Chris Robinson: life, love and the Black Crowes November 8 2002 Chris Robinson: Has released a new album titled New Earth Mud. He's in love with Kate Hudson and over the Black Crowes, but Chris Robinson tells Michael Dwyer the passion for music still burns within. Chris Robinson has no illusions about his popularity. Never mind 14 turbulent, uncompromising years in front of credible Atlanta rock outfit the Black Crowes. As far as the American press is concerned, he's only somebody by marriage. "I'm the guy with the beard next to the hot blonde," he says, referring to his wife of two years, Almost Famous actress Kate Hudson. "We were at the Oscars and I realised, 'Wow, I'm probably the only person here who's been on the cover of High Times magazine three times'." The scenery has changed radically for the former poster boy of America's pro- marijuana lobby. These days he sees the world through a haze of true love instead of dope smoke, and his outlaw rock band and tour bus are on blocks in favour of three dogs and a house in Malibu. "People change, man," he says about the Crowes' demise. "It's like any relationship that dissolves. It takes time to heal. It's personal. You're an asshole, you did this, you did that, there's a lot of negativity. "My thing is, I love everybody. And I look back and think, 'If they only knew how many times I just coulda split'. But I'm not that kind of person. It's hard, man, 'cos it's my family and it's something that I love. For me it just got to be not very much fun." Since their multi-platinum debut of 1990, the Crowes' fraternal core has been in perpetual public meltdown. Liberated from that tussle, Chris has wasted no time making a solo record. New Earth Mud is his first project with zero input or feedback from his kid brother, Rich. "It's a little bit strained when we talk to each other," Chris says. "But I guess that's normal. It was strained even when we were getting along! We love each other to death and I have all the faith in the world that eventually we'll make some music together. I don't know whether it'll be called the Black Crowes, but I think as time goes by we can enjoy being brothers instead of being in business together." The Crowes' 2001 US tour with Oasis, playfully titled Brotherly Love, was an unexpectedly peaceful farewell to the good old days, Robinson says. But New Earth Mud was a much more loved-up experience. The album was recorded in Paris over six weeks last (northern) spring, while his wife was on location for James Ivory's comedy, Le Divorce. From its opening tune, Safe In the Arms of Love, to the unambiguous Dear Kate, it's an album clearly informed by the singer's recent life developments. "I made a personal decision not to water down the intimacy of being a human being," he says. "Because of this tabloidesque world around us, people will be like, 'Oh, he wrote a song about his wife', but songs about being in love only matter when you are in love. "New Earth Mud represents to me the past, present and future and where they all meet. We have this weird notion that technology has changed things, but people haven't changed. We haven't become highly evolved and sophisticated because we've learnt to work computers." True to Robinson's reputation as a political animal, this last observation comes with a slightly caustic edge. He caught plenty of friendly fire for his allegedly anti-American stance around the Crowes' third LP, Amorica. Eight years on, he's still neglecting his propaganda pills. "As an American and as an artist I can tell you: America is broken. And it has nothing to do with September 11. The really weird thing is there isn't a dissident voice in our culture any more. Bruce Springsteen is supposedly America's bard and all this stuff, but he hadn't written any songs in seven years before this new record (The Rising). It took the most horrible terrorist attack ever to motivate him to write?" he says. "I guess 1984 has come and gone in terms of how close you can be to living in a fascist state. If the artists go hand in hand with that, who are we gonna look to? "I'm sorry, can I just get rid of this call?" Given the back-to-back demands of modern media schedules, the call-waiting tone is a common interruption to phone interviews. But rarely is Goldie Hawn the perpetrator. "That was my mother-in-law," Robinson says. "She's in India and she wanted to tell me all about it. She was in some valley and the sun was just coming up. I was like, 'Cool, I gotta go'." Hawn's holiday follows good reviews back home for her latest film, The Banger Sisters. Like her daughter in Almost Famous, she plays a rock'n'roll groupie. So is her swaggering son-in-law being retained as a consultant here or what? "Well, I would've been the wrong one for that job," he replies a little peevishly. "And let me tell you something: they had plenty of rock'n'roll swagger before I showed up, that family."