Rick Rubin Quotes (12 Quotes)

I don't know what makes someone hip. The goal is artist achievement and the best work we can do with no limitation.

They're both grown-ups, and there aren't many great albums by grown-ups. There's no reason why great artists shouldn't make their best records when they're 50, 60, 70. In other disciplines, it would be expected.

These songs are Johnny's final statement. They are the truest reflection of the music that was central to his life at the time. This is the music that Johnny wanted us to hear.

In Neil's mind, what separated him from all of his Brill Building songwriter counterparts was he wrote songs on the guitar and everyone else wrote on the piano, ... Guitar is equated with rock in a way piano has never been, so Neil has an unusual mix of guitar-based (rock) songwriting mixed with Brill Building melodic (piano) approach.

He is one of the few people who can get on a stage in an arena in front of any audience anywhere in the world and and play original songs for hours (that) everyone would be familiar with and sing along to. The list of people whose music has this power could be counted on one hand, tops.

We are not comfortable using the public Internet, although there has been a lot of good work with virtual private network and public-key infrastructure technology.

It's really starting to stick. If nothing else, it's a major distraction for management.

It's a tentative feel with him playing guitar, and the songs feel like they are coming from a true and honest

He's never been part of any style, and he's crossed different boundaries of pop and rock and different kinds of music at different times.

We felt Johnny's presence during the whole process through to the end. It felt like he was directing the proceedings, and I know that the musicians all felt that as well... More than once, Fergie and I would look at each other and say 'Johnny would love this,' because it was so good and so different from anything we'd done before, we knew he would be excited by what was happening.

I think he can always have a career making music. People will always be interested in what he does, ... Regardless of any other things going on in their lives, people are always interested by the great acts, and there's no questions he's one of the greats. Regardless of anything else going on, he's still Michael Jackson.

The songs are classic Neil Diamond songs. Nobody else could have possibly written them. The sound of the album is very personal, intimate and honest.