Surviving Beastie Boys Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz discussed the early days of the band with producer Rick Rubin on the Broken Record podcast. Spike Jonze, who directed the Beastie Boys Story documentary, participated in the discussion, which marked the first time Horovitz and Rubin had likely spoken in 20 years.
Rubin, Diamond, Horovitz and Jonze connected remotely over videoconference. Rubin and the Beasties rehashed how they met in New York City and soon were hanging out at Rubin’s infamous dorm room at NYU. Rubin, who was the Beastie Boys’ DJ in their infancy, recalled his early impressions of Diamond, Horovitz and the late Adam “MCA” Yauch. The trio revisited when the Beastie Boys, before their Rubin-produced debut album License To Ill was released, were tapped to open for Madonna’s massive arena tour.
Clubbing in the mid-1980s, the origins of “Brass Monkey,” early hip-hop influences and other aspects of the birth of the Beasties Boys were also discussed. Rubin ended by telling Horovitz he hoped the chat would lead to more opportunities to make up for the time spent apart in recent years.
Listen to the episode below:
https://megaphone.link/CAD5011143773
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beastie-boys-and-spike-jonze/id1311004083?i=1000479226355
