AT LONG LAST THEY HAVE AN ALBUM TO "CROW" ABOUT! 
 
by Ernie Thomas 
 
 
   The Brothers Robinson - Chris and Rich - of The Black Crowes have certainly come a 
long way on their musical journey since the release of Shake Your Moneymaker and 
being heralded and the second coming of the Small Faces. 
 
      With each new album, they have expanded their musical boundaries and their sound 
has evolved.  The same is true with their latest studio album - Lions - which ships to 
retail on May 8.  
 
     This is the band's first release away from American (which is under the Sony 
umbrella) and according to Rich Robinson, the first time they were truly allowed to make 
the record they set out to make.  It brought them together with a new producer - Don 
Was - and a new bass player - Andy Hess - who looks as though he will be sticking 
around a lot longer than his more recent predecessors. 
 
     The Robinsons are teaming up with another famous (or is that infamous) pair of 
siblings for their current summer tour.   Heralded - rather tongue-in-cheek I would 
assume as the "Tour of Brotherly Love" - they will be taking a six-week road trip with 
the Gallagher brothers - Noel and Liam - and their combustible rock 'n' roll combo, 
Oasis. 
 
     Midwest BEAT caught up with Rich Robinson the night before they were doing a 
warm-up show with Bob Dylan.  The guitarist/songwriter was considerably upbeat and 
excited about the tour and most importantly about the band's new album and the freedom 
they enjoyed while making it. 
 
     Here are the highlights of that afternoon conversation. 
 
 
---------------------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
 
BEAT:  LION sounds less like your last CD [By Your Side] and more like a return to 
your 3 Snakes CD. 
 
R.R.:  I think it's more a step in a new direction.  We've really used a ton of different 
effects, the way we approached the songs and the songwriting, and how we recorded the 
record. But I do understand what you're talking about as far as the elements of 3 Snakes. 
 
   We recorded in New York, where we all live now.  We did it on Pro Tools. Things 
were split between a rehearsal space and an actual studio on the lower East Side that used 
to be this Yiddish Vaudevillian Theater from the early 1900's. 
 
   On this album, I think we really stretched ourselves and took things to a new level. 3 
Snakes is very 'wall-of-sound'-ish, which was great for that record.  This one has a lot 
more space, where you can sit back and listen to everything and hear relatively easily 
what's going on. 
 
BEAT:  The last album had Kevin Shirley (Aerosmith) producing and this time 
out, you worked with Don Was. 
 
R.R.:  We wanted to make a straight ahead rock record the last time out and Kevin was a 
good guy for that.  We were coming off of 3 Snakes, a diverse sort of record that was 
definitely in your face, but which I think was a little bit harder for most people to grasp.  
We wanted a more basic rock approach for our next record. 
 
    With 3 Snakes, it was like standing in front of a huge collage and you really have to 
look closely because there's so much information.  Working with Kevin on By Your Side 
was more simplistic, because we could just throw up a mic and record.  
 
BEAT: Some songs on that Shirley CD seem a tad reminiscent of Moneymaker. 
 
R.R.:  For some songs on that record, I  felt we were kind of coerced to make them more 
like something on Shake Your Money Maker.  Producers get their jobs from record labels 
and they don't want to piss the label off, so there was some of that going on with the last 
record I think. 
 
BEAT: What did Don Was bring to the table with this record? 
 
R.R.:  What Don brought to the table was just him saying 'Yes!' to things we wanted to 
try doing.  He really wanted us to make the record that we wanted 
to make.  Don has a hands off approach. He came in and had the ability to 
sort of read what we wanted to get across and he helped us get there. 
 
BEAT: So his biggest input was not offering too much input? 
 
R.R.:  Exactly. You know for the first time, we were in a studio with someone who'd say 
things like - 'I think that's really cool.' and 'That's ambitious, let's try it.'  It was cool to 
hear those kinds of things instead of - 'You know, that doesn't sound like Shake Your 
Money Maker.'  
 
