The Dead chose Lowell George as producer in an attempt to get away from the ‘in charge producer’ role that they had whilst recording Terrapin Station with Keith Olsen.

Bill Kreutzmann commented in an interview;

“Lowell was really like a member of the band more. If we were working on a song and he didn’t feel it was going right, he’d just grab a guitar and come into the studio and show us how he felt it. That was one of the ways he’d communicate, and it worked great. I had a tremendous amount of respect for him. The recording was interrupted by the Egypt tour in 1978. After that tour the Dead cancelled shows in the UK to finish Shakedown Street so that it would be released for their tour in the US in late 1978. Lowell George was not available for the final stages of putting together the album and the production work was completed by John Kahn.”