Marc Ford
From Crossroads Magazine, February 2004

Los Angeles, Late 80's

In Hollywood rock clubs, you can find two promising guitar players: Craig Ross 
and Marc Ford. "I met Craig when I was 17 and we stayed good friends since then. 
We still see each other about once every 3 years. We spoke on the phone the 
other day, he was in NY finishing Lenny (Kravitz)'s album. We plan to record a 
blues CD one day."

In 1990, Burning Tree signs with Epic Records. They quickly go on tour to 
support their first album and open for The Black Crowes, surfing on Shake Your 
Money Maker's success. Immediately a very strong relationship starts between 
Chris Robinson and Marc Ford, the latter joining the Crowes every night on the 
last tune for an inspired jam. The chemistry is obvious on stage and when The 
Black Crowes split with Jeff Cease, they immediately think about Ford. "With 
Burning Tree, we toured a lot with The Black Crowes in 1990 and 1991 and I 
became friends with Chris. Plenty of people were telling him they'd like to see 
us play together. Epic didn't really know what to do with Burning Tree and I was 
really frustrated. In parallel, The Black Crowes had a huge success and I was 
struggling for my band to follow this trend. When Epic dropped us I tried to 
find another label, but at the same time Mike Dutton left the band making 
Burning Tree's survival hypothetical.

"When Chris called me up to join The Black Crowes, I didn't think twice. I knew 
it would be good for me to be a guitar player in a band who already found its 
public." As soon as Ford joins The Black Crowes, they go into the studio and 
record The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion in a few days. "I find this 
album extraordinary. I still like that record. I had left Burning Tree a week 
before I joined The Black Crowes in Atlanta. We all started jamming in Chris' 
garage. We went straight to the studio with songs not yet finished and recorded 
in almost live conditions; that's why you can feel this passion and emergency on 
that record: it was almost the first time we were playing together."

A fruitful collaboration then starts, comparable to the one between Mick Taylor 
and the Rolling Stones during 1969-1974. The Black Crowes release three 
excellent records (Southern Harmony, Amorica, Three Snakes and One Charm) and 
their tours are the best of their kind: long shows with changing setlists, 
hallucinated and hallucinating jams, perfectly chosen covers, unreleased songs. 
"You can take any show of that period, we were the best rock band in the world 
by far." But backstage things aren't as easy as on stage. "The Robinson brothers 
wouldn't stop fighting. In studio, sometimes we would stop everything and start 
again to satisfy one or the other. There are at least two excellent Crowes 
albums that haven't been released."

The Mick Taylor syndrome appears: "I quickly understood there was no hope to 
propose songs one day. Only the Robinson brothers wrote and composed for the 
band, even if they always let me do what I wanted in the songs for the guitar 
parts and solos." However, the link between Chris Robinson and Ford leads to 
various side projects: "Chris came to live in LA. We spent all our time together 
and that's how Sweet Pickle Salad was born. We recorded four or five songs 
without thinking of releasing them, just for fun. Then we wanted to try our 
pseudo-group on stage. We did two gigs in 1994 at the Troubadour in LA, one as 
Big Toe and the other as Foamfoot. Initially it wasn't serious, it was just 
because we were bored but at the end of the day these two gigs were magical."

Marc and Chris' interest for Gram Parsons, Neil Young and The Grateful Dead went 
together with their interest for drugs, which deteriorated the relationships in 
The Black Crowes. Rich Robinson finds himself less close to his brother and most 
likely thinks it's Ford's fault. After the last date of the Furthur Festival 
tour, Ford is dropped from The Black Crowes and goes back to Los Angeles. Marc 
has no further relationship with his old pals The Black Crowes, who go back to a 
more straight up rock'n roll approach. "I didn't really follow what they did 
afterwards, I probably just listened to By Your Side and Lions once. There're 
plenty of reasons that The Black Crowes split. But it's particularly difficult 
to start selling millions of records from the beginning. Whatever happens next 
is if you don't sell five million, it's a failure. Actually when I left at 
almost the same time as Johnny, I knew it would finish like that."