    When you have to fight to make the record you want to make,  it wastes a 
lot of time and energy. 
 
BEAT: Tell me about your new label, V2 Records.  This is your first album 
away from American/Sony. 
 
R.R.:  It's Richard Branson's new label. He sold Virgin Records and he started V2.  They 
have Moby and this band called Stereophonics in the UK. They released Amee Mann's 
stuff too.  
 
   The cool thing about V2, the reason that we chose them, is that they told us - 'You 
guys go make the record you want to make. Then give it to us and we'll sell it.'  That's 
what we needed to hear. 
 
BEAT: Why leave American/Sony? 
 
R.R.:  They wanted us to keep remaking Shake Your Moneymaker.  The minute you 
make someone a lot of money they want you to always make them money. 
 
BEAT: But you whole catalogue has done quite well.  Why the pressure? 
 
R.R.:  Yeah, it's done well but that doesn't affect them. They want five albums that sell 7 
million copies a piece.  They don't want a record that's not going to do that.  They looked 
at Southern Harmony, which sold like 4 million records worldwide, as a failure because it 
didn't do the same kind of sales as Moneymaker.  So when you make a record like 
Southern Harmony and all you hear the label call it a disappointment, it's just not cool. 
 
BEAT: What's the creative process with you guys? 
  
R.R.:  Nine times out of ten, I write all the music and Chris writes all the lyrics. 
 
BEAT: "Miracle To Me" has a Zeppelin-esque sound to me. Did you write it during the 
Jimmy Page tour? 
 
R.R.:  No.  I actually wrote it before all that. I don't really think it sounds like Zeppelin.  
To me it's more of a Nick Drake thing, who to me, is my biggest influence as both a 
guitar player and a songwriter. 
 
BEAT:  He was obscure until recently. 
 
R.R.:  It sucks when someone is that brilliant and then people only like him after he dies. 
And it's because of a Volkswagen commercial that millions of people hear him now, its 
sort of sad.  At least people are hearing him though, so I you can look at it two ways. It's 
just that he wrote brilliant songs and he was amazingly talented. But I love the way he 
played and the way he put music together. 
 
BEAT: So is that song a homage to him? 
 
R.R.:  I wouldn't say its an homage, but I think the way its played and the way I 
approached that song in particular, was definitely stemming from him more than 
anything. 
 
BEAT:  As a guitarist what was it like to be working with Page?  How did that whole 
Crowes/Page thing start? 
 
R.R.:  We've actually known Jimmy a long time.  In 1990, we went on tour with Robert 
Plant and we struck up a friendship with Robert.  In '95 we were 
playing over in London at the Albert Hall and Robert brought Jimmy down to 
see us. We all met him and we just hit it off really well.  We liked the same 
kind of music and just had a lot of fun talking.  Two days later we were in 
Paris and Jimmy flew to Paris to play with us. That was the first time we 
hooked up.  Then every time we were in the same city with Jimmy he'd come 
down and hang out.  In '99 we were gonna be in Europe and he knew it, so he 
was like - 'Hey, I have this charity event and I'd really like you guys to 
play with me.'  It was an hour long thing, so we learned about four Zeppelin 
songs, played some cover tunes and played I think one of our songs.  It was 
so cool and so easy the first night of rehearsal, that we were all like - 
'Hey man, let's do some more shows!'  
 
BEAT:  There's been rumors that there are special guests on Lions.  Is  that fact or 
fiction? 
 
R.R. :  It's fiction.  A friend of ours named Craig Ross, who plays with Lenny Kravitz, 
came down and played on one song.  But that's it for guests. I know there was reports the 
Noel [Gallagher] was on the record and people said Dylan came down and Jimmy [Page] 
came down, but none of those guys were there. 
 
BEAT:  What are we gonna see as singles? 
 
R.R. :  Well, "Lickin'" is the first single. Then it's gonna be "Soul Chain" and then 
possibly either  "Miracle To Me" or "Losin My Mind." 
 
BEAT:What's going on in the bass department? You guys have had a rotating 
bass player for a while. 
 
