Those who have chosen to think of the Black Crowes as merely aping The Rolling Stones or The Faces obviously haven’t been listening to the past couple of albums. Latin rhythms and country stylings were just some of the nuances found on 1994’s Amorica. The band’s 1996 follow-up, Three Snakes And One Charm, found The Crowes going farther afield in acknowledging their fondness for funk and New Orleans R&B by inviting members of Parliament-Funkadelic and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band along for the ride. In pursuing such a non-trendy style of music, The Black Crowes developed a reputation for having an independent mind-set that’s gotten them in trouble whether for their support of NORML (National Organization for the Reformation Of Marijuana Laws) or for the band’s vehement dislike of corporate sponsorship (which got them booted off an opening slot for a ZZ Top tour early in their career).

1999 marks ten years in the music business for these Georgia natives and the three years since the release of Three Snakes... has also had its share of turmoil. Start with the dismissal of two band members, throw in a thorny change of record companies and add a lawsuit by a former road manager to keep things interesting.

Instead of folding like so many lesser bands might have, The Black Crowes instead rebounded with a new album called By Your Side that crackles with crunchy riffs and is marked by Chris Robinson’s soulful singing and gets enough juice from Eddie Harsch’s rollicking keyboard playing that it easily avoids becoming Shake Your Moneymaker Jr.

The Island Ear had a chance to catch up with the band during a phone interview with guitarist Rich Robinson from his Georgia home. Unlike so many other artists who sugar-coat their answers and have their publicists run interference to make sure no “improper” questions are asked, Robinson is a refreshingly candid straight shooter regardless of whether he’s discussing internal dissension within the band or the sad state of contemporary music.

Rich Robinson: In the past, we’ve averaged about a record every two years. This time around, we obviously had more to deal with. There was the leaving of band members, Chris got divorced, we got sued and also left American Recordings. There was just a lot on our plate which meant we needed to take time to refocus, rethink things and get new members.

Robinson: No, we’re on Columbia directly. I think the only tie we have is that we have to put [American’s] flag on our record. We basically said we weren’t going to record for Rick Rubin anymore.

Robinson: Because he’s a complete, total piece of sh*t. There was just a history of no respect, no vision and his not having anything to do with any of us ever. We never saw him at any of our recording sessions and we’ve rarely seen him at any of our shows. We decided that now was the time for us to switch labels and luckily Columbia and Rick allowed us to do that.

Robinson: No. I think with Columbia’s help, we pulled Rick out of any and all decision-making.

Robinson: The band went through a lot of stuff with Johnny all through the making of Amorica. We all sort of left our baggage once the record was done, but I really think Johnny held on to his. The same thing kind of happened with Marc Ford. We had spoken with him continuously about his getting so f*cked up that he couldn’t play. He got sober for three or four weeks but then he reached a point where he’d be playing the wrong songs in the middle of other songs. Just wasted, playing out of tune and over everyone. Not playing worth a sh*t.

One thing we’ve always wanted to do is play well as a band and the one thing we always did well was play live. So Marc was sort of wrecking that while Johnny on the other hand just didn’t want to be there. After countless times of talking to Marc about getting his sh*t together and offering him help on different occasions, we just said, “F*ck it,” and decided we were sick of dealing with it. He liked getting f*cked up more than he liked playing so we just said, “See ya later” the day after the [Three Snakes] tour ended. Johnny quit right after that but not necessarily because of [Marc’s getting canned]. I just don’t think [Johnny] ever dropped the baggage.

Robinson: Also during the making of Amorica. The making of that album was miserable. We made two records and we had to toss the first one.

IE: Was the first one originally going to be called Tall?

Robinson: Yeah. It just wasn’t as good as we could be so decided not to release it. Then we made another one that just became a long-winded process. Lots of fighting and bickering. I guess bands go through that sh*t. Finally, we reached a point where the touring was miserable. We just fought the whole time, especially me and Chris. But for some reason, by the time we started doing festivals in Europe during the summer of ‘95, things started turning around. By this time, we were playing on bills with The Stones as well as Jimmy [Page] and Robert [Plant]. The fighting ended, we started having fun and before long, things started turning around for most of us.

Maybe it was because we got to play with The Stones and Jimmy and Robert. I mean how cool is that to play with The Stones and Zeppelin in the same week? We did three Wembley Stadium shows with The Stones and then two with Jimmy and Robert. After that there were two shows with The Stones and Dylan in Montpellier in the south of France. We got to see our idols, or whatever you want to call them, up close and maybe that brought something positive into the picture. Who knows? Even though we started having fun playing, Johnny just never got over past bullshit. I really think that he was planning to leave for a long time and his shot was right after we fired Marc Ford.

Robinson: Oh yeah. He just did not want to be there. We could just tell. He just stood on stage. He didn’t really play on Three Snakes... He ended up on just one song. I think that really sort of irked him.

Robinson: No, it was more because of Steve [Gorman], Chris and [producer] Jack [Puig]. I played all the bass on the record which started during the writing of the record when we were demoing songs. It was so easy that Jack and everyone else asked me to play on all of the songs since it would be a different approach. They were into it, I did it and Johnny wasn’t too happy. I talked to him about it and he said it was alright, but you could tell that it wasn’t. So that’s what happened.