After the split with The Black Crowes, there were more hard times for Ford's 
career. But the guitarist soon starts the Federale adventure. "While working 
with Chris Stills, I met this girl at Atlantic (Records) and gave her a few 
demos. It happened that Luther Russell gave some demos on his side too. She went 
to Geffen and as I knew Luther for a long time and as our demos were in the same 
spirit, in 1999 she suggested we start a band together. I went to Luther in 
Portland and we started Federale. I then called Warren Haynes to tell him about 
this project and he took us as opening act for the Mule on the LBI tour.

"Then one week before starting to record the album, Universal was purchased and 
due to the subsequent merging everything stopped. "That girl in charge of us at 
Geffen got fired and they decided to give us back our contract. We were the last 
ones to be dropped. But at least they were honest and said our songs were really 
good but they needed a new Limp Bizkit.

"Even if the relations with Luther were sometimes tense we wrote nice things 
together. We worked and invested so much in this project that we were really 
bummed out. So we decided to back up from Federale and finally never talk about 
it again. I still play some of these songs. Sometimes Luther does also. That's 
what's magical with the songs, they never really disappear."

During the following period Ford remains active. He joins some of his friends on 
stage and tours with (Pink Floyd tribute band) Blue Floyd. He also spends time 
recording a solo album (2002's It's About Time). "I recorded this album on a 
long period of time. I had some demos for a long time. For example 'Elijah' was 
written the day my son was born. He's now 13." The album is self produced, 
Warren Haynes helped financially; Slash rented the studio from his Hollywood 
house and plenty of people guest on it. "Shining Again" is even one of Ben 
Harper's favorite songs. Some of the lables are interested but no decision is 
taken. Disillusioned by the record industry, Ford decides to release It's About 
Time in 2002 and sell it at shows and on the web.

During this process, Ford forms The Sinners to perform on stage and looks for a 
label.
The Sinners are Berry Oakley Jr, Gootch and Chris Joyner. "When I decided to 
start a band, I went first to the Coconut Teaser. It was the only club in the 
late '80's where we could play real rock'n roll without having to wear a Poison 
haircut! We could play there every week and that's how Burning Tree signed with 
Epic. So I went back there to see the new talents and I met Berry and asked him 
to join the band. After a few rehearsals we found this gig at the Malibu Inn 
where we played every week. It allowed us to learn the songs together on stage 
and find our marks. You can put together the best musicians on paper but it 
doesn't mean it will work as a band. Personally, through these shows I was 
trying to lead a band again and sing again. That's why we 'exiled' in a Malibu 
club as opposed to Hollywood to avoid being under the lights without being 
ready. These shows really allowed us to work and become a real band."

In January 2002, a special guest comes to Malibu two weeks in a row. "Just after 
the last tour of The Black Crowes, Chris called me. I wasn't expecting it given 
that we never talked since I left the band four and a half years ago. All the 
madness that surrounded the departure put us on bad terms. We spent hours on the 
phone setting things straight and talking about the reasons for the split. 
Finally, as Chris was a real friend we quickly reconciled. He told me he was 
writing new songs for a solo album and needed help on some of them. For example 
I helped him finish "Sunday Sound (from 2002's New Earth Mud)." With a few 
friends they performed two shows together, singing old blues tunes and covers. 
"We now speak on the phone often and he invites me every time he plays in LA. 
Even if we don't have plans now, it's not impossible that we'll work together 
again one day."


A New Start

At the beginning of 2003, after seeing Chris Robinson's New Earth Mud at the 
Troubadour in Los Angeles, Ford decides to accelerate things for The Sinners. "I 
had a kind of revelation at this show. It motivated me to do the same thing with 
my band, take it to a higher level now that we knew each other well and played 
well enough together. I asked Jason Nesmith to join us as second guitar player. 
We started again from scratch to reach something more finalized together."

At the beginning of summer the Sinners find a wonderful ambassador. "This time 
we did a few gigs in Hollywood and Lucinda Williams came to see us. After the 
show she told me she really loved what we were doing and I gave her my disc. A 
few weeks later I went to see Neil Young at The Greek in Los Angeles and Lucinda 
was opening for him. During her set she dedicated her song "Bleeding Fingers and 
Broken Guitar Strings" to me! One of her roadies even told me she was doing it 
every night and encouraging her public to come and see us because we were 
excellent. She really helped us a lot. We then opened for her for a few shows in 
Los Angeles. She even joined us on stage for "Shining Again," which she loves."

