Mark Ronson's Winehouse surprise

Friday, 11 July 2008

Superproducer Mark Ronson was surprised that Amy Winehouse's 'Rehab' was a big hit.

Mark enjoyed working with Amy on the track but didn't have any idea how big it would become.

He told The Times: "Doing Back to Black with Amy, we felt no pressure at all to come up with hits. We were in our own bubble, just making music we liked.

"So while I knew it was good, I had no idea why her A&R guy saw dollar signs the very instant we first played him Rehab."

Ronson thinks his success is down to his understanding nature and the fact that he builds good relationships with the singers he works with.

"You hear of these really antagonistic producers who rile artists up to anger in order to get a passionate performance, but that's not how I am. For me there has to be some kind of rapport and mutual respect.

And I've been lucky in that everyone I've worked with (including Lily Allen, Christina Aguilera and the Kaiser Chiefs) has been cool. I haven't experienced one diva or egomaniac."

He still worries that he will be labelled "talentless" every time he starts work on a new project - despite winning international critical acclaim and three Grammy awards.

The 32-year-old won the Producer of the Year prize at this year's Grammys as well as two other gongs for his work on Amy Winehouse's hit 2006 album Back To Black.

But Ronson admits that despite all his success, he still gets nervous when he works with someone new - fearing he will be exposed as a phony.

He says: "Still before every new job I'm racked with a massive insecurity: 'OK, this'll be the one that exposes me as a fraud and a talentless f**k!'"

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Mark Ronson (WENN image)