Rick Rubin, the man behind the hottest albums

Rubin had sought out Cash because he was interested in working with an established artist creatively adrift and neglected by the industry. Cash by the early 1990s had nearly given up recording. The deceptively simple approach they set upon of having Cash sing a wide swath of songs to sparse accompaniment yielded five albums (with a sixth posthumously to come) that energized his career.

Cash sang songs he remembered from growing up and unlikely ones fed by Rubin, most memorably Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt."

He's not a producer who spends much time creating in the studio. Rubin has his artists rehearse and experiment extensively ahead of time, so when they enter the studio they know the songs well.

"There's a humanity to a great performance," he said. "It's more like jazz. It could be a pop song or a rock song or a country song, but we approach it more from the standpoint of jazz, and try to get this special interactive moment. We know the tunes, we know the songs, now we're trying to get that special magic moment."

He may be an affable man, but he isn't afraid to tell artists what he thinks. One major star looked at Rubin, mouth agape, when told his songs weren't good enough. Nobody had ever told him that before.

Rubin pushed another artist, Diamond, particularly hard. He made Diamond sing with his acoustic guitar, something he hadn't done since the 1960s. Diamond told The Associated Press upon release of his 2005 disc "12 Songs" that Rubin made him realize that throughout his career the recordings had become more important than the songs, and that was a backwards way of looking at things.

He was grateful when it was done. But he fought every day while working with Rubin.

"Guess what?" Diamond said. "He was right."

Rubin said he believes the artists know that everything he does is to try to make the best music possible.

"A lot of artists really like having someone to bounce things off of, because it's hard to know," he said. "Most of them, especially the ones that are established and have had success, tend to be in a little bit of a vacuum, because most people tell them what they do is great. But there's a lack of reality in that world and it's not beneficial to the artist to be in that world."

He had seen the Dixie Chicks before they became famous and was impressed. Working with them on the "Taking the Long Way" disc interested him because here was a sassy, country-crossover act forced to become serious in the aftermath of the political storm created when singer Natalie Maines criticized President Bush. He was curious how they'd react.

The Dixie Chicks had plenty of ideas but lacked a sense of direction, Robinson said. They were also somewhat sensitive to being dictated to, given the experience they'd just been through.

"I think he knows when it's right and he's very decisive, which is refreshing," she said. "But he's also a very good listener. You just respect his ears and his taste so much. That's an earned trust. We knew the legend but we didn't know the actual reason ... We came to learn that it's just that he has great ears."

Rubin just finished a new disc with Linkin Park, and he's working now with Metallica. His dream job is to make a full album with U2; he produced two new songs for their greatest hits disc.

Working so much has its drawbacks, as Rubin learned recently when a friend came over with a mixtape and they listened to the music together. That's kind of cool, Rubin said about one song. Who's singing that?

His friend looked at him incredulously. "You produced it!" he replied.

"I literally had no recollection of it at all," Rubin said, "and I'm a sober person."

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