Various band accounts over the years have described Rubin's role as a mentor and kind of 'album godfather' - a role which encompasses almost therapy-like factors and mental approach, but also some technical overview and experience. His work in the late 2000's with band Metallica for their 2008 album Death Magnetic was well publicised in the scene around that time, and several small videos and excerpts still exist, e.g. [0],[1],[2].

The value of that venerable mentor style role is clearly immense, as anybody ever well mentored through a big project by an accomplished elder - or indeed, had a good parent(s)! - can attest.

A few of the Metallica band member comments:

* "Rick made us comfortable revisiting and being inspired by our old albums..."

* "He knew what the ultimate Metallica album should sound like in his head..."

* "Rick was very clever technically, even in the tuning of the songs, he questioned why we had everything tuned down a half step.."

* "He did not want us to go into the studio until we could play these songs in our sleep."

* "Rick Rubin is a guy who listens to music, and says That's Good, and That's Not Good..."

* "His contributions are big picture, he's not a musician"

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[0] What Rick Rubin Actually Was Doing While Recording "Death Magnetic". Metallica Interview : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm0AOVdPriI

[1] Metallica's Lars Ulrich on working with Rick Rubin VS Bob Rock : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atjw-dSM6kE

[2] Lars Ulrich on Death Magnetic, Rick Rubin - "What did Rubin bring to the table?" : https://youtu.be/GzMINDnoRRs?t=822