and how technology has changed the role of the producer in the studio. But most surprising may be his transition into a brand new career, one as far removed from the record making biz as he could get. We begin part two with the band Werman says makes him feel like a teenager again.

KTVU.com: You worked with a lot of incredible artists, but was there anyone you wanted to work with but didn't get to work with?

Tom Werman: The Foo Fighters.

KTVU.com: Wow. I didn't see that one coming.

Tom Werman: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Their album 'In Your Honor' has a "hard" disc and a "soft" disc. The "hard" disc is simply the best disc of music I've heard since 'Who's Next.' For me, this band meets all my emotional needs. There are songs on there that are as good as any songs I have ever heard in my life. And I think Dave Grohl has a wonderful sense of humor. And Jesus, here he is playing guitar when he was an extremely gifted drummer in one of the world's most popular bands. The guy has to be a genius.

KTVU.com: I interviewed the author Michael Azerrad and we had a conversation about this same topic. We talked about Dave Grohl and the phenomenon of having one huge group spring forth from another [Editor's note: Michael Azerrad was hand picked by Kurt Cobain to write the Nirvana biography "Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana."]. Despite Kurt Cobain having already passed, Nirvana was probably one of the biggest bands in the world when Dave Grohl released the first Foo Fighters album -- which was Grohl playing virtually everything -- and the record just exploded. I mean, forgive the musical comparison because there really is none, but in terms of band popularity at their respective peaks, this would have been like Peter Criss stepping out from behind the drum kit while still in Kiss and becoming as big as Kiss with a new band.

Tom Werman: That's right.

KTVU.com: Now, please understand, I'm not comparing Grohl to Criss literally. As an artist (and especially as a drummer), Grohl is leaps and bounds beyond Criss in his heyday. The band popularity comparison is probably about the same. And who saw this coming? It's just amazing.

Tom Werman: Since I was too late to work with The Who, Foo Fighters is a band that I really would have enjoyed working with.

KTVU.com: Are there other bands you are a big fan of or are listening to these days? Newer bands?

Tom Werman: No. There should be, I'm aware of that, but I just don't listen to new music much.

KTVU.com: It's harder these days to find good new music, because there is so much music out there. Anyone can record an album and put it out on the Internet. The wheat becomes harder and harder to separate from the chaff.

Tom Werman: People tell me to listen to Kings of Leon.

KTVU.com: That's a good recommendation. But there are good bands out there, they just have to be ferreted out....

Tom Werman: But, you know, I'm also past the age where music is as emotionally important to me as it used to be. With the exception of The Foo Fighters, I listen to a lot of classical music now [laughs].

KTVU.com: Well, that's a logical progression.

Tom Werman: But I'm telling you, that one side of In Your Honor by The Foo Fighters, it's just the most driving thing. I lose weight when I hear that [laughs]. I take it to the gym and it drives me. It makes me run fast. And here I am; I'll be 65 next year and I feel like an angry kid when I listen to that. I just love it. It's just the best and when I found it I was so surprised to hear song after song after song and God, it's so good! And their drummer serves the songs so well, he's so different from a drummer like Keith Moon, who just played for Keith Moon's own enjoyment. Moon would just play these elaborate fills at the most illogical times and I think the Foo Fighters really arrange their songs. I just can't say enough about that disc, it's just so far above anything I've heard in the last 15 years. It stands up completely by itself.

KTVU.com: Now, you are a musician as well as a producer if I understand correctly.

Tom Werman: Well, kind of, I'm a rhythm guitar player and a percussionist.

KTVU.com: Did you contribute to records you produced as a musician?

Tom Werman: I played percussion on all the records I produced. Every record I made. And I did it for free. If the band didn't like it, I took it off. Occasionally I played a little guitar, but I did a lot of backing vocals. And not just to get on the records, but because I wanted something nobody else could give me. It was amazing, too, because when I got behind the mic, I realized how hard it was for vocalists to do what they do.

KTVU.com: Earlier I promised we'd talk about what got you out of the record industry -- but before we do I wanted to get your opinion of how technology has changed the way producers and engineers work in the studio. Did you work with Pro Tools and digital technology at all? And if you did, what did you think of it?

Tom Werman: I think it's great. I went into a studio a few months ago and played some percussion on this guy's record and I saw what they can do now days and it's just stunning. It's so quick and so good and so easy. I really like it.

KTVU.com: Well, we talked a little about how these days you don't really even need a drummer. Even Bun E. Carlos [Cheap Trick's drummer] has a product out called "Bun E. In A Box" that is basically drum loops from Cheap Trick recording sessions. So you can have Bun E. play on your record, which is awesome. But doesn't it take something away from the organic feel of a live drummer? Or does it not matter?

Tom Werman: Well, everything becomes the same. You'll have quality, but less variety. That's all; things won't stand out as much. But really, I 'm not well equipped to talk about that sort of thing, because I'm just not that familiar with what's available.

