Rick Rubin
Life Among the Wildflowers

Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,

You were that easygoing even back in the beginning?
In the beginning—I don’t remember, but I’ve been told—I was much more the tyrant.

I know now to pick my battles. If I think something can make or break the song, I’m more emphatic. But ultimately, it is the artist’s record. Their name is on the front of it, and they have to be the one who is happy with the record.

And there are certain artists that I’ve worked with that I would probably not work with again, just because it seemed like we were on too far different pages. It wasn’t that much fun, for them or for me. Usually, it also has to do with a band’s confidence. Interestingly, the more confident a band or an artist is, the easier they are to work with.

The more insecure they are, the more they tend to hold onto things that don’t really matter. Before Roy Orbison died, I did a track with him, and he was willing to try anything. Because he knew, no matter what I had him do, it wasn’t going to take away from him being Roy Orbison. Sometimes young artists, or insecure artists, hold onto things that don’t matter because they feel, “This is what makes me ‘me.’” They have this image that some little thing they do makes them what they are. But it doesn’t.

I’ll give you a good example, when I started working with the Chili Peppers the first time, which was on the Blood- SugarSexMagik album. Up until that time, Flea’s bass playing was a particular style. He was famous for it, considered one of the best bass players in the world because of it. But when we started working together, that bass playing that made him one of the best didn’t necessarily serve the songs in the best way. It was more about the bass being great. And, the song is more important than the bass.

I think, starting with that record, he changed the way he played. Not that it was so different stylistically, but it was more about playing the parts that supported the song. Instead of playing the parts that he liked the best or that were the coolest.

It was a very interesting part of the change in the Chili Peppers’ sound, from being a, let’s say, “traditional” funk band to being more of a songwriting band.

Was it as difficult as I’ve heard to get them to record “Under the Bridge,” their “big ballad”?
Anthony [Kiedis] had shown me the lyrics when we were looking through his lyric book. I said, “Oh, what’s this?” and he said, “It’s a song I wrote, but it’s not Chili Peppers.” He sang it to me and I thought it was beautiful. But he was emphatic: “No, this isn’t what we do!” I said, “It’s you, though, and what you, Anthony and the Chili Peppers band create is what you do. It doesn’t have to be limited to funk jams; you are allowed to do different things. It’s just a question of ‘Do you love the song?’”

I read a quote where you said that you approach music and producing as a fan.
Very much so. [Laughs] If you have no technical skills or knowledge or ability and you just know what you like…I just try to get it as close to what I like as possible. I have a strong opinion and I explain it clearly. Actually, the way I got started making records was going out to hip hop clubs in the early ’80s, then hearing the rap records that came out that sounded nothing like what was going on in the clubs. I was a fan of what was really going on, who went out and got all these records and none of them sounded like they were supposed to…

So you said, “I’m going to make my own record”?
Just to document what was going on. I was really just a fan wanting to chronicle what I went out and heard. I never thought this would be a job. I always liked music, but it never seemed like a way to support yourself. Everything happened very accidentally for me. The way it was supposed to, but I don’t feel that I chose the things that happened.

You have had some pretty public battles over putting out music that some people find offensive. Morally and philosophically, do you think there is any record that shouldn’t be made?
People should be free to do whatever they want to do, and people should be free to listen to what they want to listen to. If someone makes something that you don’t like, don’t support it, don’t listen to it.

No matter how down, dirty, low and nasty the sentiment; no matter how far down on the spiritual plane something is, if somebody wants to say it, it should be said?
One hundred percent. If you’re for freedom of speech, you’re against censorship. The same thing that will protect somebody fighting out against injustice protects the person saying something radically negative and terrible. You can’t limit censorship to the things that you think are okay. You’re either for it or you’re against it. And if you’re against it, everything goes.

I don’t think people should hurt other people, and I don’t think that the influence of music is such that it does. I’ve been involved with some very negative records that I’m proud of. I think that those records resonate with people who need to hear that energy, and I know that music doesn’t cause people to go out and do bad things. I think if anything, it defuses them. There are a lot of people out there who are angry, and there’s no reason that angry people can’t be entertained as well as others. I think it’s fine, I think it’s a service. I think everybody should get to enjoy whatever it is that resonates with them.

Back to Page 4; Page 3; Page 2; Page 1