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(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube Still)<\/p>\n
Wed 14 January 2026 22:00, UK <\/p>\n
It\u2019s safe to say that Rick Rubin<\/a> knows a thing or two about when a band has pushed themselves far enough on record. <\/p>\n There are countless artists who would take one look at the bearded guru and think that he\u2019s doing absolutely nothing in the studio, but every single second he\u2019s behind the board is spent listening out for one little detail that could tie an entire song together. He was always appealing to the kind of sounds that fans would want to hear out of their favourite bands, but sometimes the greatest artists can transcend anything that Rubin could have ever thought of when they had the right song.<\/p>\n Because at the end of the day, that\u2019s always what Rubin was after. None of the chops that any musician had mattered as much as the songs, and the greatest artists of all time were usually the ones who had a certain magic to them every time they picked up an instrument. It was one thing to work with people like Beastie Boys and Run-DMC, but an artist like Johnny Cash almost commanded respect every time he walked into a room.<\/p>\n But Rubin wasn\u2019t going to be treating any of his talent like they were some holy figure that no one could touch, either. Everyone was in that studio to work, and even when Red Hot Chili Peppers <\/a>were on the verge of creating their masterpiece on Blood Sugar Sex Magik, the documentary Funky Monks from around that time shows Rubin not holding back when it comes to his feedback, eventually working Flea down to the bone until he comes up with the bassline to \u2018Give It Away\u2019.<\/p>\n Then again, it was going to be a tough sell for anyone to go from Slayer to Johnny Cash. That kind of range is something that needs to be taught a bit more often, but after spending the first decade of his career trying to make the heaviest music possible, what stopped Rubin in his tracks was hearing Tom Petty\u2019s Full Moon Fever for the first time. He had been a fairweather fan of Petty\u2019s forever, but this was where everything sounded perfect in his mind, but it was another matter trying to get him in a room.<\/p>\n Petty already seemed to be doing just fine with Jeff Lynne as a producer, but when Rubin talked about him stripping things down for Wildflowers, the heartland rocker landed on something a lot more natural. He would say time and time again that he was never going to be able to top what he did on that album, but Rubin felt that the songs didn\u2019t come about from anything that he did. He was simply watching Petty paint a masterpiece, and seeing him slowly unfold tunes out of the air blew him away.<\/p>\n