R.R.:  I played bass on the record.  We didn't have a full time guy yet.  Now we have a 
guy named Andy Hess.   We actually got Andy's name from a friend of Chris.  We tried 
out about ten people and Andy just stuck out.  
 
BEAT: How much new material is in your set? 
 
R.R. :  We want to play all of it, but it's a matter of having 2 hours and six records 
(laughs) so we have to sort of pick and choose.  We're gonna rotate what songs we do 
from night to night.  We'll play different sets every night. We really want to play every 
song off this record during the tour. 
 
BEAT: You were always known for changing your set from night to night, but the last 
tour seemed a little more regimented. 
 
R.R.:  That was because we had two new people in the band.  It does suck when you lose 
older members, because you sort of get into this stride with them and when you get new 
guys, you have to stop and sort of rediscover what you're doing, so it's not that cool.  On 
that [By Your Side] tour, we were definitely a little bit more timid and stuck to a more 
defined set list. 
 
BEAT: Where'd the idea for the Brotherly Love tour with Oasis come from? 
 
R.R.:  Every time we go on tour we talk about bands that we'd like to tour with. One of 
the bands that came up was Oasis. Noel had actually come to see us a couple of times in 
London and we really hit it off.  We had a lot in common musically. Chris was in London 
for a month last January and got to hang out with Noel and Liam. They had a lot of fun 
together, so we called them and asked them if they were interested.  And so they were 
like - 'Yeah, we'd love to!' 
 
BEAT: Give me an early peek at the Robinson brothers.  When did you guys start playing 
and who influenced whom? 
 
R.R.:  Well, Chris influenced me as far as the music.  He was the one who really went to 
the record stores and looked for new records and really did the homework.  I then took 
his records after he bought them and listened to them.  So he was really influential to me 
in that sense.  
 
     We started this band when I was 15 and he was 17.  That's when I got my first guitar 
from my parents and Chris got a bass, but he never really did anything with it.  When I 
was 19 we did Shake Your Money Maker, so basically I was still in high school and we'd 
go play weekend gigs.   
 
     We had a friend who worked at A&M Records, to whom we sent a tape and they paid 
for us to do demos when I was 16 and Chris was 18.  We tried to sign with A&M, but 
they wouldn't sign us, so we went to American and Rick Rubin. Here we are now.  
 
BEAT: Are your folks musical? 
 
R.R.:  My dad was a musician in the '50s.  He started as sort of a Bobby Darin type.  His 
name is Stan Robinson and he was like a pop artist. Then he moved back home to Atlanta 
and started a folk, The Appalachians.  He was signed to ABC/Paramount and had a 
couple of Top 40 songs when he did the Bobby Darin type gig. 
 
BEAT:  What advice did he gave you? 
 
R.R:  He wasn't that thrilled with us doing what we do.  I think he got ripped off, but he 
was never really that vocal about it.  I mean he always played his guitar, but he never 
really talked to us about it and when we started showing interest. I'm assuming, that he 
really thought it was just a phase Chris and I were going through. 
 
BEAT: How has love and marriage impacted Chris as far creativity?  Has getting married 
to (actress) Kate Hudson served to inspire him? 
 
R.R.:  I guess it's inspired him a bit, you know, I mean whoever he's with inspires him 
for good or bad (laughs), but I think he's really in love this time.  I think she'll come to 
be a big inspiration. 
 
BEAT:  Best advice you can offer to budding young musicians? 
 
R.R.:   Figure out what you want to do and just stick to and like do it.  Don't listen to 
people who work at labels (laughs).  But if you really love music and you want to expand 
your horizons and you really love what your doing, then success will come sometime.  I 
would not advise to set out trying to be successful because you can't guess what people 
are gonna like.  Just be yourself and play what you like to play and hopefully people will 
soon be coming to you.  Don't follow trends.  Always be original and true to yourself. 
 
(The Black Crowes perform with Oasis and Space Hog on May 20 at the Tweeter 
Center in Tinley Park, IL)