Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

In the opening lines of his New York Times bestselling memoir, Let Love Rule, Lenny Kravitz writes that he is deeply two-sided. His young life was all about opposites and extremes—black and white. He grew up between his West Indian grandparent’s home in Brooklyn, and his parent’s home on the Upper East Side where he was surrounded by his family’s famous friends like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. When Lenny was 11, his mother, Roxie Roker, landed a starring role on the iconic sitcom, The Jeffersons. The family picked up and moved to L.A where Lenny fell in love with classic rock, funk, and skate culture. It’s also where Lenny and Rick Rubin eventually became friends in the late ‘80s. In this conversation, Lenny tells candid stories about his relationship with Lisa Bonet and talks about how writing his memoir helped him finally find peace with his overbearing father. They also talk about the time Lenny, Rick and Johnny Cash were all roommates and the day Lenny received the most devastating news of his life. And, at the end, Lenny performs a beautiful acoustic version of his song, “Johnny Cash," from his album Raise Vibration.

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You can find some of our favorite Lenny Kravitz songs, including rarities, by clicking HERE — enjoy!

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S.G. Goodman turns traditional Southern storytelling on its head with songs that present a deeper, more complex look at life below the Mason-Dixon line. As a queer person who lives with mental illness, she often sings about the social and political change she'd like to see in her part of the country. Goodman talks to Bruce Headlam about her new album, produced by My Morning Jacket's Jim James, and plays some of the songs live from her home in Murray, Kentucky.

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Maya Hawke has managed to escape the long shadow of her very famous parents, Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke. She’s made a name for herself, first as an actor in Stranger Things, Little Women, and Tarantino’s latest, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. And now Maya Hawke is breaking new ground as a singer/songwriter. Maya’s debut album, Blush, is an invitation into her vivid inner life. On it, she’s figuring out who she is out in the world alone. The songs are clever, poetic, and raw. They touch on the dynamic emotional life of a young woman navigating her way through love, lust, and disappointment.

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Carlos Santana, along with his wife and drummer, Cindy Blackman got together with Rick Rubin to discuss the 2019 album they recorded together, Africa Speaks, and also to talk about Santana's early days in San Francisco. They discuss how Santana found his unique playing style, his friendship with Miles Davis and more.

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Bruce Springsteen is a national treasure. Since his debut album nearly 50 years ago, Springsteen has helped define the American working-class psyche through a collection of world-renowned hit songs. In this interview with Malcolm Gladwell and Rick Rubin, Bruce talks about how listening to Born To Run 45 years after it was released made him realize just how good he really is. He also talks about how his Irish and Italian sides physically manifest into songs, and how he recorded his stellar new album, Letter To You, live with the E Street Band in just four days.

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Rick Rubin talks to Arcade Fire's Win Butler on the occasion of the The Suburb's tenth anniversary. The band's third record was their first number one album in the US.

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To celebrate the release of Tom Petty's Wildflowers & All The Rest box set, Rick Rubin connected with Heartbreakers keyboardist, Benmont Tench for a conversation. Benmont started playing with Tom back in Florida with a band called Mudcrutch. He stayed with Tom as they became the Heartbreakers, moved to LA, created some of the most memorable music of all time and was ultimately with him all the way until the last Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performance at the Hollywood Bowl in 2017. Benmont is a massive talent who's also done plenty of work as a sideman for Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks, U2, Johnny Cash and a ton of others. Rick and Benmont talk about all of this and share memories of their time in the studio together.

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Tom Petty crafted another of his many perfect albums back in 1994, this time with Rick Rubin producing. Wildflowers was released as a single disc, Petty's first for Warner Brothers. But Petty had always intended for it to be a double record. Those unreleased songs have been the holy grail for Petty fans for years. And now they're finally being released, thanks to the careful work of Tom's daughter, Adria Petty. In this special episode of Broken Record, Rick Rubin talks to Adria about her memories of her dad and the hard curatorial work of putting together the new box set Wildflowers & All The Rest.

