Latest / Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond / Chris Robinson

Transcript

Chris Robinson · Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Pushkin. Sixteen years have passed since The Black Crows last
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: put out an album of all new material. The world
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: changed a lot since then, and it appears so have
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the Robinson brothers. Chris and Rich Robinson are, of course
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the backbone of the group. They started together back in
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Georgia in eighty four as Mister Crow's Garden before moving
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: to NYC, signing with Death American and changing their name
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: to The Black Crows. The band's debut album, Shake Your
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Money Makers set them up as torch bearers of Southern
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: rock for the nineties and beyond. As you'll hear in
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: our conversation, the brothers Robinson have had a competitive relationship
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: for a long time. Their ups and downs have meant
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: hiatuses for the band over the years, but now they're
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: back united and seemingly in it for the long haul
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: with their new album Happiness Bastards. On today's episode, I
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: talked to Chris Robinson about his growing up in Georgia
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: with Rich, their dad's rockabilly career, his listening routine that
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: includes Sudanese and Sufi music, and how his road habits
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: have changed from indulging in champagne and other substances to
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: reading Herman Melville. This is broken record liner notes for
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the digital Age. I'm justin Mitchman. Here's my conversation with
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Chris Robinson of the Black Crows. Is that a gun
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: club like the band? Sure that you go on?
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, oh hell yeah. I love gun Club man.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Jeffrey Lee Pierce one of my faves. And it's funny because,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: you know, when we started, people would always say we
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: sounded like and we did. We had, you know, there
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: was the Jengle sort of indie pop thing, Rim of
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: course being the purveyors of that, but Let's Active and
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: the DBS and then bands from California like Game Theory.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: We kind of were into like this kind of jangly
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: sixties inspired but we really sounded early days a lot
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: like the gun Club, you know, because gun Club and
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: X are very interesting to me, and the like early
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: punk scene here in Los Angeles because they were the well,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: I guess you could put the Blasters and the plugs
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: in there too.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Blasters are from esp though, right.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Oh, Blasters are a LA band too, you are they?
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Okay? Cool?
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: They had those kind of rootsyed things, you know, and
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: it would be really early on that we would think like, okay, well,
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Jeffery Lee Pierce is like a punk icon, but he
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: plays with Robert Johnson song on the first record, you know,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: I mean, it doesn't like Robert Johnson, but needless to say,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: he found great inspiration and the mythology and the imagery
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: and the vibration of like the blues and stuff which
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: other punk bands really didn't.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Whatever music is happening in La, there's always some subset
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: of it that countrifies it. You know. It's like even
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: with the Birds, like Sweetheart of the Rodeo, like all
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: that stuff, Like the Birds got into that, and you know,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I don't know you could even feel that with Buffalo
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Springfield and I mean, I know, like Neil from Canada
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: or whatnot. But they're making music here, you know, of course.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Of course, well I mean, you know, I mean, while
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: that's going on, Tim Buckley's here and you know what
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I mean. And while that's going on, you have bands
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: like the Chambers Brothers and Eric Burden Leaves the Animals
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: and Northern English White Band playing blues music. And then
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: he's the lead singer of War It.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: War is like such a quintessential La Long Beach of
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: fact group, you know.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think obviously there's subsequent most famous records
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: don't include Eric Burdon. Yeah, And it's funny. It also
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: just goes to show how that's just how music is,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: isn't it. You know what I mean? I mean, I
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: guess you obviously you can make examples of things that
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: seem heavy handed or things that don't contain a certain authenticity.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: But I mean that was a big deal when I
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: you know, talking about growing up in a band, being
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: from Atlanta, being like in a arguably the most progressive
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: city in terms of race relations, and if not America
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: and maybe globally.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: That's interesting. It probably has to be. I mean, you
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: might I might have been coming to say New Orleans,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: but I think when you kind of look at the
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: musical legacy of Atlanta over the last I.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Mean New Orleans most definitely, but Atlanta is different because
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: of the black universities, yeah, like kind of concentrated there,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: and Atlanta having Maynor Jackson as the first black mayor
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: the first black police chief for the black police force
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: in the Deep South.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: When I first landed in Atlanta, I got to say,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: coming from LA because I grew up in La. When
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: I first landed in Atlanta, I'm in the airport, I'm like,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: with a whim, like, how the.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Whole airport is black? This is crazy. It was the
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: weirdest experience for me. Funny, that's funny. And as I said,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: I'm a third generation Atlantan and I don't really make
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: the connection of being like I'm a Southern person, but
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: my connection is with Atlanta. Yeah. And so so it's
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: funny because Maynard Jackson is the guy who when Hartfield
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: International Airport becomes an international airport, He's the one who's like,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: we're not doing anything unless black business owners are recognized
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: and have a piece in this and what that can
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: mean for the community. Something very subtle like that still reverberates,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: I think, and besides the culture, because you start to
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: see Atlanta also be a city, you know, famous for
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: the musicians and the hip hop and the athletes that
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: I'll move there. But the reason that becomes attractive is
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: because of decisions like that and the hard line that
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: someone like mayn Or Jackson would take, and how Atlanta
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: had been pried open. Of course, having the Great Reverend
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Bee from there, you know, gives Atlanta a different perspective,
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: but I don't know. It's a unique place in that way.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: And it's funny, like I speak on it from the past,
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: because I really left first check, I got into Black Crows.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: I moved to New York. Being in a band to
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: me was like, you know, shooting an arrow over the mountain,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: like just I wanted to get out in the world.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Had you been to New York before we moved there?