Thanks to Lucinda's support, Ford was about to find a deal with a label but once 
again fate interferes. "I should have recorded demos for Lost Highway with the 
Sinners. We already had 8 songs ready to go in studio with John Hanlon, sound 
engineer for Neil Young.and the guy from the label got fired."

But the band doesn't give up. "Lucinda offered to open for her on tour in 
September but we had to refuse because there were too many dates and as the 
opening act we weren't paid enough. Unfortunately, without the support of a 
label it was impossible to go on tour for such a long time. We finally agreed to 
be a part of the tour for two or three weeks.and that's when Ben (Harper) called 
me. Finally we just opened for Lucinda two nights. She was very disappointed but 
I'm sure we'll be able to do it sometimes later."


Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals

The phone call seems to come from Heaven but the meeting between Ford and Ben 
Harper was five years ago. "The first time I met Ben was in 1998 on the HORDE 
Festival for which he was headlining and I was performing with Chris Stills. One 
day he passed in front of the stage where we were playing, he heard me and was 
like 'Wow! Who's this guy on guitar, he's excellent!' He asked to meet me and 
came to see me after the show without him knowing who I was although he was fan 
of the Black Crowes. We became friends immediately. I asked him to guest on my 
album, which he did on two tunes, "When You Go" and "Shining Again." Then in 
early 2003 he called me to tell me he was going to record his new album and 
wanted me to play on it."

But the months passed and Ben Harper released Diamonds On the Inside in March 
without contacting Marc. "And one day, although I wasn't expecting it, Ben 
finally called me to ask if I wanted to tour with him. For various reasons his 
guitar player Nicky P. wasn't fitting anymore and he told me I was the first and 
only he had in mind to replace him. He explained me what the tour was gonna be 
like and gave me some time to think about it."

The proposal arriving just when Marc wanted to work hard on his solo project 
made the decision a hard one to make. "I finally thought it was important for me 
to go back on the road, particularly for such an important tour, and show 
everybody I was still here. It also allowed me to stop all the bullshit The 
Black Crowes said about me, that I was just a junkie, that I didn't know how to 
play anymore, that I was finished, etc. I never wanted to reply to them; I even 
refused to participate in the "Behind The Music" about the band because I wasn't 
interested in fighting against them. I really wanted to turn the page. So as I 
really liked Ben's music I called him the next day to say okay and ask when the 
tour was going to start. He said, 'We're going to Japan next week!"

Just like ten years before, Ford fits into Ben Harper's band magically. "To be 
honest I had seen Ben on stage various times but I didn't know his albums well. 
He gave them to me with a list of about thirty songs that he wanted me to learn. 
We met in a hotel room seated face to face with our acoustic guitars and started 
working out a few tunes. I spent many nights learning these songs, taking notes 
on a little booklet I could have with me on stage. We rehearsed with the full 
band and went to Japan."

Now the question of sharing between solo projects and committing to Ben Harper 
and the Innocent Criminals presents itself. Some think he's a hired gun, 
forgetting his songwriting skills. But it doesn't mean the end of The Sinners. 
"At the beginning I told Ben I'd join his band until the end of the tour, 
through summer 2004, and we will see then because I knew that if a label was 
interested in my project it would take months before the album is released. I 
knew I could commit until then without forgetting my solo project. Now, when I 
see what's happening on this tour, the incredible alchemy in this band really 
surprised me and I don't want to leave all that. So I'd like to pursue both 
careers at the same time if possible. Ben really encourages us to invest in solo 
projects. One day, the Innocent Criminals won't need to tour so much, so it'll 
leave us spare time for the rest."

After a large tour in France, which ended with three sold out shows at Bercy 
Arena, Marc Ford has more time to spend with family and kids. 2004 will see the 
rest of the world tour. It's About Time hasn't been properly released (although 
it is available in France) but Ford has already written and composed a new album 
that he'll probably record this year. It would be fair that the exposure he gets 
with Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals opens doors to him and that an artist 
with such a huge talent be recognized as he should. Il serait temps!