Creem interview From Creem(?) circa 1992 THE BLACK CROWES ITCHY FINGERS (Interview with Chris Robinson) The facts about the Black Crowes have been recounted more often than a good cold remedy. It all boils down to some basics: their 1990 debut, Shake Your Moneymaker, spent two years riding high on the charts; their recent follow-up, The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion, entered them at Number One, confidently silencing any threat of the sophomore jinx. Any sensational tales- most of which can be traced to the untiring tongue of lead singer Chris Robinson- will surface, certain to be altered beyond recognition and become rumor mill fodder. These include a well-publicized scuffle at a 7-11 and the band getting booted off a ZZ Tope tour after one too many on-stage tirades against corporate sponsorship (Miller Beer sponsored that tour). Saying that Shake Your Moneymaker is several times platinum (and Southern Harmony is likely to repeat those figures) only gives one a reason to say the band's name is the same breath with artists such as Def Leppard and Mariah Carey. But there's a difference. Chris & Co. (guitarists Rich Robinson & Marc Ford, bassist Johnny Colt, drummer Steve Gorman, and keyboardist Ed Hawrysch) are currently making their way across the U.S. on their "High As the Moon" tour. The band members continue to wear the words "Honesty," "Commitment," and "Freedom" like tattoos etched across their hearts and souls. They want people to feel the collective vibe, to give it a chance to move them, to rock all their senses (maybe even discovering some new ones in the process). Most importantly, they want people to realize it's all very real, an extension of their lifestyle, not the invention of some crafty marketing team. It's so real, in fact, that it might even seem scary and dangerous. The Black Crowes like that. JOHN LENNON ONCE SAID "THE PUBLIC, INCLUDING THE MEDIA, ARE SHEEP-LIKE. IF THE BALL STARTS ROLLING, WELL, THEN SOMEBODY'S OUT." HAVE YOU STARTED TO FEEL THAT WAY? Chris Robinson: I don't know how much I would call the public sheep-like. I mean, in a sense they are because they buy Kris Kross records and they buy "Baby's Got Back." And those are pop records. Those are disposable, formulated things that record companies use. WHAT ABOUT JUST APPLYING IT TO THE MEDIA THEN? In my opinion, the media wants rock and roll music, and sometimes they word "art" comes into that, to be a service-oriented industry. How can I take someone's opinion of my life and my music over mine, when no one stops to take a look at it or they're just not a part of it? SOME PEOPLE ARE EMERGING WHO CLAIM TO HAVE BEEN PART OF IT, THOUGH. FOR INSTANCE, THERE ARE SOME FORMER ACQUAINTANCES WHO SUGGEST THE CROWES' MUSICAL PROGRESSION WASN'T AS NATURAL AS IT'S BEEN MADE OUT TO BE. That's always going to happen, isn't it? If I played with Chris and Rich Robinson for four months one time and I'm still just another musician making pizza or tending bar and never had the commitment or foresight to stay involved with this, well, I'd be bitter too. Having a day job sucks! I've had them. Besides, these people talk about these "times" as if they were something special. I just remember being fucking miserable and wasted drunk, you know, just because we wanted to be in a band and do it for real. We didn't want to go about it half-assed. But what are you going to do? You go off and put yourself on line and get up on the trapeze without the net. People are going to take their shots. It's easy to call people names from your side of the fence. But I'm into getting over the fence and checking out the other side. If you're going to call someone names, call someone names, but maybe you should go over to their yard and check it out before you start judging. YOU OFTEN USE THE WORD "ART" HESITANTLY, LIKE IT'S SOME FORMER EMPLOYEE WANDERING AROUND THE HALLS WITHOUT A PASS OR PROPER CLEARANCE. You turn on the TV and see shit about the New Music Seminar. The guy who runs it is saying, "Everyone's looking for the new Nirvana." Well, why don't you look for some people who have their _own_ sort of thing? People think they're so far away from formula that, in fact, that's what they've become. It's actually about the freedom to express yourself the way you want. YOU SEEM TO HAVE ACHIEVED THAT. We've put ourselves in a position where no one tells us. That's another statement, in a way, that people fail to realize. Unlike some bands who had had the sort of success we've had- and a lot of bands who've had much more (laughs)- we've really taken great strides to remove ourselves from these other entities who start telling you how you should