{"id":1000117,"date":"2026-08-14T11:11:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T11:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1000117\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T11:11:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T11:11:26","slug":"the-black-crowes-chris-robinson-on-the-bands-biggest-hits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1000117\/","title":{"rendered":"The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson on the band’s biggest hits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lots of broken-up bands reconvene for a tour, as the Black Crowes<\/a> did in 2019, half a decade after brothers Chris and Rich Robinson dissolved the Southern rock group they\u2019d formed in Atlanta in the mid-1980s. Some even stay together long enough to make a new record, as the Crowes managed to do with 2024\u2019s well-received \u201cHappiness Bastards.\u201d What\u2019s relatively rare in music is for a reunited band to quickly follow up a comeback album with a second one. Yet that\u2019s what the Robinsons did this year when they dropped \u201cA Pound of Feathers,\u201d the Crowes\u2019 10th studio LP, behind which they\u2019ll touch down Monday night at the Hollywood Bowl. Ahead of the show, Chris Robinson, 59, called from the road to tell the stories behind five of the band\u2019s songs.<\/p>\n

\u2018Hard to Handle\u2019 (1990) \"\" <\/p>\n

The Black Crowes broke out with a frisky cover of this Otis Redding tune just as hair metal was giving way to grunge. A hit on MTV, the song drove sales of the band\u2019s debut, \u201cShake Your Money Maker,\u201d to sales of more than 5 million copies. <\/p>\n

There are some songs of Otis\u2019 that I couldn\u2019t do justice. As a 21-year-old kid starting my career \u2014 well, we didn\u2019t even know we were gonna have careers \u2014 but what am I gonna sing? \u201cI\u2019ve Been Loving You Too Long\u201d? \u201cHard to Handle,\u201d it\u2019s cheeky, it\u2019s lighthearted. And I loved the break: \u201cPretty little thing, let me light your candle\u2026\u201d So I took it to George Drakoulias, our producer, and I said, \u201cI think we could do this.\u201d George is the one who turned it into \u201cWalk This Way\u201d \u2014 he put it in the same rhythmic space. Otis\u2019 version swings, but we really couldn\u2019t swing at the time.<\/p>\n

So \u201cHard to Handle\u201d wasn\u2019t something you were playing live early on?<\/b>
No, we brought it in for the record. Being from Georgia and Otis being from Georgia, it was important to us that people knew this is where we\u2019re coming from. Two autumns ago, Zelma Redding and her family invited us to their big old ranch outside Macon, and we had an afternoon in the great man\u2019s study. They have all his awards and guitars and stuff and the velvet slippers he had on when the plane crashed. At certain times in our career, we\u2019ve been like, \u201cF\u2014, do we have to play \u2018Hard to Handle\u2019 again?\u2019\u201d We\u2019d jam at the end or try all these things to make it sound different. But as the years have gone by, we just play it the way it\u2019s supposed to be.<\/p>\n

George\u2019s engineer, Brendan O\u2019Brien, played the guitar solo in \u201cHard to Handle.\u201d Why?<\/b>
We had Jeff Cease, but he\u2019d split and gone back to Nashville. And Rich didn\u2019t play solos back then. That changed, but at the time he was the rhythm guitar player. So it was out of necessity. We needed that meat-and-potatoes solo, and Brendan could rip it. I saw him on some podcast<\/a> saying we were in L.A. and we were gonna call Slash. I\u2019m like, \u201cNo we weren\u2019t \u2014 you did the solo in Atlanta on Rich\u2019s Les Paul.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShake Your Money Maker\u201d came out on Rick Rubin\u2019s Def American label, and he\u2019s credited as executive producer. Did Rick do anything on the album?<\/b>
No.<\/p>\n

All righty.<\/b>
I\u2019m just being honest. George and I lived in Rick\u2019s house \u2014 I was in the basement \u2014 but the most I saw of him at the time was him leaving to go get lunch at Canter\u2019s with Glenn Danzig. He did come to a session once with Andrew Dice Clay. We were called Mr. Crowe\u2019s Garden at the time \u2014 we weren\u2019t yet the Black Crowes. Rick and George were like, \u201cYou guys probably need to change your name,\u201d and Andrew Dice Clay goes, \u201cYou should change it to Sticky Paste.\u201d I said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you stick to the cigarette over your head, and I\u2019ll handle this?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018She Talks to Angels\u2019 (1990) \"\" <\/p>\n

For \u201cMoney Maker\u2019s\u201d fourth single, the band released this darkly poetic ballad about a woman struggling with a drug addiction.<\/p>\n

