The musician Rick Rubin was most proud to work with: “He’s a record-making craftsman”
For most industry producers, every record seems to feel like their child. As much as you might want to spend every minute of your life trying to make something perfect for the rest of the world to hear, there are only so many avenues that you can go down before you have to eventually hand it in to the record company.
While Rick Rubin has always had a track record of delivering stellar albums to his higher-ups, he still thought the best albums that he ever worked on came from when he hooked up with Tom Petty.
That is high praise coming from a producer whose résumé includes everyone from Johnny Cash and Red Hot Chili Peppers to Slayer and Beastie Boys. Few producers have demonstrated such versatility across genres, making Rubin’s admiration for Petty’s work all the more significant.
Considering his background in metal and hip-hop, though, Petty seemed like the furthest thing from what Rubin was used to. Sure, he had his fair share of fierce rock songs every now and again, but was anyone really expecting the same guy who produced albums like Reign in Blood by Slayer to suddenly work the same magic for the heartland rocker behind songs like ‘American Girl’?
It might seem like a strange mix, but Rubin was more than just about heavy music. His entire premise for hip-hop records from acts like the Beastie Boys was about bringing the perfect song together whenever they played. While most people just worried about keeping the beat moving, Rubin wanted to create textures with his music and make something that would make fans want to sing along to as well as clinically dissect.
When Rubin heard Full Moon Fever, he knew that Petty was the exact same way. Whereas the last Heartbreakers records were about the band cutting loose in a room and playing only for themselves, Petty’s choice to work with Jeff Lynne resulted in some of the best standalone songs of his entire career, like ‘Free Fallin’.
Although Rubin was initially rejected by Petty’s people when he asked to be involved in the production, Mike Campbell eventually spoke up to get him involved. Once the bearded guru sat in the producer’s chair, Petty knew that he had someone who could blend the organic and textured side of his sound.
Looking back on this time, Rubin would call his Petty albums some of the finest work of his career, saying, “[He’s] a record-making craftsman…in that he hears the whole thing. Some of the things I’m most proud of are things I’ve done with Tom, like the Wildflowers album. I really like it a lot; it sounds like it was made on a weekend. Of course, it took two years to make it sound like it was made on a weekend–the right weekend.”
As much as the record feels like a home-spun version of Petty’s classic sound, there’s actually a lot more going on just underneath the surface. Outside of bringing the Heartbreakers back on every other track, the orchestration by Michael Kamen on songs like ‘Wake Up Time’ and ‘It’s Good To Be a King’ are some of the most tasteful playing ever to be found on a Petty album.
But this isn’t supposed to be Petty suddenly making pompous music or anything. This was still about rock and roll, and Rubin was the perfect vehicle for Petty to balance his ambitious side with the guttural rock and roll punk he had always been.
The success of Wildflowers and their subsequent collaborations demonstrated just how effective the pairing could be. Rubin brought clarity and restraint, while Petty supplied the songwriting and emotional depth that had always defined his work. Together, they created music that felt both intimate and expansive, proving that some of the most successful collaborations emerge from the most unexpected partnerships.
