Rolling Stone recently caught up with legendary producer Rick Rubin, who has worked with everyone from Metallica to Eminem to the Dixie Chicks. In the excerpt below he discusses working with Metallica for the 2008 album, Death Magnetic.

Rubin: "They had made that movie, Some Kind of Monster, which I thought was really bold of them to make, because it showed them lost. The main goal of our work together was to get them to re-embrace being Metallica, feeling OK to be a heavy metal band. In some ways, they had already done that, but before that, they had tried to reinvent themselves in different ways. I tried to get them to re-engage with everything everybody fell in love with, with Metallica, in the first place. I got them to listen to the music that they were listening to at the time that they made Master of Puppets, those influences. I asked them to live with those influences and spend more time playing together as a band."

"They'd fallen into a trap of using the studio more as an instrument and punching in parts to get the perfection they were looking for than they were getting through raw performance power. It was about getting them to not try ideas by editing them together with a machine, but to try playing them in different orders to see what they felt like. And they really ended up getting back to being a band."

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Metallica: Back To The Front is headed your way in September and tells the definitive story of Master Of Puppets and the subsequent tour that followed its release. The revised book cover and a few sample page spreads can be seen below.

"Over a year ago we told you that we had teamed up with acclaimed award winning author Matt Taylor to tell the definitive story of Master of Puppets and the subsequent tour that followed its release," says Metallica. "You all jumped in to assist us in putting the pieces together by sending your photos, videos, stories and mementos... we could not have done it without you! Here’s your first glance at the cover of Metallica: Back To The Front, which will see the light of day Fall of 2016.

We’re pretty sure it will be worth the wait as the book is chock full of exclusive intensive interviews with all of us as we spent countless hours with Matt digging deep in our memory banks for stories, anecdotes, tidbits and tales from the studio, the road and beyond. Matt spoke to all the major players at that time in our history, including those who were with us during the making of the record including producer Flemming Rasmussen and the man who mixed it, Michael Wagener. He tracked down the entire MOP road crew including John Marshall and members of the bands who toured with us, Anthrax and Armored Saint. Our booking agent, tour promoters and managers Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch all were overly generous with their time and recollections. Faith No More guitarist Jim Martin and drummer Mike Bordin and Diamond Head’s Brian Tatler spoke with Matt about their memories of those crazy times and of course you, the fans who were at those shows gave us an amazing view of your memories and experiences. Finally, we’re honored that Cliff Burton’s dad Ray sat down for an extensive interview.

We all hit the storage lockers, attics and basements to fill the book with hundreds of never-before-seen images pulled from our personal archives and have been involved every step of the way to bring you the complete story. No stone was left un-turned as we gear up to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the album’s release."

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