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Welcome To The Good Times
02/24/1999 8:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Lesley Holdom
"After going through all the sh-t we've gone through over the last couple of years--losing members, switching labels, divorces, getting sued, all that sh-t--we sort of looked back at what we were doing. We took all the things that we had done that worked over the past eight years and put them into focus."
That's outspoken guitarist Rich Robinson, explaining what inspired the Black Crowes to return to the pure rock 'n' roll mentality of their first two albums with their latest, By Your Side.
The Crowes have definitely had their share of hardships to overcome, most notably surviving the loss of two band members, lead guitarist Marc Ford and bassist Johnny Colt, after headlining the Furthur tour in 1997. "Marc was a junkie, and he wanted to get f--ked up more than he wanted to be in the band," Robinson reveals. "Throughout the last two tours, we talked to him individually, we talked to him as a band, we talked to him with our manager, we offered to send him to rehab or have someone come out on tour and keep him sober. He couldn't play worth a sh-t either, and he was killing himself--it was a problem. And we just gave him an ultimatum: if you can't keep it together, you're gone, period. And he'd tell us he was sober while he was falling off the table. He'd say, 'I haven't had anything to drink all day!' It's not like he would run around with syringes hanging out of his arms, but let's just say he was into a lot of things, and they were all really effecting him. And so we just finally said, 'Hey you know what? F--k yourself, see ya later.' And Johnny, he just didn't want to be in the band anymore.
"It's rough being in a band with anybody," he shrugs. "I mean, sh-t, we've lost three members in total. And you know what? I wish everyone was still in our band, but that's not the case. Idealistically, you hope that everyone will just sort of get along, but times are different than when a lot of the bands who've had the same members the whole time, like the Stones or even R.E.M., got started. The music business has changed more in the last 10 years than I think it did in the previous 50."
Now that he's mentioned it, what does Robinson feel about the state of music these days? "I think it's sad," he answers. "I think that people are missing out on really good music. It's all gimmick sh-t, it's like, 'Let's search the airwaves for what was good once and sold once--we'll do that for six months then we'll move on.' And you have to place the blame on every aspect of the industry, including some of the bands. The record industry has now completed this formula, and it's the most corporate f--kin' thing I've ever been involved in."
And yet with all the blatant rehashing that goes on in music nowadays, the Crowes have always had to field accusations that they rely too heavily on their influences. In answer to their critics, Robinson says simply, "Who said music has to be groundbreaking? If someone is breaking new ground, let me know, because I don't see it. I just see us going backwards as a whole society. Music moves forward because of individual interpretation. I interpret music differently than anyone else on Earth, and everyone else on Earth interprets music differently from me. If I listen to the same sh-t as [U2's] the Edge listens to, we're going to interpret it differently. It's just a matter of how close to tradition you want to stick--you can choose to be a little closer to tradition than not. A lot of times people who aren't close to tradition aren't good enough to really pick up on it, but whatever.
"To a lot of kids, what we're doing is new--a lot of kids have never heard traditional rock 'n' roll," he continues. "And do you know why? Because we're a society so caught up on not knowing where we came from that people--especially young kids--never get to hear about it. But that's how music moves on. When the Stones were a new band, they brought Howlin' Wolf out with them on a TV show. And the same thing with Zeppelin--I mean, 'squeeze my lemon'? They ripped off sh-t from Robert Johnson, they ripped off lines and songs, and no one knew about and they thought it was the coolest thing ever, and I did too! And I know both of them backwards and forwards, and I think both of them are amazing. But there's a tradition there. I don't know, the whole thing's just sort of bullsh-t."
Pausing to chuckle to himself, Rich adds, "I'm finding another trend now--we're sort of outliving critics. A lot of the critics that ragged us in the early '90s don't work anymore. So now there's a lot of younger kids who have picked up where the critics left off a long time ago, and they're comparing us to bands that they've never heard of and they don't know sh-t about. And their comparisons are so wrong; it's just f--kin' pathetic. Obviously they read about some song of ours on one of our past records--it's probably similar to some sort of Humble Pie song or something. But you can tell they don't know what they're talking about. If you're going to be a critic, know what the f--k you're talking about. I'll admit who I listen to and where I get things from and all that sh-t all day, but don't f--kin' talk out of your ass, y'know?"
One thing that Rich Robinson is sure of is that By Your Side represents the Black Crowes at their rock 'n' roll finest--critics and detractors be damned. "We're a rock band--that's what comes natural to us," he says matter-of-factly. "Sometimes fun, uplifting music can be just as valid as music that's depressing or thought-provoking."
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