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Joe Henry is likely one of the best living singer-songwriters that you've never heard of. But even if you don't recognize his name, you've probably heard his work. He's been at it for 34 years: having released 15 solo albums, won three Grammys and produced music for the likes of Elvis Costello, Mavis Staples, Bonnie Raitt, and his sister-in-law, Madonna. During her cowgirl phase in the early 2000's she turned Joe's song "Stop" - the one you're hearing now - into her hit "Don't Tell Me." Bruce Headlam talks to Joe about all of this plus the music that gave him strength after a cancer diagnosis and his work with New Orleans' legend, Allen Toussaint.

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Khruangbin will tell you they did everything wrong. Gave their band a Thai name, play mostly instrumental music, two members wear wigs, they record in barn ... and yet, they've had a charmed existence since they released their first record almost exactly five years ago. They've crushed the festival circuit, opened up for Wu Tang and found themselves on Obama's summer playlist. Justin Richmond chatted with them about their new album, Mordechai, coming off the road for lockdown right before they were supposed to do a run of shows with Tame Impala and how they're quintessentially Houston.

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Burt Bacharach is a living legend. He's written hits sung by Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Elvis Costello, Dusty Springfield and so many more. With that kind of a resume, he doesn't need to still be working at 92. But he recently found a new muse in collaborator Daniel Tashian. Daniel just won Album of the Year at the Grammy's for co-writing and producing Kacey Musgrave's breakout, Golden Hour. Now he and Burt have teamed on 5 song EP, Blue Umbrella and have even more songs on the way soon. Burt and Daniel connected with Bruce over Skype to talk about their collaboration which started in-studio then migrated to file sharing after the pandemic hit.

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Buffy Sainte-Marie tells Rick Rubin there's a reason she isn’t a household name in the U.S. A pioneering artist in the Greenwich Village folk scene, she could've been Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell or Paul Simon. But in the early days of Vietnam when Buffy was singing protest songs about the casualties of war, she was blacklisted by the U.S. government. Her music was barely played on radio. But she still managed to find an audience with her classic songs, like Universal Soldier, which have been covered by Elvis Presley, Barbara Streisand, Courtney Love, Morrissey. She was the first Native woman to win an Academy Award. And even had a controversial stint on Sesame Street, teaching Big Bird about breastfeeding.

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Rick Rubin talk to Don was about his early days in Detroit, his time in Was Not Was and his wide ranging career producing defining-albums for the B-52's, Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones. He also talks about how he became the president of legendary Jazz label Blue Note Records. Plus he explains how he messed up an audition to be in Dead and Co. with Bob Weir and John Mayer.

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Flying Lotus is one of those producers who creates an entire aesthetic world with the music he makes. Over the past 13 years he’s released four solo albums, and produced tracks for a ton of artists including Kendrick Lamar, Thom Yorke, and Thundercat. In this episode FlyLo talks to Rick Rubin about visiting his great aunt Alice Coltrane’s ashram, his peak creative hours, and why he directed a horror movie despite being scared to death by the Thriller video as a kid.

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Into the Zone is a podcast about opposites, and how borders are never as clear as we think. Country? Rap? Lil Nas X’s chart-topping “Old Town Road” revived a long debate about borders and boundaries in American popular music. To sort out this strange history, Hari heads down to the foothills of Virginia, where a legendary collection of blues records holds the key to understanding the insidious separation of “black” vs. “white” culture.

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Brandi Carlile came by Shangri La last year to talk to Rick Rubin with Tanya Tucker about the album they made together, While I'm Livin'. After Tanya left, Brandi stayed behind to talk about her love of Joni Mitchell's music, how she was present for a star studded jam that led to Joni singing for the first time since her stroke, and also about the beginning of her career, when Rick helped to discover her. Plus, Brandi plays an intimate version of her song "The Mother" for Rick.

