Wednesday, November 23rd 2011

News:  Slipknot

Corey Taylor: “Rick Rubin Is Overrated, Overpaid, And I Will Never Work With Him”

By Fernando Scoczynski Filho

Slipknot / Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor recently launched a US solo tour, entitled An Evening With Corey Taylor, in order to promote the release of his book Seven Deadly Sins. While the gigs so far have already granted a few great covers, last Friday’s date in Dallas, TX, saw Mr. Taylor dishing out a surprisingly detailed account of how disappointing it was to work with legendary record producer Rick Rubin.

For those unfamiliar, Rick Rubin is credited to producing an enormous variety of albums, including classics such as Slayer’s Reign In Blood, Jay-Z’s Black Album and Johnny Cash’s American series – having more recently been hired to produce Black Sabbath’s reunion album. During Corey Taylor’s question-and-answer session of his show, a member of the audience asked him about the experience of having Rubin produce Slipknot’s third LP, Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). As seen in the following video, and transcribed below (via Blabbermouth), the singer didn’t hold back on criticizing the producer:

“That’s a dangerous, dangerous question… Now, there are some people who would love for me to just be [politically correct] and toe the party line, which is, basically, [to say] ‘You know, working with Rick Rubin was a very enriching experience. He is truly a great mind…’ Let me give you the fucking truth of it. Rick Rubin showed up for 45 minutes a week. Yeah. Rick Rubin would then, during that 45 minutes, lay on a couch, have a mic brought in next to his face so he wouldn’t have to fucking move. I swear to God. And then he would be, like, ‘Play it for me.’ The engineer would play it. And he had shades on the whole time. Never mind the fact that there is no sun in the room — it’s all dark. You just look like an asshole at that point. And he would just stroke his huge beard and try and get as much food out of it as he could. And he would go, ‘Play it again.’ And then he’d be, like, ‘Stop! Do that over.’ And he had an assistant who was seven feet tall. He had that disease where you can’t grow hair on your body, so he was just bald. He looked like Mr. Clean’s neurotic cousin. But he basically ran Rick Rubin’s life — like, he was just fucking on it, on it, on it, on it. About half way through our precious 45 minutes, he would bring in this plate of shit. I assume it was food. It was bluish green. It smelled like someone had just plunged a fucking toilet somewhere. And he would eat it as fast as he could — just get it in there, all over himself. Which is, when you’re working, so wonderful to look at… I will say this: I respect what Rick Rubin has done, I respect the work that he has done in the past to get to where he is now. But… this is a huge but… this is a J.Lo-sized ‘but…’ I will say this: The Rick Rubin of today is a thin, thin, thin shadow of the Rick Rubin that he was. He is overrated, he is overpaid, and I will never work with him again as long as I fucking live.”

In order to play a bit of devil’s advocate here, an interview with Slipknot was dug up, from a 2008 edition of Revolver magazine (via Blabbermouth). Regarding the experience of working with Rubin on their third album, not all band members had the same opinion as the lead singer. Percussionist Shawn Crahan said: ”Rick Rubin’s the oracle. He sat us down with each other. I heard things from the other members I don’t care to repeat. I gained a couple of friends. I might have created a couple of enemies. We all agreed we were going to get on a plateau of communication and that’s what we did.”

On the same article, however, guitarist Jim Root half-admitted to Rubin’s in-studio absence: ”Rick was really attentive to what we needed as a band. He knew I was going through major anxiety. I got a knock on my bedroom door one day, and his assistant came up and he had this herbal drop that you put on your tongue to mellow out. A lot of the guys in the band say Rick was unavailable. And yeah, he takes on a lot of projects at one time, but he also does things that are beneficial. He would listen to what we’d done, then have us retrack things that needed work. He’s kind of like Big Brother up on the hill. Even though he wasn’t there physically every day, he was. That’s my favorite record we’ve done.”

Most importantly, Corey Taylor was already critical of the production back in 2008, stating: ”I wouldn’t know what it’s like to work with Rick Rubin. I only saw him about four times. Rick Rubin is a nice man. He’s done a lot of good for a lot of people. He didn’t do anything for me. I’m not happy with the vocals on that record. [...] But we were being charged horrendous amounts of money. And for me, if you’re going to produce something, you’re fucking there. I don’t care who you are.” This 2004 interview on Headbanger’s Ball shows Corey expressing the same concerns, albeit more lightly.

Considering Rick Rubin’s “legendary” reputation, and the immediate street-cred that certain artists gain from having his production on a record, it’s fascinating to see an artist come out and fearlessly pop that bubble of illusion – especially so close to the announcement of Black Sabbath’s Rubin-produced reunion album. While his work in the past is certainly respectable, no further proof of Rubin’s inability to polish even the stinkiest of turds is needed than Linkin Park’s last album.

An Evening With Corey Taylor has the following tour dates remaining:

11/25 Detroit, MI, Eagle Theatre
11/26 Chicago, IL, Double Door
12/01 Montreal, QC, Corona Theatre
12/02 Toronto, ON, Mod Club
12/04 Boston, MA, Middle East
12/05 New York, NY, Highline Ballroom
12/06 Philadelphia, PA, World Cafe Live
12/07 Providence, RI, The Met
12/09 Sayreville, NJ, Starland Ballroom
12/10 Baltimore, MD, Sound Stage
12/12 Atlanta, GA, Masquerade
12/13 Orlando, FL, The Social