The Pride of Lions Ernesto de Pascale, for quotidiano.net, August 2001 from the Crowesnest: http://qfg.tierranet.com/crowesnest.html Their "funky gospel rock" may be out-of-fashion, but the Black Crowes' Chris Robinson is unrepentant. Ernesto de Pascale meets him as he entertains the faithful in Brescia, Italy. THE GUY WEARS RIPPED BLUE JEANS under his paisley blue shirt, and a transparent stone around his neck. He has long sleek hair that shapes an oval face bounded by sideburns, while two fuchsia lenses mounted on glasses like John Lennon's reveal a slight shortsightedness. He also wears a pair of blue Clark's half-boots that perfectly match his white- blue jeans and his shirt, but when he steps on to the large platform of the Piazza della Loggia in Brescia in front of 9000 excited fans he's barefoot. And he will remain unshod, on a soft, snow-white carpet, for the entire duration of the concert. On his fingers he wears rings of different colors. He also has a few tattoos, at least one of which - an Islamic flag on the top of his hand - is indelible. On his wrists dangle various bracelets, and when he speaks he moves his long-limbed body and a pair of hands that move rhythmically with his head. His name is Chris Robinson, 35, and - together with his guitarist brother Rich, 32 - he leads one of the greatest rock'n'roll bands in America. The Black Crowes' most recent album, Lions, is the sixth in a career that began almost 15 years ago, and it's topped the charts even here in Europe. If that is not enough, Chris not so long ago married the lovely Kate Hudson, a good-looking, American-spirited blonde from the film Almost Famous, and the daughter of the unquestionably famous Goldie Hawn. Chris' principles make him irresistible almost immediately. "I want to say just one thing," he tells me, "and that is: there are two roads that lead to the world of music: either you try to be a good musician or you live the life of a rock star. I know that a good musician can become a rock star, but I only want to be surrounded by good musicians. I have no interest in rock stars." The brothers' father was a country singer in the '50s and '60s when he recorded for the Monument label (Roy Orbison, Joe Simon) in Nashville. "I'm a big fan of the great Charlie Rich," Robinson says. "In our house we listened to his music constantly, and my father was obviously inspired by him. But after them came Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers Band, Sly and the Family Stone, the Faces, the Free, The Band, Derek & The Dominos, Moby Grape, the Grateful Dead, The Who, The Kinks, Delaney & Bonnie. these were our influences and they can be heard in our songs. And I don't have a problem admitting that!" "Rock with a funky-tinged country gospel influence" is the definition of the Black Crowes' sound given by Robinson. Where, I ask, has that sound gone? "Well, everyone has a DJ now, everyone does remixes, everyone has a video clip on MTV. We want success, but only on our own terms. We are ready to risk, and we beat ourselves like mules and we take that risk every day. The fact that we still exist is the product of the very hard work that we've done in the past." At this point Kate Hudson - Mrs. Robinson - enters. She has a contagious smile, a perfect turned-up nose, her face framed by long blonde hair. She wears the same glasses as her husband, and blue jeans just acquired in an Armani store in Brescia, 60km from Milan. Occasionally she interrupts our conversation. "My mother released a record before I was born," she says. "In our house we listened only to that record for years, and believe me it wasn't a rock'n'roll record! She was very happy when she relesead her record, and when I was growing up I was her fan and I knew all the songs on it. Only after many years she told me that she was very disappointed that because she didn't get in the charts." For the Black Crowes, a long time has passed since 'Hard to Handle' and 'Shake Your Money Maker', and since the raw southern rock'n'soul of 1992's The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion. "It's not as if there are no problems in our band," says Chris. "But this is the only band I and my brother have, and we've had it from our school days till today. People come and people go, but we still keep everything under control. Rock is not dead, and to those who accuse us of staying in the past we say that we are inspired only and exclusively by artists who created musical fashion rather than followed it. "For Lions we needed a producer who could give us more space, so we called Don Was, who has many stories to tell about everyone from Dylan to the Stones and who is also a great musician. In America the situation is very difficult for a band like ours, because people have no interest any more, they don't want to listen something different. Here in Italy and in the larger part of Europe in general there is passion: people want to be part of a concert, of an event. So you feel motivated and most of all you have fun." from the Crowesnest: http://qfg.tierranet.com/crowesnest.html