Given the combustible nature of their relationship, it seemed unlikely that brothers Chris and Rich Robinson would ever re-form the Black Crowes when the band split up in 2002. After dipping their respective wings into solo careers, however, they put aside their differences and put the pieces back together in 2005 for a spectacularly successful reunion show at San Francisco’s Fillmore. Rekindling the funky blues-rock mix that drove such hits as “Remedy,” “Hard to Handle,” and “Jealous Again,” the Crowes have since recorded an album’s worth of new tracks, set to hit stores in the spring of 2008.
With Rich’s go-to Gibson Goldtop and ES-335 provding the fuel for Chris’ trademark swagger, fans anticipate that the new album will mark a dazzling return to form. Rich Robinson hopes so too.
When you and Chris first started forming bands, was your sound vastly different from what it ultimately became?
Well, we really never formed bands. Chris and I were the band. We changed members all the time, but it was always sort of just me and Chris. So it was really a case of Chris and me choosing which direction we wanted to go. We started out far more Byrds-y and folky, because my Dad was more or less a folk purist when we were growing up. We used to play tons of Dylan, and lots of Big Star and the Velvet Underground. And the Byrds, too. Eventually we started moving towards heavier stuff. But when we made Shake Your Moneymaker, I had only been playing guitar for four years. Obviously, the more I learned, the better I could write.
What was your relationship with southern rock growing up?
I totally shied away from it. Growing up in the South, you watch these television shows that generalize about southerners, shows that portray us as racists with drawls who live in hay bales and so forth. You see all these things that are really false, across the board. I think that’s why I shied away from southern music, because lots of people believed anyone who would listen to those bands must be a redneck. Of course that’s not the case. I mean, Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote some great songs, and they were a great band. The band that really got the bad rap, in that sense, was the Allman Brothers, who are anything but a redneck band. But I was more into R.E.M. when I was growing up, more into the alternative scene.
Well, R.E.M. is a southern band.
Yeah. One thing R.E.M. did, which I think was great, was bring a lot of attention to the better side of the South. A lot of people looked at them and thought, “Wow, those guys aren’t rednecks.” In that sense I think the Black Crowes got a bad rap early on as well. People tried to pigeonhole us, saying we were like Skynyrd or the Allman Brothers. That’s not exactly true. In any case, if you look at modern music, most of it is derived from stuff that came from the South. Think of Georgia, alone. There’s Otis Redding, Little Richard, James Brown. Even Gram Parsons came from Waycross.
It’s always seemed that British bands—like Led Zeppelin, for instance—could take from that southern tradition and be heralded for it.
Right. The Stones made a career of it.
And black artists could do that as well. But if a white southern band did the same thing, they got tagged as—
Rednecks. And all we’re really doing is taking from the rich southern culture of music and art, and expanding on that. A lot of America still thinks of us as ignorant, racist people. I still hear that generalization to this day.
Leaping wildly from that topic, how did you get into open-G tuning?
The reason I got into open-G tuning was because of Nick Drake. A good friend of ours—actually one of our early managers—told Chris he should check out Drake’s music. The first album Chris picked up was Time of No Reply, which had about four songs Drake recorded just before he died, or just before he killed himself. We listened to it and really got into Drake’s acoustic sound. What he played on acoustic guitar was just amazing. I was like, “What is that?” And this guy says, “Oh, he’s playing in open tuning.” A lot of Drake’s chords, and the way he wrote, had a descending pattern, which is something I’ve always liked. That’s what got me into playing that way. It’s a really versatile style.
Last question: is it true your father once appeared on American Bandstand?
Yes, he did. Several years ago I managed to get the tape, as a gift for him. My Mom found one of his art clippings, from a long time ago, that featured him on the show. Before that I hadn’t had specific enough information, but then this woman who worked in our office in L.A. called Dick Clark Productions and gave them the exact date when the show aired. They managed to find the tape, and they sent it to me. It’s from 1958, back when American Bandstand was a Saturday night show. I told my Dad, “Hey, I’ve got this really cool video. You wanna see it?” He came in and watched, and was like, “Uhhh … Uhhh … Whoa!” He was thrilled.
Photo Credit: Adam Bielawski