Stars Whose Collaborations Changed Their Public Image

By the early 1990s Johnny Cash had been dropped by his label and was seen as a nostalgia act. Producer Rick Rubin, known for the Beastie Boys and Slayer, recorded him alone with an acoustic guitar for American Recordings (1994), then had him cover songs by Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden and Depeche Mode. Rubin supplied the setting and repertoire; Cash supplied the gravity. His version of Hurt, released months before his death in 2003, made him an icon to a generation born after his peak.

Tom Jones spent the 1970s and 1980s as a Las Vegas fixture until the electronic group Art of Noise invited him to sing their cover of Prince's Kiss in 1988. Their cut-up production made his big voice sound modern and ironic at once, and the single went top five in Britain. It reintroduced him to younger listeners and set up later reinventions, including his 1999 duets album Reload.

Kylie Minogue was still seen as a Stock Aitken Waterman pop puppet when Nick Cave asked her to duet on Where the Wild Roses Grow (1995), a murder ballad in which his character kills hers. Cave brought dark, literary songwriting; she brought a fragility his fans had not expected. It was a hit, won ARIA awards and gave her credibility with critics who had dismissed her, which she used to make the more experimental Impossible Princess.

Tony Bennett's son and manager, Danny Bennett, steered him onto Late Night with David Letterman, The Simpsons and finally MTV Unplugged in 1994, where he sang standards with guest k.d. lang and Elvis Costello. The album won the Grammy for album of the year and made a crooner in his late sixties fashionable with teenagers. Two decades later his duets with Lady Gaga extended that reach again. He died in 2023.

Lady Gaga was best known for meat dresses and electro-pop when she recorded the jazz album Cheek to Cheek (2014) with Tony Bennett. His approval told sceptical audiences she could really sing, and it led directly to her Sound of Music tribute at the Oscars and her starring role in A Star Is Born. Their second album, Love for Sale (2021), recorded as his memory faded, deepened the partnership.

Robert Plant, the rock god of Led Zeppelin, teamed up with bluegrass singer and fiddler Alison Krauss and producer T Bone Burnett for Raising Sand (2007), a hushed album of Americana covers. Krauss's harmonies and Burnett's spacious production showed a restraint few expected from Plant. It won the Grammy for album of the year and helped explain his refusal to reunite Led Zeppelin for a tour.

Loretta Lynn was a country legend whom country radio had stopped playing when Jack White of The White Stripes produced Van Lear Rose (2004), playing guitar on raw, garage-tinged versions of her new songs. White gave her a rock audience and critics' attention; she wrote every song herself. It won two Grammys and brought festival crowds to a singer then in her seventies. She died in 2022.

Steven Tyler and Aerosmith were written off as a burnt-out 1970s band when Run-DMC, with producer Rick Rubin, recorded a rap version of their song Walk This Way in 1986 with Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry. The video, in which the two acts literally break through a dividing wall, became an MTV staple. It revived Aerosmith's career, leading to their biggest-selling albums, and helped carry hip-hop to rock audiences.

Carlos Santana had been without a major hit for decades when Clive Davis paired him with younger artists for Supernatural (1999). Smooth, written and sung by Matchbox Twenty's Rob Thomas, spent twelve weeks at the top of the American charts, and the album won nine Grammys. The guests delivered the pop hooks; Santana's guitar tone made them distinctive. He went from classic-rock radio to the front of every chart.

Nile Rodgers was respected as the producer behind Chic, Bowie's Let's Dance and Madonna's Like a Virgin, but little known to younger listeners until Daft Punk invited him to play on Random Access Memories (2013). His rhythm guitar on Get Lucky, with Pharrell Williams singing, made it the song of that summer and won the Grammy for record of the year. He became a festival headliner again with a revived Chic.

John Travolta's career had slid into talking-baby comedies when Quentin Tarantino cast him as hitman Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction (1994). Tarantino wrote him laid-back dialogue and even a dance scene that knowingly recalled Saturday Night Fever. Travolta earned an Oscar nomination and a decade of leading roles. It remains the textbook example of a director rebuilding a star.

Bill Murray was the wisecracking star of Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day until Wes Anderson cast him as a melancholy industrialist in Rushmore (1998). The deadpan sadness Anderson drew out led to Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003), which earned Murray an Oscar nomination. He has appeared in nearly every Anderson film since, and the partnership redefined him as one of cinema's great sad clowns.

Robert Pattinson used his Twilight money to work with demanding auteurs: David Cronenberg on Cosmopolis, the Safdie brothers on Good Time (2017), Claire Denis on High Life and Robert Eggers on The Lighthouse. The Safdies' frantic, sweaty heist film was the turning point, showing him as a desperate, unglamorous character. By the time he became Batman, critics saw him as a risk-taking actor rather than a teen idol.

Kristen Stewart was mocked for her Twilight performances until French director Olivier Assayas cast her as Juliette Binoche's assistant in Clouds of Sils Maria (2014), a role that won her a César, the first for an American actress. Assayas then built Personal Shopper (2016) around her. He saw her restlessness as a strength rather than a flaw, and the European arthouse respect followed her to Spencer and an Oscar nomination.

Adam Sandler's reputation rested on broad comedies when Josh and Benny Safdie cast him as a gambling-addicted New York jeweller in Uncut Gems (2019). They pushed his manic energy to anxiety-inducing extremes, and he won the Independent Spirit Award for best male lead. Critics who had ignored him for years began revisiting Punch-Drunk Love, and he became a credible dramatic actor between Netflix comedies.

Mickey Rourke had walked away from acting for boxing and was largely unemployable when Darren Aronofsky fought for him to star in The Wrestler (2008), despite the studio's preference for a bigger name. Aronofsky built the role around Rourke's battered body and history, and Rourke won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. The comeback was brief, but it is one of the clearest examples of a director's faith reshaping public sympathy.

Brendan Fraser, the star of The Mummy, had largely vanished from leading roles when Darren Aronofsky cast him in The Whale (2022) as a reclusive teacher. The performance won him the Academy Award for best actor and an outpouring of public goodwill sometimes called the Brenaissance. Aronofsky's choice let audiences see the vulnerability Fraser's earlier action roles had hidden.

Michael Keaton had stepped back from big roles when Alejandro González Iñárritu cast him in Birdman (2014) as a former superhero actor trying to prove himself on Broadway. The meta casting, echoing his own Batman years, turned what could have been a joke into an Oscar-nominated performance. He followed it with Spotlight, which won best picture, and a run of strong character parts.

Martha Stewart rebuilt her image after a 2004 prison sentence partly through an unlikely friendship with Snoop Dogg, which began with a cooking segment and became the VH1 series Martha and Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party (2016). Snoop brought irreverence and a younger audience; she brought expertise and dry humour. The pairing made her a pop-culture figure for people who had never watched her original shows.

Taylor Swift wrote and recorded folklore (2020) in lockdown largely with Aaron Dessner of the indie band The National, alongside Jack Antonoff, and followed it with evermore. Dessner's muted, piano-and-guitar arrangements took her away from stadium pop and towards storytelling in character, and the album won the Grammy for album of the year. It won over critics and listeners who had previously dismissed her.