Watt grew up in
Great Neck, New York. He attended
John L. Miller Great Neck North High School and graduated in 2008. He briefly attended the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at NYU's Music Business program. "One of the greatest aspects of growing up in Great Neck, Long Island, was that it was literally 30 minutes from
Manhattan," Watt said. His first professional gigs were playing guitar for
Jared Evan,
Cody Simpson, and
Justin Bieber. In 2013, Watt was a founding member and guitarist of the rock band
California Breed alongside
Glenn Hughes (
Deep Purple,
Black Sabbath) and
Jason Bonham (
Foreigner). In 2015, Watt recorded and released his first label EP,
Ghost In My Head. Its title track was released as a single and peaked at No. 30 on Billboard's
Mainstream Rock chart.
Red Hot Chili Peppers'
Chad Smith and
Queens of the Stone Age's
Joey Castillo played drums on the record. Watt opened for
Jane's Addiction in October 2015. He also opened
the Cult's
Los Angeles show in February 2016. In February 2016,
Rolling Stone praised Watt for his vocal performance in a rendition of "
L.A. Woman" performed live with
Robby Krieger as part of a tribute to
the Doors'
Ray Manzarek. Watt then rose to further fame as a music producer. Watt produced
Ozzy Osbourne's album
Ordinary Man which was released on February 21, 2020. Watt won the
Grammy Award for Producer of the Year in March 2021.
Consequence called Watt the "Producer of the Year" in 2022. Watt produced
Eddie Vedder's 2022 solo album
Earthling. Beginning in 2022, Watt became the guitarist of the Earthlings, Vedder's touring band for his solo shows. The Earthlings also feature
Chad Smith on drums,
Chris Chaney on bass, and
Josh Klinghoffer on guitar. Watt produced Iggy Pop's nineteenth album
Every Loser, released in January 2023. He also produced and co-wrote 3 songs on
the Rolling Stones' 26th album,
Hackney Diamonds, in the same year. In 2024, Watt produced
Pearl Jam's twelfth studio album,
Dark Matter. He joined Pearl Jam on stage during the band's September 4, 2024 concert at New York City's
Madison Square Garden to perform several songs. In 2025, Watt made his acting debut when he played a small part as a golf course receptionist in the
Adam Sandler comedy film
Happy Gilmore 2. In December 2025, Watt,
Slash,
Duff McKagan,
Chad Smith, and
Adam Wakeman performed under the band name The Dirty Bats. They were joined onstage by
Bruno Mars,
Brandi Carlile,
Anthony Kiedis,
Yungblud, and
Eddie Vedder. In March 2026, Watt collaborated with
Michael Stipe for the theme song to the
HBO series
Rooster, titled "I Played the Fool". == Discography ==