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This summer, Chris and Rich Robinson will take their band, the Black Crowes, on a massive reunion tour, which includes two nights at Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater on July 7 and 8.
But on Tuesday, the formerly estranged brothers will take a smaller stage in Nashville —at The Basement East — for an acoustic prelude. They’re currently on a short jaunt as “Brothers of a Feather,” performing their band’s biggest and best songs as a duo.
And according to Rich Robinson, putting the focus on the two of them — the “core of this band” — was the only way this reunion got off the ground.
After speaking to one another for the first time in five years, Robinson says they decided a reunion between them could work only if they brought in “all new people. No one from our past — no one in the crew, no one in management, no one in the band.”
During our talk, the guitarist shared the thought process that led to that decision and what he thinks of the band’s 1990 debut album now, and he didn’t mince words about the “insincere” spectacle of the most recent Grammy Awards.
The Brothers of a Feather concert at The Basement East immediately sold out, but tickets are still available for both Black Crowes concerts at Ascend Amphitheater.
Last year, after you announced the reunion (on “The Howard Stern Show”), you played a surprise show at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City. How did it feel coming off the stage that night — did you feel like you’d made the right call to do this again?
Yeah, it was great — the outpouring of support from people who showed up in New York and L.A., and the support that Howard gave us. He couldn’t have been cooler and happier for us.
The band sounded amazing, and to be able to play with these guys. (Bassist) Tim Lefebvre, we’ve known when in 2013, we took out Tedeschi Trucks (Band) to open for us. Tim was their bass player, and he was amazing. It was really cool to have him come out and play, and then the other guys.
We had tryouts and brought a ton of people in, different guitar players, bass players, keyboard players, drummers. And the guys that we decided to have join the band, I couldn’t be happier with. The growth just in the short amount of time from the first day of rehearsal to (the second reunion concert in) L.A. was exponential.
That itself shows to me that we made the right choice. And everyone was so positive and respectful and are out there honoring these songs, which is really what it’s about.
It’s an interesting experience to grow up listening to a band and looking up to them, then when you revisit their music decades later, you now hear it as the work of people much younger than you. What’s it like when it’s your own music? When you listen to “Shake Your Money Maker” now, what do you make of it?
I hadn’t played guitar a long time before we started writing “Shake Your Money Maker.” I mean, I didn’t start playing until I was 15. There was music around, and my dad had a guitar, but it wasn’t my own. He gave me a guitar, he showed me three chords, and then he was like, “That’s it. That’s where I get out.”
… The cool thing is that Chris and I wrote all of those songs in my mom and dad’s living room. I mean, I was 17 when I wrote the music (to) “She Talks to Angels” and 19 when we recorded “Shake Your Money Maker.” In between those two years, Chris and I wrote all of the songs, recorded them on a little boombox that he had, that we sent out to George (Drakoulias, “Money Maker” producer).
What I like about it is you can tell we were honing our craft. We were focused on the songs, and to me, that’s the gift. And I really like how direct it is. We were trying to merge (AC/DC’s) “Powerage” and (the Rolling Stones’) “Exile on Main St.,” somehow. Two very rock ‘n’ roll albums with a very different approach for each.
To go back and look at it from the perspective of “We’re gonna play this record in its entirety, in its original sequence, and really honor the songs,” it’s been really cool. After 30 years, that was the springboard for us to take this journey, to kind of go back to that.
It takes a lot of discipline for us because even on our first tours, we were trying to change songs and add new songs. We were writing all the time, doing covers, jamming.
It’s funny. I could ask, “What would you change about the album now?” But it sounds like you’d already made those decisions by ’91 or ’92.
Oh yeah, instantly. I mean, our first show opening for Aerosmith, it was our first arena tour, we opened with a brand-new song … and people were like, “What the (expletive) are you guys doing? You’re here to promote a record.” And we’re like, “We’re a band. We’re just playing.”