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Our episode with Justin Townes Earle was scheduled to run next month. But after we heard about Earle's passing over the weekend, we decided to put it out sooner. It's a deeply sad conversation in some places. Especially given his passing. However, it's also incredibly soulful, funny and searching. And the performances, culled from Earle's last release, The Saint of Lost Causes, are brilliant. Bruce Headlam takes the reigns this episode for what's turned out to be a fitting tribute to one of the great, dynamic young performers and songwriters that's now gone way too soon. Rest in peace, Justin Townes Earle [1982-2020].

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This week’s Fresh Find, Vagabon, is a self taught, Cameroonian-born musician whose haunting voice and genre defying style has won over critics at both The New Yorker and Pitchfork. In this episode she talks about emigrating from West Africa to Harlem as a teenager, sneaking out of her parent’s house to play D.I.Y. punk shows in Brooklyn, and how bouts of writer’s block can cause her to dream of writing code instead of new music.

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***Run the Jewels are raw and so is the language in this episode***

Killer Mike and El-P return to Broken Record to discuss the creation of their fourth album, RTJ4, and the tumultuous world it was released into. Rick Rubin, who was present during some of the album's recording sessions at Shangri La, digs into the record's production and themes with the duo, calling the message and tone of the album "almost prophetic." They also discuss working with Pharrell and Zack de la Rocha and why they had to make a major change to a song after the album was already mastered.

You can hear an extended cut of today's episode by subscribing to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/brokenrecordpodcast. We'll be off the next two weeks but will be posting two interviews to our YouTube channel while away.

You can also head to our website to checkout past episodes and dig into our artist playlists: https://brokenrecordpodcast.com/

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Broken Record is bringing you a Fresh Find this week. We discovered Berhana after a key placement in Donald Glover’s show Atlanta. In this episode, Berhana talks about growing up in the real Atlanta, being first generation American born to Ethiopian parents, recording his newest album in Tokyo and how he started earning enough on music to make a living before he ever played a show.

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A tornado raged through Margo Price's home-base of Nashville right as she was preparing to release her third album in March. A month later Margo’s husband and longtime collaborator, Jeremy Ivey, tested positive for coronavirus. While taking care of her sick husband and two young kids, Margo decided to push back the release of her new album. Now, "That's How Rumors Get Started" is finally out. Margo's written her way through personal devastation before and does so on the new album too. Although it also owes a debt to the more care-free music the Stones, Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac. Margo tells Bruce Headlam, in this episode, about how playing an open mic at a Best Western hotel made her a better songwriter, she also talks about hocking her wedding ring to record her first album, and how spending a weekend in jail was all the inspiration she needed to re-focus her career. Then we check in with her uncle, Nashville songwriter, Bobby Fischer.

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Rick Rubin joins Questlove and crew on their Questlove Supreme podcast. They discuss Rick's early Def Jam days, working with the Geto Boys, his process for taking on production work and so much more!

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Broken Record Presents: Aim Higher — the last episode of Against the Rules Season 2.

Can everyone be coached — or are some people beyond help?

• The transformative power of coaching is put to the test as Michael enlists a coach to help him tackle his greatest fear.

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Back to the Future is turning 35 and there's no better way to celebrate than a conversation with Huey Lewis who turned in one of the more memorable movie themes of all time: "The Power of Love." The song was a sensation when it was released, propelling Huey Lewis and the News further than even their hit album Sports had. Bruce Headlam talks to Huey Lewis about how this song came together and mines form him some wild stories about his family, upbringing and success.

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It's been nearly 35 years since the Beastie Boys released their classic debut album, Licensed To Ill. In this candid conversation, Rick Rubin, who started out as the Beastie's DJ, reconnects with Mike D and Ad-Rock. Spike Jonze, who directed the new Beastie Boys documentary, Beastie Boys Story, also sits in and plays moderator. It's been nearly 20 years since Ad-Rock and Rick have talked and like old friends, they jump right into a slew of inside jokes and hilarious memories of their lives leading up to the release of Licensed to Ill.

