Born in West Hollywood, CA, Dashut started his professional recording career sweeping floors in a recording studio. His friend Keith Olson hired him as a second engineer at the Sound Factory. One of his first projects was for the singing duo of Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Though not a sales success, the resulting album, Buckingham Nicks, was heard by Mic Fleetwood when Olsen played it as a demo of the recording studio's capabilities. A few weeks later, Fleetwood asked the couple to join his band Fleetwood Mac. The group retained Dashut's services for their five-million selling Fleetwood Mac LP (number one pop, summer 1975) and to do the sound engineering for their live concerts.

The band asked Dashut to produce their next LP, Rumours. The tremendous success of Rumours set a standard in pop music production, songwriting, and musicianship, winning the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1977. The follow-up album, Tusk, went to number four pop in late 1979 and spawned the singles "Tusk" (numbe eight pop) and "Sara" (number seven pop). His other albums with the group were Fleetwood Mac Live; Mirage (a number one hit for five weeks in summer 1982), which included the single "Hold Me," a number four pop hit; and Tango in the Night (a number seven pop hit), which includes the singles "Big Love" (number five pop) and "Little Lies" (number four pop). Dashut also produced critically acclaimed albums by Shoes (Tongue Twister), Matthew Sweet (Altered Beast), and Lindsay Buckingham.