Chris Robinson Has A Whole Lotta Love for Zeppelin
by Bill Crandall
October 8, 1999

Chris and Rich Robinson were introduced to Led Zeppelin when their babysitter left a copy of "Led Zeppelin II" at their house, circa 1972. "I used to put on "Whole Lotta Love" and get so freaked out," Chris explains, and then impersonates the song's dissonant guitar squawks. "I loved it, but it scared me to death."

Close to thirty years later, the Brothers Robinson (Chris on vocals, Rich on guitar) will share the stage with the man behind those guitar sounds. On Oct. 12, 13, 14 in New York; Oct. 16 in Worcester, Mass.; and Oct. 18-19 in Los Angeles, the Black Crowes - rounded out by Eddie Harsch, keyboards; Steve Gorman, drums; Sven Pipien, bass; Audley Freed, guitar - will perform with Jimmy Page for no purpose other than the love of rock & roll. "It's just about getting together and playing," Chris says. "It's not like we have a live album coming and a VH1 special.

The Crowes first met Page while opening for his Zeppelin mate Robert Plant - or "Uncle Bob" as they call him - in 1990. Page then sat in with the band during a 1992 show in Paris, and he and Plant later asked the band to join their first Page & Plant tour. This past June, Page needed a band to back him for a London benefit, and he called his new friends. "We were like, 'Yeah, as a matter of fact, I think we could probably squeeze that in,'" says Chris, laughing. "It was a real honor for Jimmy to call us out of all the people in the world he could call."

Robinson says his band was not intimidated going into the rehearsal. "We've got to sit in with a lot of cool people over the years, and we're confident in what we can do musically - that's been our whole driving force since we were, well, horrible," he says, laughing.

However, things changed once Page picked up his guitar. "We had been doing the breakdown to "Whole Lotta Love" in one of our songs, so we said, "Oh, we know "Whole Lotta Love." So Jimmy goes (impersonating Page's guitar) 'Ga gonk ga gonk gonk ga gonk...' and we were just total geeks. We just looked at each other like [in a panicked voice], 'What are we supposed to do'? Then Jimmy was like [in an English accent] 'Can I have my Theremin?' And we were like [panicked voice again] 'The Theremin?' I thought Steve, our drummer, was gonna have a f---in' heart attack."

But when they took the stage of London's Cafe du Paris with Page to run through some Zeppelin numbers, some Crowes numbers and some old blues covers, the boys were at ease. "It was literally one of those things where everyone just had big smiles on their faces; it was just awesome," Chris says. "On the heels of that, we were like, 'Wow, let's go home and do this.'"

When the first two New York shows sold out in mere minutes, they were inspired to add another one, and then the Worcester show. "It's exciting to me that people want to see something for the sake of the music," Chris says. "I think that's something that's lacking now."

So, will there be even more shows added?

"We'll do anything," Chris says. "Were like [in a goofy voice] 'Yep, Jimmy, yep, yep, yep.' Whatever Jimmy wants to do- that's sort of the motto of the tour."

Besides "Whole Lotta Love," Chris says the band is working up Zeppelin classics like "In My Time of Dying," and "Hey Hey What Can I Do," as well as covers, like Otis Redding's "Ole Man Trouble" and Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well." And, of course, Page is learning some Crowes songs.

"We are changing some of the arrangements around so that he has bigger spaces to do what he does," Chris says. "We're like, 'Jimmy, play as long as you want. Just knock yourself out, man.'"

For the Zeppelin songs, Chris will stick to his own style and won't try to impersonate Uncle Bob. "It's like if Led Zeppelin was fronted by Tina Turner now," he explains. "It's a little more of my thing than Robert's, but I stick to the melodies and lyrics. But this is a non-pressure gig for me. I'll just sing the songs and let the guitar players do all the work; I'm just an accouterment to this whole buffet. There's three very good guitar players at one show; between Jimmy, Rich and Audley, it's like 'Wow!'"

So the Black Crowes are ready, Jimmy Page is ready, and the fans are ready - but what about that babysitter who planted the seeds for this rendezvous all those years ago? "We never used her again," Chris explains, with a hint of regret in his voice. "She had boys over, and I totally narked her out to my mom."