Rick Rubin might have built an iconic reputation in music for his work with the Beastie Boys, Aerosmith, L.L. Cool J, and countless others, but he built his love of music off the backs of the rowdy five-piece from Sydney, Australia, AC/DC. While Rubin’s junior high classmates were all listening to Led Zeppelin and other headier rock offerings of the 1970s, the future producer was poring over the Australian rockers’ live performances and studio albums.
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Rubin believed AC/DC had found the ideal formula for pure, unadulterated rock ‘n’ roll. Decades later, Rubin stands by his opinions.
The AC/DC Album That Immediately Hooked Rick Rubin
In a 2010 essay for Rolling Stone, famed producer Rick Rubin described his lifelong connection to AC/DC. Like so many other American rock fans, Rubin first heard the Australian band performing on The Midnight Special. “I got turned on to them when I heard them play “Problem Child,”” Rubin recalled. “Like Zeppelin, they were rooted in American R&B. But AC/DC took it to a minimal extreme that had never been heard before. Of course, I didn’t know that back then. I only knew that they sounded better than any other band.”
Even as a teenager, Rubin was laying the groundwork for his mental approach to music that would help him establish himself as one of the most successful and sought-out producers in the industry. He didn’t just pay attention to how the band looked, what they sang about, or their gear. Rubin was focusing on the arrangements—or, in AC/DC’s case, lack thereof.
“Highway to Hell is probably the most natural-sounding rock record I’ve ever heard,” Rubin wrote in his essay. “Noting gets in the way of the push-and-pull between the guitarists Angus and Malcolm Young, bassist Cliff Williams, and drummer Phill Rudd. For me, it’s the embodiment of rock and roll.”
“When I’m producing a rock band, I try to create albums that sound as powerful as Highway to Hell. Whether it’s the Cult or the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I apply the same basic formula. Keep it sparse. Make the guitars more rhythmic. It sounds simple, but what AC/DC did is almost impossible to duplicate. A great band like Metallica could play an AC/DC song note for note, and they still wouldn’t capture the tension and release that drive the music.”
Working With The Band Wasn’t What The Producer Expected
Just under two decades after AC/DC hooked Rick Rubin with their incomparable “minimal extreme” sound, the producer would accomplish his lifelong dream of working with his favorite band in the studio. Rubin only produced one record for AC/DC, their 13th studio album from 1995, Ballbreaker. And while working with the Australian rock band might have been a dream come true for Rubin, it wasn’t exactly what he expected.
“Honestly, it was weird,” Rubin said of the entire experience on an episode of Talk is Jericho (via Ultimate Guitar). “I don’t know why it was as difficult as it was. We got off to a bad start because we went to, we worked in a studio in New York that didn’t sound good. I was excited working there, famous studio, but it never sounded good. We did a million things trying to make it sound good, nothing worked.” In other interviews, Rubin said that although the band was incredibly professional, he struggled to deal with their slower workflow.
Nevertheless, the “weird” studio sessions didn’t change Rubin’s opinion of AC/DC. “They’re a perfect band,” Rubin said on Talk is Jericho. “They don’t have the breadth of songwriting that the Beatles have, but for straight-up rock, AC/DC is perfection.”
“They’re the greatest rock and roll band of all time,” the producer concluded in his 2010 Rolling Stone essay. “They didn’t write emotional lyrics. They didn’t play emotional songs. The emotion is all in that groove, and that groove is timeless.”
Photo by Christian Charisius/picture alliance via Getty Images
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