KTVU.com: So you are more of an organic producer rather than a technology driven one?

Tom Werman: Absolutely. I know what computers can do, but I have no idea how they do them. I don't even own a Blackberry. And I will never assume the position with my head bowed and my thumbs out. I won't do it.

KTVU.com: Well, you've earned the right not to. In my humble opinion, you've earned your place in music history, so you shouldn't have to conform to anyone else's way of doing things.

Tom Werman: Well, that's nice. I'm very happy here.

KTVU.com: Well, let's go ahead and transition to what did get you out of the music industry. What was the inspiration for your departure?

Tom Werman: Well, I outgrew it. It outgrew me. In retrospect, I guess I just determined at 55, you're not supposed to be making records for teenagers. There's just too big a gap. I was also burned out. And music had changed so much that I just wasn't emotionally involved anymore. And I made 60+ records and it was enough. I never expected to leave. but there I was faced with that decision. Tom Kelly [songwriter, with Billy Steinberg, of "True Colors" and "Like A Virgin"] is my good friend and golfing buddy. He saw me not know what to do and he gave me a book called "Who Moved My Cheese?" And I read the book in 40 minutes and immediately left town.

Two weeks after I finished that book, I came here [to his current home in Lenox, Mass.] in February of 2001. I found the place where we live now and by that July we were living here. I just fled. And it was completely the right thing to do. I completely changed and re-invented my life and now I'm doing something completely different. And boy, the enthusiasm attached to doing something completely different was very refreshing. All of the sudden, even though I was in my mid-50s, I had this enthusiasm and energy of just starting out.

You don't have that enthusiasm if you are in your mid-50s and are still doing the same job you've been doing for the last 30 years. So it worked out for me. I've actually spoken to a few groups about the change I made because it's so odd. I think it's hard to conjure up a bigger change in life than going from producing hard-rock music in L.A. to being a luxury innkeeper in the Berkshires.

KTVU.com: I do believe you are right. From your Web site it, looks like you have a beautiful place at Stonover Farm [learn more at www.stonoverfarm.com]. So tell us what your days are like now.

Tom Werman: Well, I work outside all day, pretty much. I do some writing, but I work outside on 10.5 acres and I sculpt it. I do the mowing and the pruning, the weeding; I take trees down, I split logs, burn the bows and branches I don't use as firewood. I do a lot. And of course I play golf in the summer and I ski in the winter.

KTVU.com: It sounds like, in a way, you've sort of become the gentleman farmer. Not literally, of course but it sounds like things have changed for you and it sounds great.

Tom Werman: It is great, and I'm far busier now and this area has got just a ton of theater and music and dance and museums. It's just a cultural treasure chest. There are so many great things to do here. And we spend lots of time at friends' houses. Life is just so much more vital and rich for us here than it was in L.A. [Tom's wife, Suky, runs the luxury bed and breakfast with him]. And we had no idea. And here we are in the country, it looks like we are isolated but we are really surrounded by a lot.

KTVU.com: Stonover Farm is a bed and breakfast, correct?

Tom Werman: Yes, it's a luxury bread and breakfast. In fact, [it's] the only one I know of. It used to be a contradiction in terms, but it's a luxury bed and breakfast. We have nothing but suites; three-bedroom suites and every convenience you can think of. It's right on par with a four-star hotel.

KTVU.com: What do the people who visit Stonover Farm come for? Events or conventions or what, exactly?

Tom Werman: They come to Tanglewood in the summer, which is a 100-acre estate which was given to the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It's their home for the months of July and August. They leave Boston, move up here, they have a 5,000 seat amphitheater and a lawn that accommodates 18,000 people. They have a huge P.A. and high-definition screens and they play concerts all summer.

They also have dance concerts, there's a little jazz festival at the end of the summer and James Taylor always plays. Garrison Keillor does a show here. Then we have people like Linda Ronstadt and Diana Krall perform as well. And that's a huge draw in July and August. Also we have Jacob's Pillow, which is the center of modern dance in the Northeast. We have the biggest yoga retreat in the country a mile from us called Kripalu, and it attracts people from all over the world. Then there's the Williamstown Theater Festival, the Barrington Stage, Shakespeare and Company, the Stockbridge Theater Festival -- there's just all sorts of stuff up here.

KTVU.com: It sounds fascinating.

Tom Werman: Yeah, so people come up here for specific reasons, dance, theater, music and that sort of thing. But in the fall you get a lot of younger folks who come just to get out of the city or to check out the leaves or the foliage. In the winter people come up to ski or just walk in the snow.

KTVU.com: Do you see anyone from your music biz days?

Tom Werman: Not on a regular basis. Friends of mine, yes, but not artists I worked with.

KTVU.com: Why is that? Is it that you aren't in a working relationship or is that "just the way it is?"

