The artist that changed Rick Rubin’s life: “The work was really inspirational”
Rick Rubin has seemed to have a few different musical lives throughout his career. For most hip-hop fans, he was the one who helped put the genre on the map, and for others, he’s the man who helped bring thrash metal to the masses by helming Slayer’s magnum opus, Reign in Blood. Out of every artist that Rubin has worked with, he has said that he will remember his experience with Johnny Cash for the rest of his days.
Before Rubin entered the 1990s, though, chances are no one would have called him working with the country legend, right? He was the producer known for some of the most electrifying albums of all time, so why would he want anything to do with an old country veteran who was settling into his older age?
First off, let’s correct that argument. Yes, Rubin did spend a lot of time with heavier acts, but he still had connections with the biggest classic rockers. After all, his first choice of person to work with Glenn Danzig during their time together was Roy Orbison, who ended up coming down to help co-write a few tunes with the punk legend. Even after Cash, Rubin continued to work with artists like Neil Diamond after the fact.
If there was one person who was Rubin’s best advocate for country music, it was Tom Petty. Petty was never that far away from country music, but having Rubin work on the album Wildflowers led to him going down the rabbit hole of Cash’s music, eventually signing him to American Recordings.
Even though Cash’s reputation was a bit shaky after his run of cringy 1980s songs, American Recordings sounds like none of that even happened. Suddenly, the cuddly old man version of Cash had turned into this gothic badass on tracks like ‘Delia’s Gone’. It was just a subtle character change, but by getting back to his ‘Man in Black’ persona, Cash seemed like one of the few country legends that could be played alongside the biggest grunge acts of the day.
In fact, maybe a little bit too well, too. Since the age of grunge was slowly fading away, Rubin suggested that Cash adopt some of the new school’s songs and turn them into country rockers, which resulted in Soundgarden’s ‘Rusty Cage’ turning into the type of tune that could be played by an outlaw running from the authorities.
While Rubin had a lot of bands on his roster, he knew there was something special going on with Cash, telling Billboard, “Clearly, the work with Johnny Cash was inspirational and really changed my life. Having him in my life changed my life. The depth of our friendship and the amount of work that we did in the time we worked together was really staggering.”
Rubin was even there to help Cash through his final recording sessions, including the now iconic version of the song ‘Hurt’ by Nine Inch Nails. On the surface, there should have been very little in common between the country music icon and the production guru with the Santa Claus beard, but when the music’s doing the talking, everything else starts to fade away.
