"We go into the studio (Muscle Shoals Sound) and here's Barry (Beckett), Jimmy (Johnson), David (Hood) and Roger (Hawkins)," Dowd remembers. "I introduce them to Rod and he gives me a nod like 'I want to see you outside.'

"Outside the studio door Rod says, 'You lied to me. That is not the band that you meant. They're all white.' All of a sudden, they start running down one of the songs and Rod stops in the middle of the conversation and slides over to the door, cracks it open, looks in and sees it's them playing and says, 'I have never been so humiliated in my life. I swore they were all black.'"

Dowd's appointment book was perpetually full during the '70s and '80s, when he produced the likes of Eddie Money, Wet Willie, the James Gang, Lynyrd
Skynyrd, Pablo Cruise, Firefall and Wishbone Ash. Since much of Dowd's post-Atlantic recordings were produced at Criteria Studios in Miami, his adopted home, it is not surprising that he prefers staying close to South Florida.

"With the cost of recording today, I'll go wherever the group is most comfortable, as long as the facility is professional," says Dowd. "When it comes to remixing I prefer working here in the warm climate, either at Criteria or Island Studios."

Even after a half-century in the industry, Dowd adapts to changing technology with a young man's ease. And while he loves digital technology, he hopes tape will eventually be eliminated as a recording medium.

"Recording systems are still dragging an abrasive iron oxide tape across a head, wearing grooves in the head, and wearing the oxide off the tape," Dowd says. "We have to get rid of friction. I look forward to the day when we go to completely optic recording."