But you know what? I genuinely believe the best thing that could have happened to us was parting ways with Marc and Johnny. Because having people like Audley [Freed] and Sven [Pipien] in the band and working at one hundred percent versus sixty percent is just a huge difference. To me, the shows now are better than they’ve ever been. There’s just so much more energy and we’re all having fun on stage.

Robinson: Sven is from Atlanta. We’ve known him for about fifteen years. He lived with Chris and Steve before we ever made a record. We’ve known him forever. He played in a band with Steve called Marry My Hope before Steve joined the band. Audley, was on Columbia with another band called Cry Of Love. My guitar tech had heard him and then someone from Columbia had sent me a tape as a sort of a resume saying how amazing he was and that we should give him a try. That person told us that Audley wasn’t a freak.

After word got around that Marc was gone, we got like three hundred letters along with people verbally telling us they wanted to try out for his spot. We really didn’t want to go through all the bullshit of auditioning people. So the first guy we tried out was really amazing, and he was a really great guy. I don’t think he would have fit in with the band personality-wise, but he was a really great player. So that just made everything cool and made us feel like the whole process wasn’t going to be that big of a pain-in-the-ass. Marc Ford is a really good guitar player when he’s not really f*cked up. Also, rock music is not in a lot of people’s priorities. We didn’t know if kids out there play rock music or listen to it the way we do. Luckily, we found Audley. He’s a great guy. We all get along with him really well and he can just play his ass off. Because of Audley, that’s why I say it was the best thing for Marc Ford to leave.

IE: So Audley joined after you recorded Right By Your Side?

Robinson: Yeah, just for touring.

IE: With By Your Side, it seems like it’s more of a straight-forward rock record versus some of the experimentation with your sound on Amorica and Three Snakes... What pushed you in this direction?

Robinson: We were all having fun as a band and I think we all sort of took stock in what we’ve been doing for a long time. For the last couple of records, we looked back to see what was and wasn’t good about ‘em. We also wanted to see where we wanted to take things as a band. To me, as a songwriter, I think we really made a lot of progress by leaps and bounds on the last couple of records. At the same time, I think it’s cool to do all that [experimentation] but it has to be done in a context where people can understand it and like it. I looked at the songs and wanted to take all the cool things we did on Amorica and Three Snakes... and put them into songs with a little more energy that people could grasp a little easier. [Producer] Kevin Shirley was also a part of that as well.

Robinson: Chris ran into the guys from Aerosmith and got to talking to them. Joe [Perry] said he heard we were making a new record and suggested we use Kevin Shirley. We talked about four other producers and were still getting names. Joe hooked us up with Kevin and we met him. This was the best recording experience we’ve had so far.

Robinson: George was really musically talented. He had a lot of really good ideas. I think he had a hard time communicating with us. I don’t know why. I think George could be a really good producer if he could get his communication problem solved. Jack is a really great engineer. I don’t think he’s a really great producer. We gave him co-production credit on our records because he brought so much sonically to the table that we felt it was the least we could do. But as far as production goes, I don’t think Jack really understands what it is. Kevin to me is a producer. He was honest. He really made us look at what we were doing. Across the board, he’s a really complete package.

Robinson: With this record the scheduling was completely different. We went in at one in the afternoon every day and left at nine in the evening. We never stayed later than nine. Kevin said in advance that he wanted to work this way because he has a kid so we agreed to try it. We were used to going into the studio at one and leaving at three or four in the morning. Just staying there every day and never taking a day off for months.

Kevin said he took weekends off so we decided to try that as well. It was actually really productive plus we made the record in New York, which was great. A lot of times you go into the studio first and you really haven’t tracked anything until the second or third day. Especially with someone like Jack who just would take three days to get a f*cking bass sound. With Kevin, we had a song done by the end of the first day. We did a song a day, every day.

Robinson: No. We’ve done pretty much what we’ve wanted to do aside from selling records. We would genuinely like to sell records. The difference is that we won’t do overtly whorish things to sell records. Everyone wants to sell records. You want people to like what you do no matter how cool and hip you are. I genuinely want people to get out of our music and music in general what I used to and still do get out of listening to records. I want people to feel the same way.

Robinson: I genuinely think it’s the worst it’s ever been. I think the amount of total whorishness and one-hit f*ckin’ wonders is just at an all-time high. It’s pretty disturbing to me because it’s like nobody gives a sh*t about music. I met some guy in a band who’s in one of these newer, alternative one-hit bands and all the guitar player cared about was making his two mil and going off to live somewhere with his wife. I thought he was just an idiot and I couldn’t believe how big of an as*hole he was for saying that. Sh*t, everybody wants to make money, but that shouldn’t be your sole purpose. Like I said, music is important and we’re really taking it for granted. Because of crappy attitudes like that, you can’t create something that’s magic at the end of the day. It sounds cheesy and cliché, but music is magic. It’s something you can’t see, smell or touch. It’s something completely intangible, but it is so powerful.