look and what you should be. I guess part of the positive aspect is that we're not one of those bands that looks around and goes, "Oh wow, look what they're doing. Let's do something like that." We look around and usually think, what can we do that no one is sort of doing. Or what is gonna really be us. I don't think we need to be anything that we're not. That's never really been an option for us as musicians. Or as writers, because we wrote before we could play really well. SOME CRITICS CRY "RETRO" WHEN REVIEWING THE CROWES' MUSIC. I EVEN READ ONE FAVORABLE REVIEW WHICH STILL CLOSED BY LISTING OLD BANDS YOU WERE LISTENING TO AT THE TIME, SUGGESTING THE INFLUENCES WOULD POP UP ON YOUR NEXT RECORD. That's ridiculous to me. I listen to Sonny Rollins and to the Red Garland Trio, but we're not playing any fucking bebop jazz. I listen to the Carter Family and Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, but we don't play bluegrass or sacred music. This is my life! I never wanted to play dress-up. I never wanted to be an actor. I don't think Mick Jagger and Rod Stewart are so fucking great that I would want to be them. I always wanted to grow up, be myself, and do my own thing. THAT CAN SCARE PEOPLE SOMETIMES. I should hope so. Because in this "neighborhood" that we're hanging out in, it's very stale. It's very safe and antiseptic. And I don't dig it. It's not us. We don't play by any of those rules. YOU'RE NOTORIOUSLY CANDID WHEN IT COMES TO SHARING YOUR THOUGHTS ON BANDS YOU FEEL ARE PLAYING IT SAFE. YOU'VE PROBABLY BEEN DROPPED FROM MORE THAN A FEW CHRISTMAS CARD LISTS. It's supposed to be coming from a comical base. But then it gets to a point where, what is funny and what is a waste of time? Why can't some of these bands that are trying to do some pretty real things, who perhaps don't know how the game's played, who don't have the same chances, for whatever reason, get to the forefront? Why can't those bands do something? I guess it's something that Soundgarden and Pearl Jam...they're having their sort of moment in the sun now and they'll get to do their thing. Hopefully, they'll get to continue making records that sort of move along and take them where they need to go. INTERESTING EXAMPLES. NEITHER BAND WAS AN OVERNIGHT SUCCESS STORY. OF COURSE, SHAKE YOUR MONEYMAKER DIDN'T ZOOM UP THE CHARTS WHEN IT FIRST CAME OUT, EITHER. (Laughs) No, not for a long time. IT'S EASY TO CONDENSE THE HARD WORK AND DUES AND FOCUS ON THE SUCCESS ASPECT. THAT'S WHY MANY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN SURPRISED TO HEAR KURT COBAIN OF NIRVANA, FOR INSTANCE, CRITICIZING PEARL JAM IN THE PRESS, CALLING THEM MAINSTREAM AND COMPARING THEM TO A GROUP LIKE POISON. Yeah, well, then again, he's a very heavy guy, man. He makes videos and puts them on TV. He's [posing for covers] with his little, silly T-shirt about corporate magazines. You know what I'm saying? Nobody puts a gun to your head to do these things. I'll be honest with you. I'm getting to the point where I don't know if I want to talk to anyone anymore. Why should I? Then again, I guess I'm still naive enough to believe that maybe through rhetoric, at least, and answering the same old questions, some of the other people who ain't really into it and don't know what's going on, might actually slip into some sort of thing where they go, "Oh yeah..." YOU'VE SAID THE NEW SONGS WERE WRITTEN WITH A DIFFERENT MINDSET, WHICH RESULTED IN THE SONGS BEING HEAVIER THAN THEY WERE ON THE FIRST ALBUM. OBVIOUSLY, ALL THE TOURING HAD AN EFFECT. This band always knew that it was going to take going on the road for two years to sort of cut ourselves from the cocoon, maybe, to be something else. That's what it is, really. It's a metamorphosis. Sometimes it happens for people, sometimes it doesn't. I would like to think that as far as the musicianship goes, there's only been an improvement. WHAT ELSE DID YOU LEARN WHILE YOU WERE TOURING? I learned that I never wanted to grow up and be like one of these people who throw in the towel. I learned that I don't want to become jaded. DID YOU FEEL ANY CHANGES TAKING PLACE THAT YOU RESISTED, THAT YOU HAD TO FIGHT OFF? I don't think so. Everything that's happened to us has brought me around even more to realizing that you just sing songs. You let yourself be moved by the music you make and give it to other people. Other than that, you're not immune to bad days and to getting your heart broken or breaking someone else's heart. You're still a human being like everyone else whose parents fornicated and popped them out nine months later. BUT YOU KNOW THE TRAPS ARE OUT THERE AND THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO