I mentioned on a Reddit thread that I had met Rick Rubin and somebody asked me for the story, so I wrote it. It was long enough that I figured it was worth saving in a blog post. So here it is!
There was this band called The Matches who used to produce their own shows in Oakland. They had a lot of buzz – they had just released their first album, which they had funded and recorded themselves in someone’s mom’s basement with a friend, and had gone on a national tour on their own dime by calling in favors from bands they had booked at their shows.
So Rick Rubin shows up at this show in this weird little venue in Oakland with a bunch of his friends. To watch the Matches, and possibly sign them, and possibly consider working with them on an album.
He actually stood in the audience for a bit, in the sweet spot in the middle of the room about halfway between the front and back. A friend of mine, also in a band, introduced himself to Rick and said he really admired his work. Rubin thanked him in a tone of voice that sounded as if he had never received a compliment before – “Thank you, I really appreciate that!” He sounded totally genuine. (Even when my friend told him, “You’re my second favorite producer, behind the Neptunes.”)
Eventually, he wandered upstairs to check out the “control room,” because the venue broadcast all shows online and that was totally unique – this was around 2004!
I knew a lot of people in that scene at the time (including the guys in the band), so I was able to just walk into the control room shortly thereafter. Thing is, I was on the level where I could go into the control room, but not at the level where the main guys in the control room would bother to introduce me. So I just stood there awkwardly. I had another reason to talk to the guy who ran the venue (related to my own band), but I was just using that as an excuse.
I was standing near the entrance. Rick got up to head back downstairs, and was about to squeeze past me to exit. He saw that I was looking at him and didn’t know what to say, so he just stuck out his hand and said enthusiastically, “Hi, I’m Rick!” I was taken aback, so I weirdly said “I know,” laughed, gave him my name, a REALLY awkward pitch for my band, and a folded up piece of paper that had our web site address on it. He was polite, said he would check it out, and that was that.
I’ve only met a few celebrities, but I gotta say, Rick Rubin was a class act. He was really nice to everybody, very polite, and basically the way he comes off in interviews. No wonder people like working with him!