Black Crowes tour a reunion of brothers
Black Crowes tour is a reunion of brothers, bandmates
It’s hard to overstate how much of a surprise it is that the Black Crowes have taken flight again.
The group fell apart in 2015 after 30 years and sales of more than 40 million albums, including 1990’s five-times platinum debut “Shake Your Money Maker.” Brothers Chris and Rich Robinson, whose acrimony was public throughout much of the Crowes’ initial flight, seemed to fall out for good over financial and band control issues, scuttling a planned tour to celebrate “Shake Your Money Maker’s” 25th anniversary.
But two years ago, after leading their own bands (the Chris Robinson Brotherhood and the Magpie Salute), the Robinsons reunited. The result was a tour, delayed by the pandemic, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Shake…” and more importantly a personal reconciliation that will pay dividends in the form of new Black Crowes music that’s already in motion.
“It feels good, man,” frontman Chris Robinson, 54, says via Zoom. “It’s incredible that Rich and I are so much alike. We’re so on the same page about everything after being so NOT on the same page for so long. Right now it’s just us and we don’t have any stuff in the middle, and that’s really nice.”
Guitarist Rich Robinson, 52, adds from Nashville that, “Not having him in my life was odd … and playing music without him always felt slightly odd to me. No matter how much I tried, every song I write I always had Chris in mind — ‘Chris would be great on this,’ that kind of thing.”
The brothers began playing music together as teenagers in Atlanta, and their band Mr. Crowes Garden became the Black Crowes after signing a deal with American Recordings during the late ’80s. The group went on to release eight studio albums and score rock hits such as “Jealous Again,” “Remedy,” “She Talks to Angels” and a cover of Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle.” The group was famously kicked off a ZZ Top tour in 1991 for criticizing that trio’s corporate tour sponsor, and it toured during 1999 with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page as part of the band.
Original drummer Steve Gorman’s revealing 2019 book “Hard To Handle: A Memoir” documents the band’s turbulent and sometimes violent environment — “Those guys were at each other’s throats, a lot, about everything. It’s just a said story,” Gorman said at the time — and the verbal sparring continued after the 2015 breakup, to the extent that most fans felt it would take even more than hell freezing over to get the brothers back together again.
“It sucked to hear a bunch of negative (stuff) about yourself in the press,” Rich Robinson says, “but I also understood why. He was in a dark place and … was lashing out at me.”
Chris Robinson readily ‘fesses up to that, in fact. His third marriage had turned sour and that helped exacerbate already hard feelings.
“I think it was a big thing for me to accept responsibility that I was part of a lot of the negativity,” acknowledges Robinson, who also was married to actress Kate Hudson from 2000-2007. “I’ve told him a few times, ‘Hey, I’m sorry that my anger and negativity of my depression and whatever I was going through bubbled out onto the public stovetop of our lives.’ It was nice to be able to tell him that.”
A mutual friend had already started working on the brothers to reconcile when they ran into each other, unplanned, at a hotel in New York City. “I said, ‘Jesus, you have a lot of kids!'” Chris Robinson recalls. “Rich has a few kids I haven’t seen. I never met some of them. And my daughter was with me and she met her cousins, so it was really….” (“… surreal,” is the word Rich Robinson uses.) “But it was also great for him to meet, and know get to know my youngest kids, and he was with his daughter who I’d only met when she was a baby.
“Kids equalize everything, y’know? They don’t care who you are or what the past was. They’re there in that moment right now, so that was a cool thing.”
The personal reconnection — which both Robinsons say that their mother, who Rich had been caring for primarily, is also thrilled about — made it easier to move ahead musically. Both
were winding down their respective bands, and Chris Robinson had a taste of making Black Crowes music again with his side project As the Crowe Flies.
“I was like, ‘It’s fun to … play some loud rock ‘n’ roll music,” Chris says “It’s something that I missed and something that’s a huge part of me.”
In agreeing to restart the Black Crowes, however, the Robinsons established some ground rules. Most importantly, they decided to start over with an entirely fresh team, from musicians to management to everything in between. Bassist Sven Pipien is the only previous member in the current Black Crowes, added after Tim Lefebvre bowed out last year.
“I think, No. 1, the Black Crowes have always been about Rich and myself, in essence,” Chris Robinson says. “To be in a place where we feel safe and a place where we feel taken care of and nurtured, we have to be like it’s day one, something new — new people, new energy. I don’t think we want to be triggered by any of the negative parts of our past. We want to go forward, not backwards.”
Rich Robinson adds that, “There was a strong agenda in the band (previously) to keep Chris and I apart and keep Chris and I fighting. So it had to be this way in order for it to be what we want.”
Some fans protested that course of action, but drummer Gorman noted that this kind of reunion was “an inevitability.”
“It’s got absolutely nothing to do with me or anyone else,” he said. “If I begrudge the brothers for anything, it’s all in the past. I don’t care what they do now. For fans, I hope they have a great time.”
The Robinsons, who released a belated anniversary edition of “Shake …” earlier this year, plan for that to be the case. The shows feature the debut album in their entirety, as well as a selection of favorites from other albums. The intent is also to focus on compact arrangements rather than the extended jamming that marked most of the group’s career — at least for the time being.
“It’s more concise,” Chris Robinson says. “We put a lot of energy into being expansive, and I think we’re putting even more energy into this presentation. It’s really powerful, I think. We’re really into … rock ‘n’ roll right now.”
And while the Robinsons have been cautious in talking about the future, both say the pandemic pause has provided an opportunity to continue strengthening their relationship and also feel confident about making new music. There are some 20 to 30 songs floating around, and George Drakoulias, who produced “Shake …” and its follow-up, “The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion,” is back on board, as well.
“We had time to be brothers for a year and a half, without worrying so much about the band first,” Rich Robinson says. “He and I have been talking. We’ve been writing songs. That’s been really cool, just for everything to slow down and not just jump back into being in a band together.
“It’s just been good, I think, for Chris and I to be able to take the time to get ourselves together, and then move forward that way.”