The big news of the day is announcement of a massive Black Crowes reunion tour marking the first time the band will tour together since 2013. Given the tense relationship between brothers Chris and Rich Robinson, it's remarkable fans will be able to see The Black Crowes playing on stage together again.
Rolling Stone spoke with the Robinson brothers on how the two were able to reconcile and begin celebrating the 30th anniversary of their debut record Shake Your Money Maker. The Robinson brothers hadn't spoken to each other for six years and it took a third party to bring the two together.
"It was the Long Island Medium who reached out to us via e-mail saying, "You two need to work it out."I told a third party, 'Man, it would just be cool to be able to play songs with my brother' and he said, 'Y'know, Chris said the same thing to me,'" Rich said.
Chris agrees telling Rolling Stone, "the real opportunity is to get my brother back and now I feel a compromise isn't such a big deal."
The Robinson brothers had a deep conversation regarding their relationship, admitting their own flaws that led to their temporary estrangement, but also revealing difficulties they were going through in their personal lives.
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One repeating theme throughout the interview is wanting to move forward. This is reflected in the current lineup of The Black Crowes where no former members are involved. "That was the first thing Rich and I agreed on, Chris said. He added, "we don't want anyone from the solo groups. We don't want anyone from the past."
The lineup includes guitarist Isiah Mitchell, Tim Lefebvre on bass, keyboardist Joel Robinow, and Ojha on drums.
Fans can go into the show expecting The Black Crowes in their purest form. For the Robinsons, that means going back to the beginning. "We went off into a lot of things. There's no jamming. There's no extraneous stuff. This is the purest Black Crowes that people first [heard] … I hope we reconnect with some people who lost their way with us because of all of our other s$%* we were doing," Chris said.
