Joining us for a special Audacy Check In with host Jason Bailey today is Chris Robinson, frontman of The Black Crowes, discussing the band's upcoming album, Happiness Bastards, their brand new single, "Wanting And Waiting," and what the group has in store next for fans in this new era.
LISTEN NOW: Audacy Check In with The Black Crowes
15 years since their last collection of new music, The Black Crowes are set to release Happiness Bastards, their 10th studio album on March 15, 2024. Plus, the first single from the forthcoming release, "Wanting And Waiting," is streaming everywhere now.
With so much time and space separating the Robinson brothers over the past decade and a half since the band's last release -- 2009's Before the Frost...Until the Freeze -- Jason questioned whether there were any talks about having the new album come out within that timeframe.
"It took both My Brother and I's sort of expedition into the wilderness of our solo careers just to kind of take the heat off the kettle, and get into the world and see," Chris explains. "We went from basically living in Mom and Dad's house to being rock stars in a few years. But we never really had any perspective, you know, we never had any really time to untangle that."
"Not being in each other's lives and not having The Black Crowes... all the things that you know. For a long time, I was like, 'Wow!' I didn't really know we would be back," he says. "But then things happen... In my case, meeting the love of my life after all these years and having a partner in this that could really let me see things for what they are -- to be able to heal my relationship with Rich. And he would say the same thing."
“Personally, I think the most important thing was not doing any new music," Chris says of their return. "Let's get this band back together... let's hit the road. 'Cause that's the proving ground, if you will." Robinson adds, "There was no pressure really on us. There was a big pressure in 1992 after you sold six million records, and you're 24 years old, 25 years old, to keep that going."
Giving fans a look into the deep relationship between the brothers, Chris reveals, "Rich and I, with all of our very public art fighting and nasty bitterness and stuff, whenever we write, and that's always been our kind of safe haven in a way... We would fight in the studio, and we'd fight on tour, but we never really fought in the room together with guitars and notebooks –- so that part was really easy. I just think that's been the whole sort of thing that was lacking in The Black Crowes for many years. It's fun to be in this band. It's fun to be in the music business, and it's rewarding to write songs with my brother... and it's just very natural.”
Speaking on the topic of rekindling relationships and letting the past be, Chris admits, “If you don't have that attitude, then you're just mucking about in resentment and anger."
"I don't think either of us or anyone around us would be interested in that," he adds of the band dynamic. "I think being on tour and getting it together, getting our feet under us, and getting this whole thing in working order -- that we needed it to be fertile ground to finally make this new record. But the process of that was really different for us too. We worked with this producer Jay Joyce... we made this record in three weeks, not even three weeks, I mean, two and a half weeks of work. It all just kind of falls into place. We're very instinctive that way, and very visceral in the way Rich and I are completely different human beings but we both like to work fast and keep the energy going in the studio. I don't want to think too much. I want to feel.”
He and Rich are now "more checked in with how we're feeling and respect for one another, and our experiences. We're family, but we also have this band that we dreamed up one day back in the eighties. So, the responsibility lies for Rich and I to be brothers and be there for each other. We know when that is working, then the band is better. Everything is better in our lives, and you're not alone. You have someone."
Equating their relationship to some of the most powerful musical duos in Rock, Chris says, "It's so funny because there's just something about, you know, whether it’s [The Rolling Stones'] Mick [Jagger] and Keith [Richards], or whether it's [Aerosmith's] Steven [Tyler] and Joe [Perry] or [Led Zeppelin''s] Jimmy [Page] and Robert {Plant] -- I'm not comparing us to those bands, but we are family, you know? Don and Phil Everly or whatever, or Noel and Liam [Gallagher]... there's something about your partnership, the dynamic of that, and when it's good and when it's something as special... we should tend to that."
Don't miss our full Audacy Check In with The Black Crowes' Chris Robinson above -- and stay tuned for more conversations with your favorite artists on Audacy.com/live.
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