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Lucinda Williams is defying convention. While most of her peers have settled into a well worn groove, the alt-country icon just released an album that's way more punk than country. She spoke with Bruce Headlam from her home in Nashville about her evolving sound and how her new album was influenced by politics and an abusive relationship. She also plays a few acoustic versions of her new songs.

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Rick Rubin checks in with RZA on Zoom and finds out he's been peaking creatively while in quarantine. Their wide-ranging conversation covers RZA's first experiences with Hip Hop, ODB's parkour-like skills as a child, the spontaneity of classic Wu-Tang recording sessions, and how RZA almost gave up all of his earthly possessions to live with monks in China's Wudang Mountains.

https://www.youtube.com/brokenrecordpodcast

https://brokenrecordpodcast.com/

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Malcolm has been writing about race and policing for a very long time, going back to the killing of Amadou Diallo in 1999. Sometimes, it is useful to take a step back and consider policing in a broader context. Here we present a chapter from Malcolm's book David and Goliath, which includes an analysis of a riot in Northern Ireland in 1970. Many miles and many years away. About divisions of religion and class and not divisions of race. But the core questions to be asked in 1970 and 1999 and today are the same: if you have power, what does it mean to use it, and use it wisely? And what are the consequences if you don't?

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants was published in 2013 by Little, Brown and Company. Audiobook production by Hachette Audio.

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Nick Lowe wrote the classic "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" (made famous by Elvis Costello), produced one of the UK's first punk records ("New Rose" by the Damned), and started one of the great independent record labels (Stiff Records). In this episode Bruce Headlam talks to him about producing the first five Elvis Costello records, marrying into Johnny Cash's family and his hilarious first encounter with the great Keith Richards.

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Jason Isbell is one of the most important Southern voices in music today. He started writing and releasing his own songs in 2007, after a stint with the Drive By Truckers. Since then has slowly built a catalogue of songs and a resume—which includes a key songwriting contribution to Bradley Cooper's version of A Star Is Born—that should put him on anyone's short list of the best songwriters currently working. Isbell and Rick Rubin met for the first time just before this conversation where they discuss Isbell's recovery from addiction, his song writing process and his deep Southern roots.

To checkout Jason Isbell's new album Reunions head to https://orcd.co/reunions

You can also listen to past—often extended—episodes of Broken Record by subscribing to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/brokenrecordpodcast

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Previewing the first episode of Against the Rules Season 2 by Michael Lewis (Moneyball, The Big Short, The Blind Side):

It wasn’t that long ago that coaches were confined to sports. Now they’re everywhere. You can hire a life coach or a death coach, an executive coach, a dating coach, even a charisma coach. Journalist and bestselling author Michael Lewis asks who’s getting all this coaching, and who isn’t? Lewis brings his wry wit and mastery of storytelling to topics as diverse as sports, consumer finance, college, and firefighting —  to understand what the rise of coaching means for all of us.In a seven-episode season, Against the Rules takes listeners from the home of a single mom in the mountains of Colorado, the classrooms of the Harvard Business School, to a data-driven “Bionic Man” facility for baseball pitchers. He speaks with a celebrity voice coach, an analyst who grades sales calls, and a startup founder who's coaching consumers out of credit-card debt. Along the way, he also revisits the controversial methods of his own high-school baseball coach. Through conversations both amusing and horrifying, Lewis explores the rise of coaching in America and what it says about unfairness. 

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Rick Rubin talks to Tame Impala's Kevin Parker about his newest release, The Slow Rush, and his creative process. Kevin shares key influences on some Tame Impala songs and also plays Rick a demo for an unrealized song from his voice memos. Then Kevin turns the tables on Rick, asking about his work on Californication and Yeezus, which yields sage advice on record making.

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Drive-By Truckers play music from and talk about their twelfth album, The Unraveling. The band of Alabamans—represented here by Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood—discuss how the political climate shaped the themes of their latest record.

