Best known as the guitarist, songwriter, and founder of the Black Crowes, Rich Robinson is touring in support of his third solo record, The Ceaseless Sight.
I sat down with the man himself backstage at The Chapel during a recent show here in San Francisco to discuss the past, present, and all sorts of things rock ‘n’ roll.
My first question for you, back when you guys first hit the scene on Headbangers Ball, the Crowes were really nothing like any of the other bands they played and I wouldn’t call you a hair band per se. Was it part of the plan to debut your music there?
When we came out, that’s all there was—heavy metal—I mean, one of our first tours was with Metallica, AC/DC, and Queensryche.
You toured with Queensryche?
We were the first band on the stadium tour. It was us, Queensryche which—the techs for AC/DC called the Queens-wrong—so it was us, Queens-wrong, Motley Crue, Metallica, and AC/DC.
Did you like any of those bands?
I loved AC/DC.
When Nirvana came out did you foresee the demise of the genre?
Well, we really brought that down, I mean we weren’t solely responsible, but if you look at the context, that shit was dying. When our record came out, Shake Your Money Maker, it was so different from all that stuff, and it was the most played video on MTV that year. It was one of the biggest records of that year and it went on to sell over seven million copies.
Nirvana didn’t really come out until the beginning of—I want to say the beginning of when Southern Harmony came out, when that first video showed up. And I remember thinking like, “Wow this is really cool.” If you really think about it, it’s roots music. Nirvana was way into The Police and The Replacements and punk-pop music which was The Replacements all day, even lyrically. I thought it was a little heavier than The Replacements, but it was cool.
Soundgarden was way into Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, and Pearl Jam was just a straight ahead rock band, but everyone got so caught up in this weird labeling thing, and then in trying to separate it out. We were kind of in the middle, and I remember—as we were touring and growing and doing our thing—I think people started looking at that because it was a little bit silly—minus some of the bands like Guns ‘n Roses.
I was photographing The London Quireboys recently—I’m sure you remember them right?
Oh yeah, they came out—I remember it was us and them at first, those were the two bands. I remember when we first went to LA they had a huge push behind them—and then…
Were they being called “the next Black Crowes” then?
They came out the same time…
Oh yeah, “Seven O’clock” right, that’s the song?
Yeah.
When you are writing songs or have ideas—what determines which ones become a Crowes song or Rich Robinson solo song?
I mean the Crows don’t really record anymore—we haven’t recorded a new record, or new material since 2008. And it’s really not that pleasant anymore, so when I write it’s pretty much for me.
I was listening to “Down The Road” from the new record. It sounds like it has a lot of layers to it and has a real Led Zeppelin III feel to it. Would you say that’s accurate?
Yeah, absolutely.
You’ve got four guys in the studio…you’re producing this thing—how long does it take to put the song together and how many layers are there if you don’t mind me asking?
Well, it was just me and Joe (Magistro) making the record and then we brought in Marco to do overdubs on the keyboards. So, there’s acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and there’s a lot of drums and percussion…then Marco comes in with the keyboards. But that song in particular, I think, was only two acoustic guitars in unison and then my electric guitar that I had run through an echoplex.
I mean it’s got a full sound, it’s just so—I mean it doesn’t sound like an indie record, right?
Yeah.
It just sounds really polished.
I think it sounds really good, but I’ve been doing it for 25 years.
My favorite track on the record is “Inside.” I really dig the funk vibe. It sounds like a mashup of New Orleans funk with some Sly and the Family Stone.
I’m a huge fun of Sly. We grew up listening to Stand, Fresh, and even Parliament Funkadelic. I was a big fan of Prince as well for a long time.
Have you met Prince?
I’ve never met him but I loved his music. I remember the first record that we heard was, I think it was just called Prince, that song “Why You Want To Treat Me So Bad.” It’s a great song. He wrote some really good stuff, amazing things…
Where is the most unusual place you’ve heard your music over the years?
I want to say like “She Talks to Angels” was in an elevator or something. I guess that’s not too weird.
Having four children, do you write any songs specifically about them?
My children are in everything I do but I don’t specifically call them out, you know what I mean? Inspiration comes from life and it comes from everything around and it comes from your family, the place you live, or things you see, or music you hear, or a movie—it can come from anywhere.
