Red Hot Chilli Peppers, LL Cool J, Tom Petty, Audioslave, and Jay-Z.
Q: What do all of the these artist have in common.
A: They have all worked with uber-producer Rick Rubin.
As I’ve stated before I think Rick Rubin is the kind of producer you want to work with. Every time you hear an artist or a group talk about Rubin they tell of the creativity and highly charged energy in the recording studio. Rubin seems to bring out the best in his artists.
Rubin helped resurrect Johnny Cash and it is the Cash on American recordings that will forever define this country legend. (For more of the process of working with Rubin check out the liner notes for the Unearthed box set)
I generally get excited when I hear about artists tapping Rubin to work with them. Recently Rubin has produced songs or albums by Neil Diamond, The Dixie Chicks, Justin Timberlake, Linkin Park, and, or course, U2.
I was happy to see and hear what Rubin has been able to do with these artists and each of them have been able to release some pretty great stuff. However, Rubin is working with another band and I am none too happy about it.
From Metallica.com:
Oh, and by the way, this up and coming producer guy named Rick something-or other, has been coming by the studio every now and again to listen to some of our new stuff and throw his two/three cents in. Since this Rick dude is new to all of this, we thought it would be a nice gesture to help break him into the music business by asking him to produce our next record. We’re very happy he said yes! In other words, we are psyched to share with you that Rick Rubin is producing the next Metallica album!
I think they were going for sarcasm in that post but it completely smacked of condescension.
Let’s be honest, Brand Rubin is red hot right now and Brand Metallica has been faltering for years. In the past 10 years Metallica has released 4 albums. Only two of those have had completely new material (1997’s Reloaded and 2003’s St Anger).
Beyond their music, their off stage antics (suing their fans) have turned them into the band everyone loves to hate.
Metallica has burned too many bridges with their fans to be so flippant about Rubin graciously agreeing to work with them. Leave it to Lars to act as though they are giving this incredible producer a break.
Authenticity must be earned and it is even harder to reacquire after it has been lost. I’ll be interested in hearing this new album if only to hear if Metallica allowed Rubin to do his job.
I’m afraid though that Metallica is Metallica’s worst enemy. Some kind of monster indeed.