Were you nervous to reveal a softer side?<\/b>
The only trepidation would\u2019ve been because this was the power-ballad era of all the hair-metal bands.<\/p>\n

Poison with \u201cEvery Rose Has Its Thorn\u201d and so on.<\/b>
Every band had one. There were hair-metal bands that only had power ballads \u2014 Firehouse or some band with 17th century French aristocrat hair.<\/p>\n

Everything but the lace cravat.<\/b>
Everything but sincere songwriting. Look, they\u2019re people too \u2014 I get it. But we wrote a ballad out of the sincerity of how we were feeling, you know? We were reaching for \u201cWild Horses\u201d or \u201cDark End of the Street\u201d or \u201cAstral Weeks.\u201d The power ballad was a device for rock bands, but we didn\u2019t use it as that. We used it as pure expression.<\/p>\n

Tell me about the story the song tells.<\/b>
My interest in writing and literature revolved around darker themes, whether it was the Beats or Paul Bowles or whatever. There\u2019s drugs and madness and pain but also glory and redemption and the true heartbeat of life. So the song is a sad story but it\u2019s romantic. There\u2019s no moral gotcha \u2014 no resentment toward the character or the predicament they find themselves in.<\/p>\n

How\u2019d you come by that approach?<\/b>
Reading. My mother, who just passed away a few weeks ago, she gave me a great gift: I\u2019m dyslexic, and my mom in the early \u201970s in the Deep South, she knew something was up with me. I went to school three times a week after school for years to learn how to read. And when that clicked, that was everything. My life now, it\u2019s horribly boring. Rick Rubin with Danzig at Canter\u2019s sounds exciting compared to Chris Robinson and the used bookstores of my life.<\/p>\n

\u201cAngels\u201d is full of vivid details: the lock of <\/b>hair<\/b> in the woman\u2019s pocket, for instance. Who were the songwriters that taught you how to create an image?<\/b>
It all starts with Bob: \u201cJewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule\u201d \u2014 like, what?! But I\u2019m a funny Dylan fan because I like the weird lyrics he does, like \u201cClothes Line Saga\u201d from \u201cThe Basement Tapes.\u201d Alex Chilton was really big. The first Big Star record I could get my hands on in the early \u201980s was \u201c3rd.\u201d As a matter of fact, the first show we ever did, Rich and I played \u201cNightime\u201d from that record.<\/p>\n

On the strength of \u201cMoneymaker,\u201d the Crowes were nominated for best new artist at the Grammys in 1991. You didn\u2019t win \u2014<\/b>
A theme that continues today.<\/p>\n

You remember who did?<\/b>
It was Mariah Carey, I think.<\/p>\n

Correct.<\/b>
Good for her. Rich and I flew in from some tour date for one night, and I remember MC Hammer winning and doing something with Pepsi<\/a>. I met MC Hammer a couple years ago. Amazingly cool guy.<\/p>\n

What put you and Hammer in the same room?<\/b>
I\u2019m not allowed to talk about that.<\/p>\n

Sure.<\/b>
No, I\u2019m serious \u2014 I can\u2019t talk about it.<\/p>\n

\u2018Remedy\u2019 (1992) \"\" <\/p>\n

The Crowes\u2019 sophomore album, \u201cThe Southern Harmony and Musical Companion,\u201d was led by this swaggering soul-rock jam, which Robinson opened with a memorable couplet: \u201cBaby, baby, why can\u2019t you sit still? \/ Who killed that bird out on your windowsill?\u201d<\/p>\n

I was in Philly a few weeks ago, in Rittenhouse Square, and I said to my friend, \u201cThat\u2019s the hotel that I opened my window one gray day on tour, and there was a dead bird.\u201d The room was on the 15th floor or something, and I guess the bird had flown into the glass. I was in a series of early failed rock and roll relationships, so my imagination was: Who killed that bird? Oh, she did it. The rest of it\u2019s made up, but I had to see the dead bird that morning to kick off the thought.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some great interplay here between you and your background singers \u2014 really draws out the R&B in the band\u2019s sound.<\/b>
For us, it\u2019s instinctive. I\u2019ve ingested a lot of Funkadelic, a lot of Prince, a lot of the Gap Band. One of my first concerts was Cameo on the \u201cAlligator Woman\u201d tour \u2014 mind-blowing. My singing is far more rhythmic than it is melodic a lot of the time. When I was playing with Joe Perry last summer, Steven Tyler came down to the Hollywood Bowl to do \u201cTrain Kept A-Rollin\u2019.\u201d He was like, \u201cWhat key\u2019s it in?\u201d I said, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d He\u2019s like, \u201cYou\u2019ve been out with Joe for three weeks, and you don\u2019t know what key the song\u2019s in?\u201d I said, \u201cSteven, are you ready? I\u2019ve never known what key a song is in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRemedy\u201d spent 11 straight weeks at No. 1 on Billboard\u2019s rock radio chart. One of the songs stuck behind it was the Red Hot Chili Peppers\u2019 \u201cUnder the Bridge.\u201d<\/b>
And just think \u2014 I never took my shirt off.<\/p>\n

