For those who like their rock served up with a bit of Southern
Comfort and an intense down-home spirit of the blues, The Black
Crowes have been just the band to hit the spot. For six years
now Crowes' members Chris Robinson (vocals), Rich Robinson (vocals,
guitars), Marc Ford (guitars), Johnny Colt (bass), Steve Gorman
(drums) and Eddie Harsch (keyboards) have been going strong
marking their territory somewhere between The Rolling Stones and
The Grateful Dead. Along the way they've taken matters into their
own hands with integrity-backed approaches to the vehicle that
drives their musical bandwagon.
For a career that spans any good length of time in the public
eye, there's bound to be talk, the Crowes have had no shortage
of that. But when it comes to voicing their own opinions, they
aren't known for being exactly cordial, often exposing a few chips
on the ol' shoulders.
But if there's any dings in the armor of The Black Crowes,
blame it on a few battles not only between themselves but
also in standing up for beliefs and protecting their music to make it as accessible to
their loyal following as possible.
On the road, man of few words, bassist Johnny Colt phoned in for my attempts to pull a few teeth about the
secrets behind the band and their latest,"Three Snakes and
One Charm."
Q: So how is life for you on the road?
A: It's fantastic
Q: Do you like touring - is it difficult or do you enjoy it?
A: We like touring. If we didn't like it we wouldn't be able to
stay out as long as we have over the past six years.
Q: What's a typical day for you on the road? Do you get to
go sight seeing or shopping...
A: Yeah, we do all the above. Some guys play golf. We've been
watching the world series, just the same stuff everybody else
does.
Q: I heard you sometimes jam at local clubs under different
names...
A: Yeah, sure, when we get a day off here and there. Places like
Chicago we know people and we go play. That's always a good time.
Besides endless touring, life for a band includes going into
the studio to record. Depending on who you ask, that can be a
pleasurable or torturous experience for a musician. Days are spent
isolated in a windowless recording studio, twirling knobs, going
over and over songs to get just the right sound with no audience
response to feed on. Booking the time to record can also be frustrating,
expensive and often at the beckon call of a producer or engineer.
For those reasons, many bands are looking for different approaches
to recording. The Crowes chose to record "Three Snakes and
One Charm," in a rented house in Atlanta which they affectionately
dubbed "Chateau de la Crowe."
Q: You recorded this last album in a house? Tell me about that...
A: We just decided not to go into a studio. We wanted to get a
different angle on a different creative situation so we just rented
a house, built the studio inside the house and took it from there.
It's actually not that uncommon of a thing to do.
Q: How did that make it different from going into a studio?
A: We all lived together and were there and could work at anytime
we wanted. Sometimes when you're in a regular studio you have
people who work there and they go home and you have to block out
time. This is a completely different mindset.
Q: Did you do things different in this environment like testing
out sounds in the bathroom or wherever?
A: With us living there it's a different kind of luxury. It's
a calmer vibe. You got more of a feeling that the time is expanded
so you can do things like putting microphones in the dryer.
Q: Did you all get along living and working together around
the clock?
A: Yeah.
Rumor has it that the one big happy family ethic hasn't always
been the case for The Black Crowes. The brother's Robinson have
become notorious for their sibling brawls over the years. During
tours for their previous record "amorica," things got
so bad between the two, they weren't even speaking to each other
and the band was ready to call it quits. But blood is blood and
when it came right down to it, The Crowes decided to hash things
out and march on.
Q: Previous to the release of this record there were rumors
that the band was breaking up. What was going on?
A: That was the case definitely but I think it was just because
the first record came out in 1990 and we've been working pretty
much non-stop until that period you're talking about. I think
that after five and a half years of living on the road and then
going in to make a record and going right back out on the road,
it was getting to the band. Also you have to remember that the
people in the band were in their early twenties when our first
record "Shake Your Money Maker" came out. I was 21,
Rich was 20, so we grew up out here in a way. And people change.
It was just time for us to stop and take inventory of the growth.
We had acknowledged the musical growth that each other had accomplished
but not the personal changes. It's hard to explain but we had
just created a lot of pressure on ourselves and we had to look
at each other and make a change and just deal with it.
Q: Rich and Chris are known for their infighting. How does
the rest of the band handle that?
A: There's no shortage of fighting across the board. I spend plenty
of time in the ring as well. It's really nothing you need to deal
with. People are trying to make things happen so there's going
to be friction. The same way anybody would deal with the way their
siblings fight, that's pretty much how it is. It's not abnormal
really.
Q: Does it bother you?
A: Not at all. People fight, that's a fact of life.
With four successful albums under their belt, The Crowes have
established themselves with their own brand of blooze soaked,
American roots based rock n' roll. But along the way, they've
also made several stances off the stage...from their news making
endorsement of pot smoking to their objections to corporate sponsorships.
They also blasted Aerosmith for using sampling on-stage when they
opened for them on tour a few years back and then became fan friendly
by allowing people to tape their live shows. Colt (pictured left) spoke of some
of the things said and said back about the Crowes.
Q: I've interviewed Chris before and he's a very outspoken
guy. He's made a lot of stances over the years. Have you or the
rest of the band found yourselves in the position to have
to smooth things over or back up some of the things he has said?