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XL Recordings has released music from Adele, Tyler the Creator, MIA, Dizzee Rascal, Radiohead, The White Stripes, King Krule and many other beloved, boundary-pushing artists. Richard Russell has been with the label since its early days and at the helm since '96. He talks with Rick Rubin about the origin of their friendship, which dates back to the earliest days of XL, and how the label grew from a small electronic label into the greatest Indie of all time. Russell also talks about his career as a producer, which includes the last albums of both Gil Scott-Heron and Bobby Womack.

Richard Russell has a new album out under his moniker Everything Is Recorded, you can check it out here: https://xlrecordings.com/buy/everythingisrecorded-fridayforever

And to get his newly released book with traces the history of XL Recordings head to https://www.hachette.com.au/richard-russell/liberation-through-hearing.

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Rick Rubin, like all of us, has been thinking a lot about fear lately. And few people on the planet understand fear in the same way that Rick's good friend, David Blaine, does. David has made a career of pushing his mind and body to the limit. So Rick thought David might be a great person to talk to about facing fear. Ok obviously this conversation isn’t about music. But it does touch on one of Rick’s other great loves—magic. When he was a kid, Rick studied magic. Since then magic has become so much more than sleight of hand for him … he uses the idea of pulling something out of nothing when he’s making music. So it makes sense that he would turn to one of the best living magicians for words of wisdom.

To check out David Blaine's latest special visit: https://abc.com/movies-and-specials/david-blaine-the-magic-way

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Alicia Keys talks with Malcolm Gladwell via Zoom about her newly released book, More Myself: A Journey and how writing it influenced her upcoming album, Alicia.

You can order her book at https://static.macmillan.com/static/fib/alicia-keys/.

And to find out more about her upcoming album (and tour) you can visit https://alicia.aliciakeys.com/.

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Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, and star of the movie Once, talks to Bruce Headlam about his newest solo album, "This Wild Willing" and how he nearly sampled a Queen and David Bowie jam unwittingly.

Find the playlist for this episode at https://brokenrecordpodcast.com/.

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Rick Rubin talks with his friend, world-renowned Buddhist and meditation teacher, Jack Kornfield. He's long been one of the most influential figures in American Buddhism.

He connects with Rick by Zoom to guide him and you through a couple of different guided meditations. A gift for these stressful times.

You can find the first of those meditations at 8:00 and the second meditation at 42:32.

And if you're interested in learning more about meditation or Jack's work you can visit https://jackkornfield.com/

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During these tough times, Rick Rubin wanted to have a chat with an artist he finds inspiring. Top of mind was John Legend. So he called him up via Zoom, while both were sheltering in place, for a quick chat about his career and the creative process behind two of his biggest songs. Plus they discuss the song Legend is currently obsessed with. This is our first remote recording, so it's a little shorter and a little more lo-fi than usual.

Make sure to listen to John Legend's new single "Actions" and check for a new album later this year: https://open.spotify.com/track/0KGgFs3yJ1aHGnEU8nHCqR?si=3Q_Er2R7T1WQk_W8L1g1tg

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Nathaniel Rateliff talks to Bruce Headlam about his new solo album, And It’s Still Alright, a deeply intimate project that reflects on the loss of his former producer and good friend Richard Swift. Nathaniel plays songs off his new record and recounts his journey as a musician, starting with his family’s gospel band up until his recent success as the frontman of the critically-acclaimed group, The Nightsweats.

Nathaniel Rateliff made an awesome playlist of his favorite songs you can listen to here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5MlFYjnJ2R3UMQ2LM3wnLp?si=n_tNYUOSTDmCuqAjbGPMAQ

To see about when you can catch him on the road head to https://www.nathanielrateliff.com/tour.

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The Grateful Dead's Bob Weir talks to Rick Rubin about why the legendary band was never focused on their studio recordings, and how they were always more interested in seeing where their live shows would take them. Bob also plays a new song from an opera he's writing and tells Rick about a recent dream where he and Jerry Garcia performed a new song that materialized into a room-sized sheep dog.

