Chris Robinson, who reunited with his brother Rich in 2019 after six years apart, has confirmed to “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” that there are tentative plans to record a new BLACK CROWES album.
“It’s funny, ’cause Rich and I, for whatever we’ve been through, the one place where we were always the most together [was when we were making music],” he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “I mean, we fought onstage, we fought backstage, we fought in an Italian restaurant in Berlin, but when we’re writing has always been our sweet spot.
“It’s been amazing to get to where Rich and I are today,” he continued. “And we’re in a great, great place as brothers and as partners in this band and as songwriting partners.
“So, we’ve written about 20 new BLACK CROWES songs, which has been really cool.”
THE BLACK CROWES are scheduled to embark on a summer tour to mark the 30th anniversary of their 1990 debut LP, “Shake Your Money Maker”. The trek will see the band play the classic LP in its entirety followed by a set of CROWES hits.
“This whole idea of the ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ thing has really brought a lot of focus back to, wow, how much I fucking love rock and roll music,” Chris said. “Visiting that record and that being our presentation has really inspired Rich and I — to quote the MC5 — to kick out the jams a little bit and really refocus on all the things we love about the power of rock and roll and the rawness.
“‘Shake Your Money Maker’ was our most concentrated effort of rock,” he added. “We went off into so many different things after that. I think rock and roll is always the bloodline through all of it, but just like from THE [ROLLING] STONES, FACES to AC/DC, and it could even be X and the CIRCLE JERKS and BLACK FLAG — all that kind of stuff [that we were into] — and we’re kind of back there [now]. So it’s been super fun.
“We’re not in a real hurry to get in the studio. Our focus is this tour and the touring and kind of celebrating THE BLACK CROWES and what we’ve done and where we started.”
THE BLACK CROWES‘ rescheduled tour will kick off on July 20 and July 21 at Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheatre and include 37 dates over a two-month period, concluding on September 25 at Bethel Woods in Bethel, New York. Bassist Sven Pipien, who played with the band live from 1997 up until the band’s hiatus in 2015, will rejoin THE BLACK CROWES for the reunion trek. The rest of the band will consist of Brian Griffin on drums, Joel Robinow on keyboards and Isaiah Mitchell on guitar, plus backup singers Mackenzie Adams and Leslie Grant. All tickets purchased for the 2020 dates will be honored at the 2021 shows.
When THE BLACK CROWES announced their split in 2014, Rich issued a statement saying that he loved his brother and respected his talent but that “his present demand that I must give up my equal share of the band and that our drummer for 28 years and original partner, Steve Gorman, relinquish 100 percent of his share … is not something I could agree to.”
“Shake Your Money Maker” was re-released in multi-formats sets in February through UMe/American Recordings. The album, fueled by singles “Jealous Again”, “Twice As Hard”, “She Talks To Angels” and a cover of fellow Georgian Otis Redding‘s “Hard To Handle”, has sold over five million copies.
