Rick Rubin in the studio

Chronicling record producer Rick Rubin's meteoric rise in the music industry, this authoritative book posits that he has taken greater risks than any other producer of the past 25 years. Tracing his career from Def Jam Records?founded with Russell Simmons in a New York University dorm room ?to his recent years as a top independent record executive, the book also goes behind the scenes to show how Rubin created hit albums with such diverse legends as the Beastie Boys, the Dixie Chicks, Johnny Cash, LL Cool J, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Rage Against the Machine? as well as the great rock and metal supergroups, Audioslave, Linkin Park, and Metallica.

CONTENIDO:

I . In the beginning
1. Production by reduction: Rubin's Approach in the Studio
2. Growing Up in Long Island

II. The 1980s
3. DJ Double R and the birth of Def Jam
4. Run-DMC: Raising Hell and Making History
5. Beastie Boys: Licensed to Ill
6. Public Enemy brings the noise
7. Rick Rubin goes to Hollywood
8. The Cult: Electric
9. From Rock to Metal: Slayer and Danzig

III. The Early 1990s
10. Building Def American
11. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Blood Sugar Sex Magik
12. A Tug-of-War Album: Mick Jagger's Wandering Spirit

IV. The Mid-to-Late '90s
13. The man in black: American Recordings
14. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Wildflowers
15. Ballbreaker and One Hot Minute
16. Three Legends: Tom Petty, Donovan, and Johnny Cash
17. Slayer and System of a Down
18. Dream of Californication
19. "We'll meet again": American III: Solitary Man and American IV: The man comes around

V. The 2000s
20. The rise of the supergroup: Audioslave
21. Red Hot Chili Peppers: By the Way
22. Rick's a Believer: Weezer and Neil Diamond
23. Out of exile and Mezmerize/Hypnotize
24. "The best album we've done": Stadium Arcadium
25. Dixie Chicks: Taking the Long Way
26. Linkin Park: Minutes to Midnight
27. Metallica: Death Magnetic
28. Rick Rubin, Record Executive

Selected Discxography
Selected Sources
Acknowledgments