I think I’m doing a poor job of paraphrasing. I’ll just say that I’ve found his point of view interesting and I did buy his recent book. I’m enjoying reading it, though I’m not under any illusions about it being the key to unlimited success.
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I think ive lived my dream but it’s a basic dream and not the type of one you hear about on instagram but i had goals and achieved them. Not money goals or world travel or international fame
Now i would like stability in my job, that’s the next dream. Thats based on having a family, doing something i enjoy and hopefully start building a pension.
I think the dream for 90% of the world is heat, food and shelter as thats a luxury many dont have
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And if possible id like free stuff please
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Saw one of his interviews last week. Hard to take him seriously when he says things like: “You can change your life. You can be anyone you want to be. Just go to an island”. It’s offensive to 99,99% of people watching the interview.
Also, he totally ruined RHCP’s album Californication. It is actually one of the worst sounding studio albums of all time. It sounds like a digitally aliasing clusterfuck with ruined dynamics and a lack of bass all together.
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This reminds me of that steroids documentary. They interviewed a guy that starred in “Over the Top” and was then living out of a van in the parking lot of Golds Gym.
He was in the Schwarzenegger/Stallone era of bodybuilding success, and really drank the Whey powered Koolaid.
At what was obviously a failed experience, having nothing, he still thought if he trained hard, that everything would be okay. Just keep at it… at like 55 years old.
i felt really bad at the self delusion, and wish he would have looked around, and found a way to figure out how to change his situation.
You cannot blindly pursue something without thinking of the consequence.
So in terms of Rubin, he is necessary to the artist that is already established, and needs some help to make a great record…
The whole general advice to anyone off the street is a dangerous message, and not rooted in reality.
And lets be honest here… Rubin is a f#*kin idiot. Just because he can talk talented people into doing crazy shit to make albums doesn’t mean he is a smart person.
His HOUSE WAS ON FIRE, and he decided to go back to sleep. Wife screaming and everything.
Ended up in a tree, too afraid of getting hurt to jump, and instead ACCEPTED DEATH over a broken leg.
They convinced him to shimmy down.
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There is so much personal experience and heartfelt knowledge pouring out into this thread that it literally trumps any advice the person in question can give us.
I really want to respond directly to so many things that have been said in here and I do not want to come across as someone dropping in to kill the vibe, but at this point it is my explicit feeling that by continuing to discuss him in this specific manner, he wins.
As some people have said, as a producer it’s cool if he grabs the cake, but as a person I don’t want to enable him or anyone who doesn’t know wtf I’ve been through telling me what I need or how to get it. I’m not receptive to that type of learning.
I wouldn’t mind reading his experiences and extrapolating what I can from a standpoint of “does this entertain me? is there a lesson to be learned?” but I can’t listen to people talk about themselves and give advice in the same breath because (only in my opinion) it sounds like the voice of someone who enjoys the sound of their own larynx more than they do imparting the wisdom that may or may not accompany the vibration.
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God, I hope you are not the only one with this opinion. Its sounds true to me, too.
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Sure, I’m not into anyone’s head to determine what is and what is not inspirational to their experience.
With prior success and “authority”-enough tone, banal observations, truisms, or circular reasoning can be imbued with magic sometimes 
I don’t doubt there’s some good info in the book!
This does a fair job of describing the podcast host spiel-
I mostly want to hear specifics on what worked for them over banter, self-help aisle content and associated dream-peddling.
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i’ve noticed Rubin is deep in the YT algorithms these days. He’s cool and all, but there’s alot of clickbaity stuff out there now. Bit of a turnoff.
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I suggest anyone who is not into the Rubin JuJu checks out Tony Iommi talking about working with him.
As a down to earth Birmingham guy he just seems completely perplexed by his bullshit and not sure what the point of him is.
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Reading this thread makes me happy. I live in a world filled with Rick Rubins and it is good to know that at least some people realize we don’t live in a meritocracy where all you have to do is manifest your success.
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It’s interesting, because he is doing a bunch of interviews and podcasts.
I wonder if he’s questioning his relevancy since most of the music he helped produced is from the last generation.
Maybe he’s trying to get out there to promote his legacy.
What if this turns against him.
Part of his allure was the mystique and mysticism surrounding making hit records.
What if he overexposes himself, and people question his abilities to contribute.
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“Am I still relevant in 2023?”
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I remember reading somewhere that most successful people don’t actually know why they became successful—although they think they know.
What if he was saying the opposite: Just leave creativity to the real geniuse, they are very fews anyway.
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love it when people start bringing up the virtues of having an “honest job”.
I think following your dreams is great advice. Where things go wrong is that people confuse what they want to be doing for what they think they want to be(rich, successful… actually: be seen as being successful).
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Success and fame are just sweet beautiful lies.
It’s almost cliche, how people look back at the beginning of their journey with the most fondness, before success put the burden of expectations upon them.
Jim Carrey has been vocal about fearing your dreams becoming reality.
Citizen Kane is all about it too.
I’ve been close to those who are successful, and it’s taken me some years, but I now realize how fortunate I am to be anonymous.
No one wants anything from me, and I can do as I wish, within my modest means of course.
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Rick is Aight. You dig a little deeper, you’ll dig him. Self help advice is wack af, no matter who preaching. It’s all love. Word to Buad (mic drop).
Edit: I’m drunk af but really wish I could heart my own comments.
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I agree on that no one should follow their dreams if their dreams are to become a world known music producer. Stop it right now. It’s not 1986 anymore, there are no job openings in world known music producing. Those times are behind us. Rick was in the right place at the right time and met the right people but in 2023 that isn’t possible anymore.
But when it comes to following your dreams, I strongly agree. Everyone should do it. (Just not dreams of being a celebrity and attending the Grammys.)
I’m from a very poor family. When my father died a couple of years back, I inherited a battery charger from him. That’s all. Luckily I didn’t inherit any of his debts. My father was very bad at using money. He left taxes unpaid and got into serious trouble for that. I’d be compelled to say that I inherited his stupidity with using money.
In my twenties I spent six months homeless for using my rent money on something else. I was irresponsible as fuck. My student loan went to the bailiff and I spent years in debt hell with bad credit. No bank would give me a credit card and I couldn’t even have a phone registered to my name because of that. I had to always get pre paids etc.
Then I met my current girlfriend who got me on the straight and narrow. She helped me mentally to get my shit sorted out and now I’m not indebted to the government anymore. I even have a credit card and a bank loan to pay for our apartment. I climbed up from the ditch but needed the help of a good wise woman for it to happen.
I had no safety net. I wasn’t born with a gold spoon in my mouth. I was basically a bum.
Yet, two years ago I did research on starting a business, wrote a huge pile of papers for the bank and got a loan to buy a company. Left my shitty job in marketing and bought a book shop and I’ve never been happier in my life. Finally I can support my self by doing something I absolutely love. The loan is already halfway paid back and my book shop is thriving.
I could’ve continued doing what I did for living and eventually retire sad and miserable for not achieving anything in my shitty life, but I decided otherwise. I’m really happy for that. I jumped into the unknown, not knowing if it would support me, but it did.
Follow your dreams or you’ll end up sad, miserable and bitter. I say it despite the inevitable backlash that my post is going to get.
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“Follow your dreams” is one thing.
“Anybody can do anything they want” is another. They are different.
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