ted templeman

The ubiquitous advertising campaign featuring “the most interesting man in the world” got it wrong. The most interesting man is indeed a debonair gray-haired gentleman, but he’s real: Ted Templeman, record producer of classics from Van Halen, Van Morrison, stellar non-Van’s including Captain Beefheart, The Doobie Brothers, Bette Midler, and many more. The 77-year-old Santa Cruz, California, native was a revered record executive and is a multi-instrumentalist, avid history buff and sublime teller of tales. There’s the one about, how, in 1969, after a gig with his band Harper’s Bizarre [they had a hit with a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)”] their TWA flight to San Francisco was hijacked. Understandably, Templeman still dislikes flying. There ar...