Tyler Childers Is Working With Legendary Producer Rick Rubin For New Album

Tyler Childers and Rick Rubin? To quote the one and only Garth Brooks…. I like that.

If you want to look at country music in the past decade, it’s pretty hard to argue that Tyler Childers doesn’t have one of the most impressive bodies of work in the entire genre. Since his breakout album Purgatory in 2017 (produced by Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson), which is arguably the greatest country album of the past decade, Timmy Tyler has continued to produce phenomenal records, he’s playing larger and larger venues, and he’s done it all the Tyler Childers way. Never compromising his values, but not afraid to take some chances, he’s simply one of the best that country music has to offer.

2019’s Country Squire is another one that got a TON of spin in my house (“All Your’n” was even my wedding song), but then he followed it up with a pair of curveballs. Long Violent History (2020) was an album of mostly instrumental fiddle tunes, save for the title track, which was a compelling call for empathy and understanding in regards to racism and police brutality. And then he hit fans with the 3-part Gospel project, Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?, which featured eight gospel songs in three different styles: “Hallelujah,” “Jubilee,” and “Joyful Noise.” It was certainly a unique endeavor from Tyler, one that left some fans scratching their heads, but it once again proved that Tyler was unwavering in his desire to make the music he wants to make. And then most recently, 2023’s Rustin’ in the Rain was more of a return to the traditional Tyler Childers country record, but at only 8 songs, including a couple covers and few songs he was playing live at the moment, it felt a little thin for some.

But never fear, the man is already back in the studio, and once again, he’s doing something rather unexpected. Working with the legendary producer, Rick Rubin. According to RCA Chairman and CEO Peter Edge, it’s one of the projects he is most excited about at the label, and it should be coming out in the next few months.

“I’m really excited about Tyler Childers’ new album, which is produced by Rick Rubin. He defies expectations, and this new album goes even further. The great thing about Tyler is that he does it the way he wants to do it. He’s playing giant venues, and he’s making the music he wants to make.”

For those who don’t know, Rick primarily got started in the hip hop world, but has produced records for some of the biggest names in just about every genre of music… Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, and Run DMC, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica, Adele, Tom Petty, The Dixie Chicks, The Strokes, Eminem, Ed Sheeran, System of a Down, Audioslave, Justin Timberlake, Avett Brothers… the list is endless. But perhaps his most iconic album(s) (at least for our purposes in the country world), and the one the prompted a career revival of sorts… the iconic American Recordings by the great Johnny Cash.

Rick is known for being more of a guru than a musician, in fact, he can’t even play an instrument and barely knows how to use the mixing board. He basically makes records solely on vibes (which sounds like a joke, but it really isn’t). He’s known for helping artists channel their own inner creativity, helping to strip away all the distractions and the noise, the outside influence, the trends, and the process is almost a spiritual experience. Like going to a wellness retreat, not a recording studio. It’s unconventional for sure, but the results are hard to argue with.

For Tyler, I think it could be a match made in heaven and there’s a couple reasons why, but primarily, because Rick’s superpower seems to be getting artists to channel something different, something that they might not ordinarily do. And for Tyler, the one criticism lately has been that there just haven’t been many songs. We know he has a TON of material that he’s written over the years, and most likely still writing, but for some reason, the last few albums have been small, full of covers or remakes, and many old songs that Tyler Childers fans will recognize from years and years ago. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great, but you just don’t feel like you’re getting something all that “new and exciting.”

But with Rick, there are many accounts of him convincing artists to explore paths that they would’ve taken, most notably Johnny Cash’s cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt,” which has been deemed by some (as well as Trent Reznor) to be the greatest cover of all time. But the truth is, Johnny absolutely hated the idea at first and thought Rick was “crazy”. Same goes for Johnny’s cover of “Rusty Cage” by Soundgarden.

Rick told Rick Beato that he had to send it Johnny 3 times and then make a demo to convince him:

“I sent him a burned CD of probably 25 potential songs, and that was number one. When he called me back, he didn’t respond to that one. He responded to a couple of others. And then the next CD I sent him, it was number one again. It’s one of the only songs that I probably sent him three times in these compilations I’d send of songs to consider.”

And we all know how that went… the magic was captured.

But I feel like Rick can get some of that magic out of Tyler, magic that feels new and fresh and exciting for fans. And Rick tends to be pretty minimal so I’m not expecting a large divergence from Tyler’s country sound, but I’m hopeful that something really cool could come out of it. Stay tuned… Peter Edge made it sound like it should be out this summer.

For more on Rick Rubin’s creative process and history, check out this conversation with fellow producer and musician Rick Beato… it’s a great conversation that touches on everything from how he got started, to his work with the Chili Peppers, and of course, his vision for Johnny Cash.

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