Michael Wagener (born 25 April 1949) is a German former[1] record producer, mixer and engineer from Hamburg, best known for his work with many popular American hard rock and heavy metal bands in the late 1980s.
[4] After completing his military service, Wagener began working as an audio engineer in Hamburg in 1972.
He also engineered the single version of Janet Jackson's "Black Cat", his only pop collaboration.
[5] Wagener has produced or mixed platinum selling albums by Mötley Crüe, W.A.S.P., Overkill, Accept, Great White, Stryper, Poison, Keel, Alice Cooper, Lordi, Extreme, Megadeth, Janet Jackson, Ozzy Osbourne, Dokken, Metallica, White Lion and Skid Row.
The logical next step for those kind of musicians is to produce their next album themselves, their ego telling them they don't need a producer and, like in the above mentioned case, they might fall flat on their face, and come up with an album that doesn't sell anywhere near what the previous one did.