Bob Weir's Jug Band Playlist & our favorite Weir songs: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6K125dakokqmpvIriLONID?si=pP98EJwVTXCaYF_xJF7ezQ

Check for updates to Bob's touring schedule here: https://bobweir.net/#!/events?page=1

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Bassist, songwriter, and composer Esperanza Spalding sits with Bruce Headlam to discuss her latest work and the opera she’s writing with the legendary saxophonist Wayne Shorter. They also discuss why Esperanza shies away from being labeled a prodigy, what it’s like jamming at Joni Mitchell's house, and how, despite her improvisational approach, she’s so much more than just a jazz musician.

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Run the Jewels recently took a (smoke) break while working on their fourth album at Shangri-La and taped this podcast with Rick Rubin. Killer Mike and El-P tell Rick about the music that first caught their imaginations as kids, how Run-DMC inspired their philosophy as a group, and who would be the court jester—and who would be a tribe leader—in their post-apocalyptic fantasy world.

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James Taylor's voice sounds sweet and carefree. It's a gift that hides the darker side to his lyrics and life. He and Malcolm Gladwell sat and uncovered some of the more troubling moments from his early life in this conversation. James also talks about it in his audio memoir, Break Shot, available now through Audible.

They also discuss the beach music scene of the Carolinas and the music that got James interested in music. Some of those tunes are represented on his new album, American Standard. Where James reworks classics of the great American songbook.

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RUN DMC were the first rap group on the cover of Rolling Stone. The first to go gold, platinum and multi-platinum. They were true pioneers of Hip Hop in the 80’s, releasing classic albums like “Raising Hell” and “Tougher Than Leather” — both collaborations with Rick Rubin. But by the 90s Hip Hop and changed. RUN DMC were struggling to find their way and so was Darryl “DMC” McDaniels. The self-proclaimed "King of Rock" tells Rick that at one point, the only thing giving him the will to live, was a Sarah McLachlan song.

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When Robbie Robertson turned a house perched above a Malibu beach into a home studio in the 1970's, he had no idea it'd remain a refuge for artists decades later. In this episode, Robbie returns to Shangri La—now the home of our own Rick Rubin—to discuss creating the studio, helping Bob Dylan go electric with The Band, writing "The Weight" and collaborating with Martin Scorsese on his films.

"Once Were Brothers" a documentary about The Band, comes out in theaters on February 21st. Visit https://www.oncewerebrothers.com/ to see where you can catch it.

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Just before the release of his first solo album in over a decade, Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon sat with Rick Rubin to talk about his tumultuous career that's spanned five decades. Friends since the early '80s, they discuss the early days of Black Sabbath, Ozzy's first encounter with his late guitarist Randy Rhoads, and how blown away Rick is by the power of Ozzy's voice at 71 years old.

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Booker T. Jones—as leader of Booker T. & the M.G.'s, Stax record's house band—helped popularize the sound of Southern soul music. Working alongside Stax legends like Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Carla Thomas, Albert King and more, his finger prints were everywhere. He details it all in his new book "Time Is Tight: My Life, Note By Note." He sat with Bruce Headlam in Brooklyn to discuss his time at Stax, including some of the great songs he had a hand in writing, and about his incredible career after leaving the label.

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Broken Record presents an episode of "Cautionary Tales": Bowie, Jazz and the Unplayable Piano

It was the biggest concert of Keith Jarrett's career - but the pianist was in for a shock when he entered Koln's opera house. The only piano at the venue was a broken-down wreck. Should he risk humiliation and play anyway or simply walk out? The collaboration between pop superstar David Bowie and arch disruptor Brian Eno offers a lesson that staying in your comfort zone isn't always the best option.

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Lead singer of the Alabama Shakes, Brittany Howard, talks to Rick Rubin about making her first solo album, Jamie. She shares a never before heard demo from the album and talks about her high school band days, The Shakes first live show, and how she's overcome serious bouts of writer's block with just about every project she's ever released.

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