DO FALL INTO THEM. Oh yeah, if you slip up. You don't have to be out there that long to see the wrecks smoking on the highway. DO YOU THINK THERE IS SUCH A THING AS SUCCESS POISONING? If you're going to poison yourself, you're going to poison yourself. It's just people and their insecurities. And losing it. I'm sure at some point we're going to look at each other and go, "Wow, this isn't very good, what we're doing." And I'm going to say, "Well then, you know what? I think we all need to leave. And we all need to go find something in our lives that gaves us that feeling that we had for however many years." It may be over tomorrow. I may get on this tour and not even have a feeling for it anymore. The whole point is, we don't do this for other people. I don't do it to pay Def American's phone bill. (Laughs) I don't do it to pay my phone bill. I could have found something a little easier to do. DO YOU EVER WRITE ANY LYRICS THAT AREN'T RIGHT FOR THE BAND? THAT YOU CAN'T BRING TO RICH? No. I've never really put those sort of confines on what we do. I mean, any song idea that comes up between Rich and I, and any arrangements that we're working on, we bring to the band. We never put any restraints on where we go, like "This is a Black Crowes song and this isn't..." ARE YOU EVER TEMPTED TO TAKE ANY OF YOUR LYRICAL IDEAS AND STRETCH THEM INTO A STORY? I don't know if the things I hit upon as far as lyrics go are really that same sort of ideas and interests that I have as far as other sorts of stories go, or images, scenes, whatever. I mean, I can write my things down. I can have my own private writings. But I don't really have the time to make that commitment. Then I'd have to quit singing and quit writing songs in order to concentrate on that. Right now, I'm really, really still enthralled with being in the Black Crowes. IS THERE ANOTHER WRITER WITH WHOM YOU'D LIKE TO WORK? Hmmm. I"ve never really thought about it. Rich and I do what we do and it's so telepathic that I've never really worked with anyone else. I really like Gary Louris from The Jayhawks. I'd like to get together and maybe jam with him. COULD YOU SEE COLLABORATING WITH A PLAYRIGHT? I've wondered about that. It's strange. I'd really like to find someone...I think it would be fun to have a community of people who could at least bang ideas off of, in a respect. As far as writing, I don't think there could be any greater sort of experience that going to Morocco and just meeting Paul Bowles. Maybe having a cup of tea with him. Not necessarily sitting down and saying, well, let's do something. Not that he ever would or that anyone ever would, but you're always looking for that sort of wisdom to hit you. IS THERE ANOTHER PERFORMER YOU'D LIKE TO HEAR COVER A CROWES SONG? That would be wild! It might be cool. I guess I'd have to wait and ever see. (Laughs) I'm sure in a few years some rap groups may sample a Black Crowes song because they'll run out of other records to steal. And God knows that they won't learn to play instruments. WE COULD BE SEEING A NEW PRESIDENT IN THE NEAR FUTURE. DO YOU THINK THINGS GOT SHAKEN UP THIS ELECTION YEAR? No. In reality, what got shaken up? WERE YOU APPROACHED TO DO ANY SPOTS ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO VOTE? No. I'm not really interested in it. If people want to vote, the're going to go out and vote. MIKE MUIR OF SUICIDAL TENDENCIES WAS ASKED TO DO ONE OF THE "ROCK THE VOTE" SPOTS FOR MTV. HE AGREED TO DO THE SPOT, BUT WANTED TO USE THE OPPORTUNITY TO EXPLAIN WHY HE DOESN'T VOTE. THEY TURNED HIM DOWN. (Laughs) I'll bet they did. We were just on tour in Australia, New Zealand and Japan, and when they asked me about politics over there, I said, well, first and foremost, I have to tell you I am not a registered voter on the United States. I don't even know what the United States is. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT? I really want to love this place. And I do. But I don't know what the fuck it is. And it scares me. Not people burning down Pay-Less Shoe stores, but that it should shock people. It's gotten so complacent and so sort of warm water. DO YOU FEEL PEOPLE PLACE TOO MANY RESPONSIBILITIES ON PERFORMERS, RATHER THAN JUST LETTING THEM DO THEIR MUSIC? Where did it ever come out that you have to be a role model? The human being aspect of it has sort of been thrown out the door. I guess it really doesn't fit in with most marketing strategies. Sometimes, people do bad things, man, sometimes people do good ones, you know? DO YOU FEEL RESPONSIBLE TO ANYONE OTHER THAN YOURSELF AND THE BAND? I feel responsible to my parents, sometimes, as their son, when I'm with them