Tom Werman: It's because, for the most part, if you are not working for their benefit, if you are not doing something to help them, you don't exist. It's that cold. I mean, look at Motley Crue. I had a five-year relationship with them. We made three albums together; we had a very decent relationship, no arguments, no words, no bitterness, nothing. As soon as I stopped working with them, they made a record with Bob Rock. [When] they released it, they had a big release party in L.A. and they didn't bother to invite me. And that's fine, but that's just how it goes.

KTVU.com: So you are responsible for breaking Motley Crue and making them what they are, but don't get an invite -- as common courtesy would dictate -- to their album release party? I can only imagine they invited people with less impact on their career and people who didn't work on the Bob Rock album to the very same event. That is pretty cold. They are sort of biting the hand that fed them.

Tom Werman: Oh, absolutely.

KTVU.com: Does it speak the same of Twisted Sister and Cheap Trick, since you are no longer serving a purpose for them anymore?

Tom Werman: With Twisted Sister, you'll have to ask Dee Snider about that because he has a major thing...he definitely has issues, I can't explain that. He had a problem with me only after the record was done, never during the record. That's the amazing thing about these people. They are so two-faced.

KTVU.com: So what is that? Why are these bands saying these things? Honestly, I know little about the history between you and Motley Crue...

Tom Werman: That's just it. There was no history except that 25 years later, Nikki Sixx decides to write a book called 'The Heroin Diaries' and he s**ts all over me in the book. And he says [mocking Sixx] "Aw, I wish Werman would get off the phone, I had to do all the work with Vince." So I wrote to The New York Times book review and I said "You reviewed this book last week; it's pure fiction. If people are looking for something real, this isn't it." I said it was "stunningly inaccurate." Nikki was very pissed off. He was embarrassed.

KTVU.com: Well, this is a guy who was supposed to be under the influence of heroin most of the time, was he not? I mean, it's called 'The Heroin Diaries'...

Tom Werman: Well, much of the time, yeah.

KTVU.com: So he's of the opinion his memory or perspective was clear at that point? My apologies to him if he reads this but come on; the guy whose doing heroin can't be the one with the clearest perspective or point of view. Heroin is not known as a "clarifying agent."

Tom Werman: I'm sure he wouldn't argue with you. But he has other problems, too, he's in the Cheap Trick category in terms of "Well, he didn't really get us. He didn't really work well with us. He didn't get our sound." And again, what do you do? You have to say "Well, guys, we didn't have a contract, you used me three times. What's the deal? Why didn't you fire me? Why didn't you say anything? One thing?"

KTVU.com: Recently in an interview on a guitar tab Web site, Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick said he wasn't aware Steve Lukather played lead guitar on "Voices" from the 'Dream Police' record until after the fact. He also claims he wasn't there for the tack piano part on the 'In Color' version of "I Want You To Want Me" and that it "got away" from his vision of the song.

Tom Werman: Chuck, it's just more of the same miraculous, historical revision. Nielsen was in the studio when Jai Winding played that tack piano on "I Want You to Want Me" and he was there for Lukather's performance as well. This "alternate version of the truth" stuff is getting old -- he never complained to me at all about anything at the time. 25 years later, it' all my fault and the poor guy just didn't know anything about what was going on. I mean, really....what more can I say about this? Why doesn't he just get together with Dee Snider and together they can stick pins in a voodoo doll of me?

KTVU.com: Well, my apologies for continuing to bring it up. I promise I'm done with that. But that last line was pretty funny, I can picture those two just poking away... But seriously, the odd thing for me is you have a phenomenal track record of working with some big names and those big names haven't pulled the same stunts as Nielsen or Snider or Sixx. If there was such a problem, why didn't you have Jeff Beck, Poison or even Ted Nugent making the same complaints? I mean, Kix didn't complain that I know of, nor Mother's Finest, The Producers, Molly Hatchet, Dokken, Blue Öyster Cult, Lita Ford, Krokus, L.A. Guns, Jason and The Scorchers, the list goes on. A lot of artists are NOT bringing this kind of stuff up 25 years later.

Tom Werman: Or, why is it every band I've worked with had their biggest albums with me? And as soon as I left, some of them kind of disappeared. I don't want to be or seem pompous or even cruel about it, I really don't. But the only exception to that was Motley Crue with the Bob Rock record, 'Dr. Feelgood.' That came after 'Girls, Girls, Girls' -- the last record we did together. 'Dr. Feelgood' was a little bigger than 'Girls, Girls, Girls.'

KTVU.com: Even so, they dropped in popularity quite a bit after that record, whether you want to point to grunge or Nirvana or whatever was popular right after that. But for a time, they went away. In fact, they broke up for a while, I think, or at least worked with a different singer.

Tom Werman: That's right, so I can point to that. It's rude of me, I don't like to do it, but if you have to defend yourself from all these accusations, there it is. So the questions you are asking are good ones. But I just don't have the answers.