Rick Rubin is listed as the producer of Slipknot’s 2004 breakthrough album Volume 3: The Subliminal Verses but if you were to ask the members of Slipknot, more specifically frontman Corey Taylor, he doesn’t have fond memories of making the album. He often criticized Rick Rubin in the press.
Volume 3: The Subliminal Verses Earns Slipknot a Grammy Award
Slipknot’s 2004 album, Volume 3: The Subliminal Verses helped raise the band’s profile, earning a Grammy while also featuring some of the band’s best known tracks including “Before I Forget” and “Duality”.
A lot of people probably believed that because Rick Rubin was attached to the project and given his long track record of successful albums, he was instrumental to the success of the record, but that wasn’t the case, at least according to Corey Taylor.
Corey Taylor Accuses Rick Rubin of Not Being Present
According to Corey Taylor, Rubin wasn’t a frequent presence in the studio and offered little direction and advice on making the record. Even before the album came out, the band was a little gun-shy discussing Rubin’s involvement in the album as they would tell MTV here:
“You guys worked with Rick Rubin on this one who’s obviously worked with Slayer, Beastie Boys. Amazing bands. How was it working with him? Did he actually show up?”
“Yeah, once in a while. Yeah, he kicked it on the couch, stroked his beard and nodded and then he was out.”
“I heard Kerry King saying that he didn’t show up.”
“Well, a lot of people have issues with the way he works. You know, which, it’s fine. Whatever, but, I mean, it’s the end result that really matters and I think the album will speak for itself.”
“Did he take you to a new place?”
“We were thinking of going there anyway, but, I mean, he definitely encouraged us. You know, on this album we really wanted to break out of the closed in space we painted for ourselves and really show everybody in the band, show that there was more to this band than just what everybody had seen and tried previously so we really got the shine on us. We’ve got a lot of really good stuff on it.”
“Alright, so we will find out Tuesday, this Tuesday.”
Corey Tayor Praises Engineer, Greg Fiddelman
While Rubin was listed as the producer for the album, Taylor would praise engineer Greg Fiddelman for really stepping up and helping produce the record even though he is only credited as an engineer on the album.
“The Rick Rubin of today is a thin, thin, thin shadow of the Rick Rubin that he was.” – Corey Taylor
While Corey Taylor would remain mostly quiet on the matter for a number of years, the tension between Taylor and Rubin wouldn’t come back into the light until 2011 during a Q&A with fans in Austin, Texas where he trashed Rick Rubin, “There are some people who would love for me to toe the party line. Rick Rubin showed up for 45 minutes a week. Rick Rubin would then, during that 45 minutes, lay on a couch and have a mic brought in next to his face so he wouldn’t have to move.
The Rick Rubin of today is a thin, thin, thin shadow of the Rick Rubin that he was. He is overrated and he is overpaid, and I will never work with him again as long as I f***in’ live.”
In a separate interview with Revolver magazine, Taylor revealed that he wasn’t happy with how the vocals turned out on the album and that he only saw Rubin a total of 4 times during the making of the record. It wasn’t just Corey Taylor who commented on working with Rubin from Slipknot.
“Rick was really attentive to what we needed as a band.” – Jim Root
In 2008, guitarist Jim Root had more positive things to say about working with Rubin telling Revolver Magazine, “Rick was really attentive to what we needed as a band. A lot of people 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 he would have us retract things that needed work. He’s kind of like a 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.”
Clown commented in the same interview, “Vol. 3 is all about rebuilding friendships and since we were rebuilding, it was really easy to rebuild the innovation of our music. Listen to that f***ing record. It’s spiritual. Rick Rubin’s the oracle.”
“He works his way and he always has.” – Corey Taylor
Five years later, Corey Taylor struck a more positive tone hoping to make amends with the producer telling Apple Music, “He works his way and he always has. I was not used to working that way. I was a young guy, freshly sober. Being a singer and being sober, ‘I need your attention, Rick! I need it!’ So that was me being young, unsure of myself, needing guidance – which I got from Greg Fidelman.”
“When it came time to work with Rick, he just wasn’t f***ing there.” – Corey Taylor
Taylor went on to say that he would hope to someday make amends with the producer, but three years later in 2019, Taylor was interviewed on the Dean Delray podcast where the subject of Rick Rubin came up once again, “When it came time to work with Rick, he just wasn’t f***ing there. It felt like, ‘Oh, I’m working with U2 now.’ And I’m like, ‘We’re still in the studio, dude.’ Honestly, it wasn’t until we finished the vocals at his house that I saw him more than once a week.”
In the same interview, Taylor would sing Fidelman’s praises singling him out as the unsung hero of the album and Fidelman would go on to work with the band on their subsequent albums as a producer.
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