Time Will Tell – Sept. 21, 2002
Chris and Rich Interview

A cloud of uncertainty currently surrounds the Black Crowes. In January, news broke about the band taking a hiatus, and from the get-go, some members of the music press assumed it was a creative way of announcing a permanent breakup, not a short-term breather. Drummer Steve Gorman did leave the Crowes' nest at that time, but the band's official statement suggested there might be a joint musical future for the contentious sibling duo that co-founded the Crowes -- Chris and Rich Robinson.

As for the past, it's been fruitful, eventful and sometimes turbulent for the Robinsons. Chris, a failed bassist turned singer, and Rich, a guitarist, formed Mr. Crowes Garden circa 1984 in Georgia. By 1990, they had changed the band's name to the Black Crowes. The lineup also included Gorman, second guitarist Jeff Cease and bassist Johnny Colt.

Shake Your Money Maker, the first Black Crowes album, dropped that same year, and the disc's throwback sound drew instant comparisons to works by the Rolling Stones and the Faces. "Jealous Again" reached No. 75 on the Billboard Hot 100, but it was the disc's second single, a cover of the 1968 Otis Redding song "Hard To Handle," that gave the Crowes their first Top 40 hit in 1991. Money Maker yielded one more tune that cracked the Top 40, the acoustic ballad "She Talks to Angels."

Cease was replaced by Marc Ford for 1992's The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, which spawned the minor Billboard pop hits "Remedy" and "Thorn in My Pride." The Black Crowes released three other studio albums during the 1990s -- Amorica (1994), Three Snakes and One Charm (1996) and By Your Side (1999)-- and the decade also saw several more lineup changes and intermittent clashes between the Robinsons.

In 1999, the Crowes played Led Zeppelin material in concert with former Zep guitarist Jimmy Page, and the performances were chronicled on 2000's Live at the Greek album. The Crowes and Page launched a U.S. tour that year, playing songs from both bands. On New Year's Eve in 2000, Chris married actress Kate Hudson.
In the summer of 2001, the Crowes hit the road in support of their Lions album along with British rockers Oasis -- led by another pair of battling siblings, Noel and Liam Gallagher. The jaunt ironically was dubbed the Tour of Brotherly Love.

Since announcing the band's hiatus, the Robinson brothers have become involved in respective solo projects. Rich has put a new band together, while Chris has been playing solo shows and will release his first album, New Earth Mud, on Oct. 22. Rich also produced and compiled a two-disc live Crowes set, simply titled Live, that hit stores in late August.

Rich and Chris Robinson recently sat down with us -- individually on separate occasions -- to discuss the Crowes' Live album, the band's evolution and hiatus, their solo ventures and some memorable moments in Crowes history.

Soul Singing
Rich Robinson: Well, the shows [on the last Black Crowes tour] were going really well and [the decision to record some of them for what became Live] was just off the cuff . . . we were like, 'Hey, let's record these last two shows.' So, we called a recording truck and had it sent up. And it met us in Boston, and we recorded the two shows to see if it would work, and it was great. I mean, the shows were all really good, and this is a mixture of the last two shows in Boston.

Seeing Things
RR: I think that when we first started, we weren't that good. I mean, we had a lot of energy . . . but we weren't a seasoned band. But by the end of [the Shake Your Money Maker] tour we were. I mean, we played 350 shows, 22 months on tour, and just really went out on tour and learned how to play. For Southern Harmony, the whole tour was great. I mean, the whole band was just peak performance. When Amorica came out, it was great -- we added a new element, we had a percussion player. So, we sort of played off of that. We started jamming more, that whole thing. That whole tour was great. Three Snakes [and One Charm] came out, and Marc Ford was a junkie, and he sucked a lot of the time . . . after the Furthur Tour . . . we, as a band, decided to make a straight-ahead rock record, all of us . . . so, we made By Your Side, which, when we recorded it, everyone liked it. And then we went on tour, and it wasn't an experimental tour by any means. We didn't try to push the envelope. We also had two new members. Those guys didn't know a lot of the older songs. But we went out there and did it. And it was good. Some of the shows were probably great. Most of them were really good . . . everyone loved Lions when we were done with it. It was just me, Chris, Steve and [keyboardist] Ed [Harsch] who made the record . . . we went out and found yet another bass player who was really good, and as a band we really started working. And there were some phenomenal shows on the Lions tour. I think some of our best. So, yeah, there are peaks and valleys, but I don't think you can be great unless you have a valley, so to speak.