\u2018Sting Me\u2019 (1992) \"\" <\/p>\n

The tune that eventually knocked \u201cRemedy\u201d from the top spot? The Crowes\u2019 second single from \u201cSouthern Harmony.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s as close to a protest song as we ever got. Concerts in the \u201990s were wild, man \u2014 we were seeing security guards beating on kids. But we were also seeing this blind patriotism toward ideals and philosophies that you\u2019ve never even really looked at with any depth. So: \u201cIf you feel like a riot \/ Then don\u2019t you deny it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something slippery about the riff \u2014 it takes a second to figure out where the one is.<\/b>
It fights itself \u2014 it\u2019s funky in there. \u201cShake Your Money Maker\u201d was very straight \u2014 click tracks to put the drum track together, now play the bass over that, blah blah blah. We just weren\u2019t great at that point. By the time we\u2019re in the studio with \u201cSting Me,\u201d though, that\u2019s one take live on the floor. We made \u201cSouthern Harmony\u201d in eight days.<\/p>\n

You can hear the effect of having played a few hundred gigs.<\/b>
I\u2019m glad you say that. Now bands are like, \u201cI don\u2019t want to go on the road \u2014 I\u2019m gonna take a mental health break.\u201d Can you imagine in 1992, you\u2019re in one of the biggest bands in the world, and you\u2019re like, \u201cHey man, I gotta chill out\u201d? Get the f\u2014 out of here.<\/p>\n

The \u201cSting Me\u201d video was filmed at the Great Atlanta Pot Festival in 1992, which the band played as part of your activism around legalizing weed. What\u2019s it been like to see those efforts succeed to some degree?<\/b>
My main victory within that, if my voice was a part of it, is that we\u2019re in a more gentle place \u2014 that it won\u2019t ruin your life now if the police pull you over and there\u2019s a roach in your ashtray. You have to realize: Being arrested isn\u2019t just about the inconvenience of being incarcerated \u2014 it\u2019s that now you\u2019re in the system. I mean, ask any marginalized community \u2014 those drug laws were put on the books to keep you down.<\/p>\n

\u2018Pharmacy Chronicles\u2019 (2026) \"\" <\/p>\n

Over a shuffling country-blues groove, Robinson sings about \u201cperfume, Champagne and sin\u201d in this standout from \u201cA Pound of Feathers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Would you have foreseen that, after you got back together, you and Rich would release two albums in less than two years?<\/b>
I don\u2019t know about that. But leave Rich and I to our own devices, and that\u2019s what we do. Our whole entr\u00e9e into this world wasn\u2019t because I could sing or he was a great guitarist \u2014 we wanted to write songs. I\u2019ve written a lot of songs by myself, and probably out of those songs, there\u2019s a few that I\u2019m proud of. And I think Rich would say the same thing for himself. But there\u2019s just something about the inspiration I get from Rich\u2019s playing that makes us a successful songwriting team.<\/p>\n

\u201cPharmacy Chronicles\u201d has some bedraggled wisdom to it. I\u2019m not sure you could have written it as a younger man.<\/b>
I wasn\u2019t that cynical then. It\u2019s making fun of yourself in a way \u2014 like some old Victorian actor in the bowels of the theater taking his makeup off and wondering what it all means.<\/p>\n

Do you think your voice has changed along with your perspective?<\/b>
Of course my voice has changed \u2014 through age and, in the \u201990s, through abuse. I can\u2019t hit the super-highest notes I could as a young person. But we still sing the old songs in the original keys. Not that I know what those keys are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lots of broken-up bands reconvene for a tour, as the Black Crowes did in 2019, half a decade…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1000118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[29],"tags":[26949,400498,25236,246544,343900,171,19454,400499,203163,2252,7088,975,400500,205616,645,6620,1446,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1000117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-band","tag-big-song","tag-bird","tag-black-crowes","tag-chris-robinson","tag-entertainment","tag-few-week","tag-george-drakoulias","tag-great-man","tag-life","tag-lot","tag-music","tag-rich-robinson","tag-rick-rubin","tag-story","tag-time","tag-tour","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117093565904936656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1000117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1000118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1000117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1000117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1000117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}