But especially music, that’s so subconscious for me. It’s not like so, “I was angry and I’m going to write and angry song.” It’s just something…it just comes when it comes. And so I’ve never really thought about it that way, but yeah all of that is in what I do. Maybe it’s not too obvious.
I am having my first in November.
Nice—congratulations.
Any tips for a first time father?
It’s pretty shocking when you first have a kid, but I mean in a great way. You really have to shift as a human. You have to—depending on how you are. You can’t be about yourself anymore you have to be about them. For some people that’s hard while others just kind of fit right in when that baby comes out. It’s a really amazing thing.
I read somewhere that you still have your first guitar?
No, not any more. My guitars were flooded out..I lost about sixty guitars.
During Hurricane Sandy?
Yeah. I got her back though. It’s not my first guitar—it’s the guitar I recorded Shake Your Money Maker with. It was pretty much destroyed and it took a year to restore, but now it’s back and I still play it.
Is it here with you?
Yes!
I also read somewhere that you love the sloppiness of Keith Richards but I’m wondering since you did play alongside Jimmy Page, what you thought of him?
Jimmy was sloppy too.
Yeah, on Zeppelin II he was missing notes all over the place!
Yeah, but look man, when you are that good it doesn’t matter. I mean that’s the thing—I think people get too barbed down in the technicality of things. It’s all feelings, it’s just feel to me.
Did Jimmy give you any tips?
No, we just got to hang. Jimmy was more like hanging out with a friend, there wasn’t any divide between him and us, he was basically in our band. We just felt like he was one of us.
He told you some stories about Peter Green I heard.
He did yeah, he would give me CDs. He gave me these CDs from David Graham who was one of his favorite guys. He was an English blues player who played on a twelve string. He loved him and I remember he found this one very specific song, it was a Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee song called “Beautiful City.” He found and he was like, “You gotta listen to this…” and he burned the CD for me. Then he would give us Peter Green records and talk about how everyone thought Peter Green was the shit.
Favorite touring moment past or present—anything that sticks in your head?
When we opened for the Stones we were allowed to hang behind Keith’s amps which I guess no one really ever did. So Chris and I would stand behind Keith’s amps and Charlie is like literally right there. There were a few times when Charlie,Woody, Mick, and Keith were all standing around looking over at us and it was just one of those moments where you are like, “Fuck, are you kidding?”
So, you have a signature amp. What’s the story behind that?
Yes, Reason. They’re a small company out of St. Louis.
My hometown…
Obeid Khan used to work for Ampeg, he was the guy who designed the tube amps. So he brings these amps and I said I just want to stick with whatever I’m using and I’m sick of always trying to change. And my guitar tech was like, man you got to hear it, so I said all right, bring it down. He did and it was the best amp I’ve ever heard. So, I bought a few and I used them.
They are really cool people and then they came to me and said we want to do a signature model—why don’t we do it all together? So, I got to design what I wanted. I went through—took the amp that I loved and just shifted it a little bit and added the things that I wanted. I didn’t like multiple channels, it was just one channel that I added some vibrato on it. It’s great…
I heard you are a fan of vinyl records. Are there any prized pieces in your collection?
I have a couple. For whatever reason, my brother got all my vinyl, but I didn’t have much when I was a kid. We all just kind of shared. I probably had 10 or 20 records.
Did you and Chris fight over any records?
No…
What was the first record you bought with your own money?
I think it was Murmur or Chronic Town by R.E.M.
Do you still talk to anyone from Columbia records and are there any anniversary editions coming on the classic Crowes records?
I heard that they re-released Live at the Greek on vinyl but we weren’t told about it. And then I heard that someone re-released Amorica, maybe on white vinyl.
You paint in your spare time. Do you have a gallery show coming?
I had few shows but I haven’t really pushed anything big. I have been working with this association in L.A called Los Angeles Art Association and I gave them a painting for charity to raise money for local area artists. I’ve had a few shows but they’ve been more like private shows that friends would put on. My brother-in-law put on a show in Malibu…he showed about 25 and I showed about 25 pieces.
So, where can someone find your art?
Rich Robinson’s brand new full length release, The Ceaseless Sight is in stores now. On vinyl.
iTunes | Omega Order
