Rick Rubin has had the good fortune to work with several artists he grew up admiring throughout his illustrious career. Most of these possibilities have gone beyond his wildest aspirations as someone who has been fascinated with music since a young age. They do not, however, always live up to his expectations.
The iconic producer has never been limited to a single genre. Working with everyone from Metallica to Eminem and nearly every other megastar in between. Rubin has been a gun for hire to the stars for over 30 years, with labels lining up to get his Midas touch, which generally results in a best-selling song.
Rubin had previously worked with musical leaders like Tom Petty and Mick Jagger by 1995, which led to his producing AC/DC‘s album Ballbreaker. Rick Rubin, a huge admirer of the Australian rock giants would never pass up the opportunity to collaborate with one of his favorite bands, but in retrospect, he probably should have.
According to him, the process of creating the record, which marked the return of drummer Phil Rudd, was difficult. “Honestly, it was weird,” the producer revealed to Chris Jericho on the Talk Is Jericho show. AC/DC was my favorite band after the Beatles, and I believe they are the finest rock band in the world of all time. They’re a wonderful band, yet they don’t have The Beatles‘ breadth and depth of songwriting. But, for pure rock, AC/DC is unrivaled. So it was again another dream-come-true scenario, although a challenging one.”
The biggest problem posed was unsuitable surroundings. They began by working at Record Plant in New York City. What Rubin felt was insufficient for capturing the AC/DC sound despite being a cutting-edge studio.
As a result, the Ballbreaker recording process “got off to a bad start.” “I was excited,” he explained. However, it never sounded nice. We tried everything to make it sound decent, but nothing worked. “And I remember saying to Malcolm [Young] once, ‘Maybe we should just move somewhere else?'”
Much to Rubin’s frustration, Young refused to consider his offer. He stated, “We’re staying here, it’s a very good studio. However, as the process advanced, the guitarist relented and agreed to travel to Ocean Way in Los Angeles. It got better after swapping places”, according to Rubin.
Even though the situation had improved, Rubin believed the initial stint in New York had already cast a shadow over the album. He said, “I think those, I don’t know, five or six weeks of trying to make the album in this bad-sounding space took a lot of the spark or just the good vibe out of it, which is a shame.”
While Rubin was involved with numerous iconic albums, AC/DC’s Ballbreaker was a disappointing addition to their catalog. Unsurprisingly, the producer never worked with the group again after the awful encounter.