We loved the record, we were really happy with it, and we kind of ran away from it pretty early. We were like, “This is great. Let’s make the next one.” And so for us, literally for the first time in 30 years, to play this record in its entirety, as it is, it’s really kind of cool. And it’s something that’s maybe obvious but Chris and I had never thought about doing before.
What was behind the decision to make this reunion about you and your brother, and bringing in all new musicians for the rest of the lineup?
You know, a band of 30 years is basically a family, and the family dynamic embeds quickly and strongly. And then that dynamic, throughout the 30 years, shifts dramatically but sort of entrenches itself, you know what I mean?
When success comes in, when less success comes in, and when new people come in and old people leave, when you throw drugs on the fire, and you throw money, and all of these things, everyone starts having their own agenda. Everyone starts bringing their own desires and needs to the table.
And the way that manifests itself, at least in the Black Crowes, it became this incredibly toxic, dysfunctional scenario. And it’s easy just to blame Chris or blame me, or Chris and I. But there were a lot of people in that band working very actively to keep Chris and I from communicating and getting along. Because they couldn’t get their way if Chris and I talked and got along.
That’s one of the problems with success. People have their own agenda. The way it’s always been, the core of this band is me and Chris. We wrote the songs. It was our band when we started in 1985. It was our band when we stopped in 2013.
… We just said, “Look, the only way this is gonna work is if we continue to stay healthy, get along and speak to each other, and we don’t have a scenario where people keep getting in our way and trying to pit us against each other.”
The only way to do that is to bring in all new people. No one from our past — no one in the crew, no one in management, no one in the band. It just has to be new. It has to stay positive. We want to stay in each other’s lives, and we both would love to make music again in the future.
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I would imagine, too, that the bond of family might transcend the obstacles you’d encounter with other people.
Yeah, it can. But it can also be a fast track to some s****-ness, too (laughs). But I think that Chris and I have gone through enough and seen enough different perspectives. I mean, I learned a ton making solo records and putting my last band together and seeing the dynamic in that band. And I saw what I was doing, too, like, “Wow, man. That was really (expletive) annoying, what I was doing. No wonder he got so mad.” And he saw some things in his (past), “Wow, I was a real (expletive) in that moment. No wonder Rich got mad.”
It’s interesting to think that when “Shake Your Money Maker” came out in 1990, there was a lot of excitement in the idea of bringing rock music back to basics. Now, 30 years later, I can’t even count how many more waves of that concept have gone by.
Plus, I watched the Grammys, and the music industry on the popular front today is so insincere and just crazy. In a sense, it’s interesting, because rock isn’t even discussed during these Grammys.
My sister-in-law recorded it and I was watching some of it. I can’t watch the whole thing, but I watched some of it a couple of days later, and I was like, “Holy (expletive), man. Look at this thing.” It’s just a spectacle, and what rock ‘n’ roll was, to me, was so underground. It was so indie. And so in a sense, it’s back where it needs to be. It isn’t something that needed to be bogged down. And there are a lot of great rock ‘n’ roll bands out there that are unknown and are playing great (music). There is a vibrant scene, and it’s burgeoning outside of the mainstream, which is where it always came from and should have been.
You guys are in it for the long haul this year. What are you looking forward to?
It’s gonna be cool to get out there, and the more we play with the band, the better the band gets. I’m really excited to see where this band’s gonna go because everyone individually is such a brilliant player. Over those five nights — three days of rehearsal (and shows in) New York and L.A.) — the growth within us as a band was so vast and quick. That just shows how great these guys are. People that can come in and understand what a signature part (to a song) is, versus a part that you can bring yourself to stylistically. To constantly serve that song … and it’s also cool to be out there with my brother. I haven’t had him in my life for six years, and that feels odd. It feels odd to not have my dad in my life. He died seven years ago. There’s always that presence. There’s always a reminder. And so to know that I’m out there, and my brother’s standing right next to me, that means a lot to me.
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