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

Robert Margouleff is one of the most quietly consequential figures in modern music — a sonic architect who helped build some of the most innovative and enduring sounds of the last half century. Together with his partner Malcolm Cecil, Robert created TONTO, the world's largest analog synthesizer, and used it to co-produce a string of era-defining Stevie Wonder classics including Music Of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, an...

Maya Hawke first became known to wide audiences as an actress — especially through her work in Stranger Things — but she's been quietly building a parallel life as a songwriter of genuine depth. Since her debut album Blush in 2020, she's released four records.

Her latest, Maitreya Corso, arrives at a pivotal moment: the album follows her marriage to longtime musical collaborator Christian Lee Hutson, and centers on a fi...

In the latest season of Revisionist History, Malcolm Gladwell is looking at the origins and consequences of mistakes—why we make them, the context in which we make them, and what happens after we make them. Years ago a music producer named Irv Gotti—a hitmaker for Jay-Z, Ja Rule, and Ashanti—was tapped by Sony Music to make a record with Jennifer Lopez. They wanted a big hit. And Irv delivered. But then he made th...

The magic of Bruce Hornsby isn't just that he's one of American music's great piano stylists — or that he wrote one of the most unlikely pop hits of the 1980s, a song about racism with two improvised solos that nobody at his label thought should be the single. It's how relentlessly he's kept moving, long after he had any commercial reason to.

Hornsby grew up in Williamsburg, Virginia, and got discovered playing a steak and al...

The magic of Dave Grohl isn't just that he's one of rock music's great raconteurs, or one of its greatest drummers and frontmen of the last thirty-plus years. It's the sheer number of lives he's gotten to live within rock and roll.

Dave started out drumming for Scream, one of DC's great, underrated hardcore bands, running in the same circles as Ian MacKaye and the Dischord crowd. Then he joined Nirvana and more than made his mark i...

Wyclef Jean may just be the most wide-ranging rapper, producer, performer, and composer of his time. As the lead producer and MC of The Fugees, he helped craft their 1996 landmark album The Score, one of the best-selling hip-hop albums of all time. The following year he released his debut solo album, The Carnival, which included hits like "Guantanamera" featuring Celia Cruz, and the platinum-certified single "Gone Till November."

A...

Jessie Ware has always moved between worlds. She's a British soul singer who spent the early part of her career making intimate, understated records. Then, in 2020, she released What's Your Pleasure? and morphed into a full-blown disco goddess. The record received widespread critical acclaim, earned Jessie her first top-three album on the UK charts, and was nominated for British Album of the Year at the BRITs. Today Jessie traces t...

Patrick Watson first came to international attention in 2007 when his album Close to Paradise won the Polaris Music Prize, Canada's most prestigious award for a Canadian album. Over the course of his career, the Montreal-based singer and composer built a devoted following through his orchestral pop arrangements, his remarkable voice, and live performances that blend intimacy with a theatric sensibility.

Watson's music has found a s...

Charlie Puth is a meticulous songwriter whose knowledge of pop music runs deeper than your average chart topper. Charlie, who studied music production and engineering at Berklee College of Music, first gained widespread attention in 2015 with "See You Again," his collaboration with Wiz Khalifa for the Furious 7 soundtrack. The song earned him his first three Grammy nominations.

Since then, he's released hits like "Attention," "We D...

The Black Crowes are one of the great rock bands of the last 30 years, and now they're finally getting their flowers: a 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination, alongside Lauryn Hill, Phil Collins, Wu-Tang Clan, and Oasis. To mark the occasion, we're re-running Justin Richmond's 2024 conversation with lead singer Chris Robinson, recorded around the release of their album Happiness Bastards.

In the interview, Justin and Chris get...

Tommy Emmanuel is an Australian guitarist who has spent over six decades mastering the art of fingerstyle acoustic guitar. He's now widely regarded as one of the best acoustic players in the world.

Born in 1955, he received his first guitar at age four and he recalls that not long after he knew he wanted to dedicate his life to playing music. He left home to pursue his dream as a teenager and eventually became known for his remarka...

Rodney Crowell has been a fixture in Nashville's songwriting community for over 50 years. Born in Houston in 1950, he was influenced early on by songwriters Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. In 1975, he joined Emmylou Harris' Hot Band as a guitarist and harmony singer, playing with her for three years. Rodney became known for his own work with his 1988 album Diamonds & Dirt, an album that made history by producing five consecutiv...

FKA twigs has spent over a decade redefining the boundaries of pop music through her innovative blend of electronic production, experimental R&B, and striking visual art. Her albums LP1 and Magdalene earned widespread critical acclaim, establishing her as one of the most forward-thinking voices in contemporary music. 

Last November, she released EUSEXUA Afterglow, a companion to her Grammy-winning, dance-forward album EUSE...

Ben Bridwell has led Band of Horses for over two decades. He describes the band's sound as "y'all-ternative," a genre that tips its hat to Southern rock's deep myriad of musical influences.

Next month, Band of Horses is celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut album, Everything All the Time, with an expanded reissue featuring previously unreleased demos and live recordings. The album, recorded in 2005 with producer Phil Ek, ...

Grant-Lee Phillips first made his name in the ‘90s as the frontman of Grant Lee Buffalo, a critically acclaimed band that released four albums and toured with Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins, and R.E.M. Rolling Stone named Grant-Lee "Best Male Vocalist" in 1994, and his band became known for their folk-infused rock sound and their reflections on American history.

After Grant Lee Buffalo disbanded in 1999, Phillips launched a...

Peaches has spent more than two decades pushing boundaries in electronic music and performance art, inspiring the look and sound of edgy pop artists like Lady Gaga and Grimes. But long before she was known for her outrageous stage shows, Peaches got her start as part of a folk trio in Toronto. In the mid-'90s, after discovering she could become a one-woman band with her Roland drum machine, Peaches began developing a provocative ne...

Jacob Collier has built a remarkable career as a multi-instrumentalist and arranger known for his complex harmonic approach and collaborative spirit. He first gained attention as a teenager posting multi-track videos from his childhood bedroom in North London. In 2013, his cover of Stevie Wonder's "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing" caught the eye of Quincy Jones, who began mentoring him and helped launch his career.

Over the past seve...

Don Was has had a remarkable career moving between different corners of the music world. In the 1980s, he fronted the eclectic band Was (Not Was), mixing funk, rock, and pop in unexpected ways. As a producer, he's helped shape landmark albums for artists like the B-52's and Bonnie Raitt, and worked with Bob Dylan and become a regular producer for the Rolling Stones. For the past decade, Don has led Blue Note Records as its presiden...

When Patty Griffin released Crown of Roses earlier this year, she delivered something both timeless and urgent. It’s an album that draws on gospel, folk, and soul to explore themes of faith, doubt, and resilience. It's a return to the stripped-down intimacy of her earliest work, but with the wisdom and craft of an artist who's spent nearly three decades refining her voice.

That voice first emerged in 1996 with Living with Gho...