By Your Side?
RR: We've talked about taking a break. Chris and I haven't said, 'All right, f**k it, we're done.' We still have all of our gear in a storage space somewhere. We still talk every once in a while. It's just [been] 17 years that me, Chris and Steve have been playing together -- or 16, I think, with Steve. But 17 with Chris and then 12 years of being the Black Crowes -- or actually 13, 'cause we recorded the record in '89. So . . . more than a decade, and I think it's just time for everyone to just take a break. I would have been happy to say, 'Hey, let's just take a year off, completely -- just not do anything,' and then just go into the studio. But then Chris opens his mouth, as per usual. But he wanted to do a solo thing, so I was like, 'All right, cool.'

Better When You're Not Alone
RR: So, I've put a band together, and the guys I'm playing with are [absolutely] phenomenal. It's really interesting. I've played with a bunch of people . . . I've never played with anyone else, so what would it be to play with some other dudes? And so I've played with like seven drummers, and I was just going back and forth, feeling a little discouraged, like, 'Well, it's cool, but it's not Steve,' so to speak, but then am I being weird because I've played 2000 shows with Steve? I mean, is my bar too high? And then this guy came in -- his name's Bill -- and he just blew me away. We were on the same wavelength. And this bass player I have -- I wish I had his [phone] number three bass players ago, because this guy would have been the guy. He's probably one of the best bass players I've ever seen, hands down. So, it's great to be in this position with these two guys. And then I also have a singer that's amazing. Unbelievable.

Let Me Share the Ride
RR: [One of the coolest things to happen to me] was when we were rehearsing for Lions. [Bob] Dylan was next to us, and he and I have the same birthday. I didn't tell him that. He came in and just out of the blue -- I met him once; I didn't think he knew my name or anything. He came up and put his hand on my shoulder, and he [says], 'Man, that song you were playing in there was beautiful, Rich.' And I [thought to myself], 'All right, I can quit. I quit. I'm going home.' It's like, I'm done -- I've arrived. That was probably the most flattering thing that's ever happened.

The Jimmy Page thing was such an unbelievable [experience]. You can't really fathom it while you're in it, because we like Jimmy as a person -- he's just a cool guy, and I felt like we were all sort of friends, and it was just like hanging out with a friend. But listening to it and thinking back, having him play on my songs was really flattering. And him allowing us to play with him on his songs was flattering. You can't beat that sort of thing.

Three Musketeers and One Charmer
Chris Robinson: This whole [solo] thing is very comfortable and I have to say that it's weird because . . . I loved the Black Crowes. I loved the work we did and I loved the songs that my brother and I wrote, but ever since we were teenagers, the Black Crowes has always been a lot of pushing and shoving -- physically, emotionally, creatively. It feels just so comfortable to be in my own skin. The same expectations aren't there because those expectations are other people's expectations. So, it's a lot easier for me, as one person, to create this thing and to also deal with the stuff that goes around it. That comfort zone also has a lot to do with the fact that I can take anything that comes my way. I love that one-for-all Three Musketeers mentality that a band can have, but as time goes along and you change -- now it's just me and I don't have to worry about everybody else's feelings, and I don't have to leave anyone or ask for that or be disappointed if it doesn't happen that way. The level of expectation and disappointment is a totally different playing field, so it's much easier to express myself that way.

New Earth Mood
CR: To be honest, I look at music in terms of the sound itself, and the songs that I'm singing feel like this is how I feel. I think the Black Crowes were deceptive that way, because I was the mouthpiece, literally, and my aesthetic brought to that band a lot of different things over the years, and growing up to. But I think part of the confusion of that was that a lot of the things that I threw out there, whether that be through the media and interviews and things, were going to be misconstrued a lot of the times because of the nature of machinery. But also, because when it got time to go onstage, it was all these different things happening and it wasn't just my thing coming out. I had a very strong presence there and in a rock and roll concert-type setting -- it was my vibe that I was putting out as the frontman. But [playing solo] is much easier. It's much easier just to walk out onstage. It was a little hard -- I've never played guitar in front of people -- so just to go out there and play acoustic guitar was a little naked, also.

As the Crowes Fly
CR: The band was [really good] up until the departure of Marc Ford and Johnny Colt. Looking back, that main group from Southern Harmony to Three Snakes, that's really where we were at our best, I think. But a lot of that also is just, again, like, 'I'm in a rock and roll band and this is what I do,' and I didn't want to lie to people. And if anything, I didn't want to be, you know, you see Mötley Crüe and stuff and you see wasted guys killing people in car wrecks and just making silly records and wearing silly clothes -- that mentality. Whereas we were more along the lines of . . . to me, it was an extension of [beat authors Jack] Kerouac or William Burroughs or something even further back. And bands in Seattle were doing the same type of things -- there was a certain type of desperation and bleakness that only music, really, was something that brought that light and could be fulfilling. But, at the time, I thought it was my right and some bizarre duty to be honest and wear it on our sleeves and it was no hint that it was also the thing inevitably that broke up that unit.

Interviews by Steve Reynolds and David Sprague