and certain issues come up. I feel responsible to other relationships that I have outside the band, like anyone else. My responsibility is not to like and be one of those people that goes down to an AA meeting in L.A. to pick up chicks on my fucking Harley and go into the bathroom at her house later and do a line and then say, "I've been clean for two years." What is that? JOHNNY COLT HAS BEEN QUOTED AS SAYING THAT IT'S HARD TO BE HOMEST ALL THE TIME. DO YOU AGREE? I don't think so. I mean, that's the only way I can be. I'd like to think that the Black Crowes do have a rapport with the people that enjoy their music. And in that respect, I understand what goes down because I don't call record companies up and get my records for free. I go to the record stores once, twice, three times a week, and I buy my own records or CDs or whatever. So if I'm going to be arrogant enough to write songs, put them out, go on tour, and have people come see us and be a part of our lives- which is what it is, 'cause we're at the gig too. It ain't a video- then there has to be a rapport there and there has to be respect. THERE IS AN EXCITING AIR OF UNPREDICTABILITY AT THE SHOW. SOME THINGS MIGHT WORK, SOME THINGS MIGHT NOT, BUT EVERYBODY- THE BAND AND THE AUDIENCE- IS IN TOGETHER FOR THAT NIGHT. That's what we do. Everyone's coming down to the show and I don't want to be the same old band that came to town and you saw them this year and they got up and said the same shit between every song. That ain't us. That's not how we live. That's not what we want. (Laughing) I've made some well-publicized remarks about bands using tapes on stage. But think about it. You paid money to go see a band. The guys in that band must be having a shit-horrible time to get up there and smile and move their mouth along to a tape. I mean, what is there? Why are you there? Why don't you go work for the fucking Post Office if it's a job to you? These are the guys who get backstage and go, "Where's someone to blow me? And how many T-shirts did we sell?" WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE DO YOU LIKE, ANYWAY? I like...(pausing) I like honest people. SOUNDS LIKE AN ANSWER ON A PLAYMATE QUESTIONAIRE. (Laughs) Yeah, right? And I like people into water sports. No, I like people who are intense. I like people who can play. As far as musicians I've met that I'm friends with, I seem to be around people who hold their playing and their music in a different category from all the other concerns in their lives. WHO ARE SOME OF THOSE PLAYERS? Well, I would say Marc Ford is definitely a person like that. Donald Kinsey from the Kinsey Report is another example, in his own way. And I met Joe Cocker recently. I think that Joe, in his own way, as well, still goes about it like that. Also, I've never met Neil Young, but it seems that he continues to push himself and move himself to make real music. Think about him. He's doing it in the face of the fucking '60s and '70s. What a burden! I wasn't even around in those times and I have to answer for that shit. (Laughs) I"m still trying to figure out the '90s, 'cause this is my time, and I have to defend the '60s and '70s. Think about Neil. He was a part of it. YOU SHOULD START REFERRING PEOPLE WITH THOSE QUESTIONS TO NEIL. No shit! Just call Neil or Bob Dylan with those '60s and '70s questions. DOES IT EVER BOTHER YOU THAT, AS RICH AS OBSERVED, YOU'RE BETTER KNOWN FOR YOUR LOUD BEHAVIOR THAN YOUR SINGING? The people who are into the Black Crowes and who buy Black Crowes records are into it because of my singing. The people who get their records for free write about me spitting on an obnoxious person in a 7-11. If more critics knew what the Black Crowes were about and were into that, they'd recognize what I do as a vocalist. But you rarely read about that. The day's gonna come when I don't want to communicate anymore, except about the music. I don't feel the Black Crowes have any sort of attitude, except attitude. Not bad, not good. We just stand up for what we believe in. I'm not looking out over my shoulder trying to smooth things over. Why? This is my fucking band. This band is supposed to make me feel crazy and sane all in the same sort of breath. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS THE MOST TROUBLE YOU'VE GOTTEN INTO FOR BEING SO OUTSPOKEN? I don't know. I don't think I've gotten myself into any trouble. I think people call it controversial. (Laughs) But you have to have a headline, otherwise the top of the page looks naked. And people have always had a hard time with a little nudity. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back to Articles Menu Back To Crowes Homepage