A: I think the whole band takes a lot of stances. Not a lot of
people have the courage to have an opinion and stick to the one
that they have. I do find myself backing Chris up considerably
and he finds himself backing me up quite a bit. But we've never
had to smooth anything over. We never made any apologies since
way before people even knew who we were. I'm quite comfortable
with everything that we've done. We've made some mistakes, everybody
does, that's how it works.
Q: I would like to toss out some of the things that got people
talking to get your current take...
Do you still allow people to tape your shows?
Yes we do.
Q: What about having no corporate sponsors?
A: We have no endorsements and we're not sponsored by anybody.
Q: Does that make things difficult?
A: I don't think so. It means we put less money in our pocket.
We still keep our ticket prices as low as anybody out there and
we still manage to stay on tour. If we take a million dollars
from some corporation I'd have a lot more money in the bank but
that's just not what we do. We keep our prices down and we just
have to keep it as streamline as we can to stay out here.
Q: It's amazing you've been able to do that for so long....
A: It's really not. It's amazing that people will just take handouts
and put advertisements all over their gear. That's what's amazing.
There's nothing new about what we do, every other band did it
until whatever year it was that sponsorship just became the train
that everybody jumped. You just go out, you play a good show,
then you go home, it's nothing special really, it's the way it
should be.
Q: What about the pot smoking thing?
A: What about it?
Q: You've taken a lot of flack about backing up the freedom
to smoke pot...
A: We have? I personally haven't felt any flack from it. And whoever
would, it's ignorable at best. Anyone who's wasting their time
on the issue, if that's what they're attributing our career to,
it's really not worth commenting on.
Q: How do you feel that people may be forming opinions about
what you do or putting labels on you?
A: I think we, as individuals, have labels thrown at us constantly.
I've not getting anymore labels thrown at me in my day than you
are in your day. If you think about everything from the sh*t you're
sold on television not being able to make any decisions for yourself...like
smoking marijuana. We all face the same problems.
Q: You're a seasoned band now, what have you learned along
the way as far as dealing with this business and dealing with
your bandmates?
A: In dealing with the music business, that you can stick to what
you believe in, it will pan out. You don't have to do what they
say. You can do it your way. You may not be the biggest man on
the block or the wealthiest but the reality is, in the long term,
you got to stick to your guns and remember this is all about musicianship.
This is about making music; it's not about the business. We're
going to continue to prove that and it will continue to happen
and there are other bands doing that as well.
As far as dealing with the band, in a word, tolerance. That's
the one thing I've learned. I need to have tolerance over a situation
and I need for people to have tolerance for me.
Q: As far as taking care of business goes, are there still
things that come up that you never thought you would have to deal
with just to be in a band?
A: Yes it's a learning process and yes there are things that will
surprise you from time to time. But that is all in your attitude
about what you want to do. That can also be creative if you make
it. If you're a creative person, creative with your music, then
you can be creative with everything you do including business.
You can have a creative approach to your day top to bottom. But
there are still things that come up where I go, "I'd rather
be making music than doing this..." but then again that comes
back down to your attitude to try to handle it smoothly because
those are the pieces that have to be done to get you up there
day after day.
Q: You've pretty much grown up with this band. You guys are
getting older, you have families now, how have you changed personally
from the beginning?
A: I think we're a hell of a lot smarter. The band has anything
but mellowed. I think all the individuals here have gained a lot
of experience, seen the world and we're certainly a lot sharper
than we've ever been and definitely much more intense.
Q: Does that affect your songwriting?
A: I think it affects the whole thing.
Q: Do your listen what critics say or read what is written
about you?
A: Absolutely not. I see things here and there, good and bad,
I'm just as comfortable with either.
Q: Do you watch the charts to see how your record is doing?
A: I don't watch them. I would say we need to know what's going
on for some things. I know what's going on loosely. But it's not
like a daily or even weekly thing. To be honest, I have no idea
what this record is doing saleswise or on the radio. When we are
touring, we're playing every day, there's soundchecks, there's
new material to go over, you play in your room and you just do
this, just focus on this.
Q: This interview is for an online magazine. Do you guys have
a computer? Do you go online?
A: Sure. The band goes online after shows to talk to people. In
Chicago, we went on for about 4 days in a row and it was really
together. We're going to try to do something like the first Tuesday
of every month. Other than that, I have everything connected up
at my house.
Q: What do you look for on the internet?
A: I look up anything on Krija yoga and Babaji which is lineage
of knowledge that's handed down through human incarnation one
after the other. That's the only thing I've used the internet
for and it was excellent. I really enjoy it a lot.
Q: What do you think the internet is doing for music? The Crowes
have several homepages out there...
A: I'm not sure what's up with our site information now. I think
there's one with our record label. We put together one that was
really nice, we had photos of us in the studio and artwork and
we put a fair amount of effort into it. I think it's great. It's
a creative source. It keeps us directly in touch. It's great to
get online after a gig and talk to people after the show, people
who couldn't make it to the show, they ask for the set list, people
from Europe try to track what happened night after night.
Q: If you wrote the Book of Cool, what would you put in it?
A: You know, I wouldn't read a list of what other people thought
was cool and I certainly wouldn't expect people to read a list
of what I thought was cool. What would be cool is for people to
think for themselves and find out what they think is cool.
Copyright 1996, Lazar Productions.
