Why I Love Rick Rubin

You see this guy up above?

“Hate” is a strong word.

But, I hated Tom Petty’s music for most of my life.

Every time he was on the radio, I just had to turn it off.

I had a boss once when I worked food service, she would only play Tom Petty during our shifts.

Worst boss I’ve ever had (it wasn’t just the Tom Petty)

I was young, dumb and full of really stupid opinions.

As I reach the ancient age of 30, I’m really starting to like his music.

It may or may not have been the GTA 6 trailer that came out last week that piqued my interest in Tom Petty.

I listened to an album of his, “Wildflowers”, that was beautifully produced in 1994.

Decided to check out the credits and see who was responsible for the sound —

Rick Rubin. Totally not surprised.

I’m a massive fan.

I have been for a long time.

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Slayer, System of a Down, Beastie Boys, Johnny Cash

I could go on forever…

All of these incredible artists were produced by Rick Rubin

What’s the secret sauce?

How is he in such demand?

How does he produce such wonderful music for these artists?

Here’s the 3 biggest takeaways I’ve found from researching him:

FIRST —

He doesn’t pigeonhole himself into working with one genre of artists

By not isolating himself to being solely a hip hip producer, or a metal producer, or rock producer, he opens himself to ideas and people.

Rick works with everyone from Jay Z to the Dixie Chicks to Weezer

He embraces a diverse clientele of artists, but he focuses on one area — being a producer.

SECOND —

Rick is a minimalist producer.

No overdubs, no string arrangements, no excess effects on the guitars/bass/vocals. (If you listen to the Chili Peppers, you hear a very dry sound)

Keep it simple by keeping the essence of the song intact

Don’t add a bunch of unnecessary fluff as a replacement for creating something good.

Substance requires stripping things down to their bare roots and building on that.

LASTLY —

Rick will gently push his artists out of their comfort zones.

Johnny Cash was a country artist who came up with Elvis in the 50’s, became a legitimate star who peaked in the 60’s and 70’s, and saw his popularity fading by the 80’s.

When he was doing the American Recordings with Johnny Cash, he would suggest covering songs from a wide range of artists —

Soundgarden, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave

But to have him covering new wave/heavy metal/industrial dance songs in his own style?

I guarantee you he wouldn’t have done it without Rick’s push out that door.

He left his comfort zone and in return gave us one of the greatest covers of all time - “Hurt”

TL;DR —

1. Get out of your comfort zone - Nothing good happens there. If you’re not living, you’re not learning. If you’re not learning, you’re not growing. You’re dying.

2. Be Flexible - Don’t build a moat around your identity. You can do anything you want if you stop looking at things so rigidly.

3. Keep It Simple - Strip things down to their essence and build on the roots.

4. I don’t hate Tom Petty anymore

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Thank you for reading,

Evan

(P.S - It totally was the GTA 6 trailer that got me interested)