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, Actually, you know our dad, richardized dad was
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: a singer. He had a top forty rock and roll
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: hit in the fifties called Boom a Dip Dip. You
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: can check it out on Spotify.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: I've listened to some of that stuff.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Very good, man, it's really good. Yeah, it's a good song.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: And so I really happened and looked at New York
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: and he was like, you know, into the theater and
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: music and acting and dance, you know. So he wanted
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: that too at a certain time in his life, and
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: he was in New York. And it's funny. My mom
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: was a flight attendant for the old Eastern Airlines, and
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: you know, it's funny she told me, she goes, Oh,
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: I served doctor King many times on flight side of Atlanta. Wow,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: I always really blew my mind as a kid.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: You know, of course she did. I would make I mean,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: how many flights out of Atlanta? Musty have taken that
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: out all.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: The time, you know? You know. So I moved to
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: New York first, and I still love New York and
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: some of my deepest connections and friendships are there. My
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: wife and I just got back from there yesterday. But
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: I came to Los Angeles, and I don't know, it
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: was farther away from Georgia, from everything. I mean, California
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: has an idea California. Later I would get to know
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: far more about this state. And I lived up north
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: for six years, and I was in this little hippie
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: band and we started. We did nine weeks just up
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: and down California in the van, playing all the little
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: beach towns and hippie towns. And you know, I got
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: a real appreciation for do you remember hughle.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Houser, Oh, come on, man, California's goal.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Baby. I was like the psychedelic hule Houser, you know
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: what I mean, you know hil Hauser. I was like,
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: so this is an atobe.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: He was amazed about everything too, He's like, so this
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: is a ball of Manuda. I love hul Hauser Lake
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: great Man, the late great hutle Hauser Man. I love
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: and you know what, he was always so excited he
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: saw mission from San Diego to like, you know, the
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Oregon border, so that the mission like so excited.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Everything was ecstatic to him. It was crazy. It was
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: so that was that was a funny show to watch.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Man. I loved it.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: When I moved here, I was like, what is this?
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Is this good? I also am lucky that when I'm
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: I'm so I moved here. In ninety one early ninety two,
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: that was the golden age of public television. Yeah, I'm
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: the weirdest, weirdest of the weird stuff would come on
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: TV Man on the couple of public stations on your cable,
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: like Channel six and Channel fourteen or whatever, the most unimaginably,
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: I mean obviously like Tim and Eric. I don't know
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: if you ever got into Tim and Hell. Yeah, Tim
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: and Eric like take the inspiration of that into their
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: twisted world for the series, which is still some of
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: my favorite stuff. You don't need a Chinese massage, you
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: need an Italian massage. It was fantastic you know what
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, And you know the other thing about things
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: that were really I've always been interested in outsider culture,
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: you know, when those would be like driven by like this,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: but because of Hollywood, it made it even weirder, Like
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: I'm on TV now I'm famous too, you know what
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, pre dating the psychoses that has become social media,
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. People always describe LA when they come to
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: LA as being closer to the industry, as being closer
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: to things. But I also find that you can find
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: your niches and stay way out of the way of
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: the industry if you want. I did it.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean when I moved to Topanga Canyon at
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: a certain point, I moved to Topanga because I have
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: these romantic notions of what northern California, what I've been
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: to northern California, but what it might feel like not
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: to be in LA, but to still be able to
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: be in LA for different reasons. I'm of the firm
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: belief that Los Angeles is one of the great cities
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: world and which is also unique because of how new
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: this city is comparatively. In eighteen sixty there's five thousand
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: people living here. That's wild ranchers and spread out and
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: it's just come over from Mexican rule and stuff from
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: that government. And they had, you know, gave everyone deeds
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: to these mass affincas and ranches and things that were
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: all of California, you know. So it's not that old
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: in the big scheme of things. But the other funny
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: thing is when I came here, I was I laugh
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: all the time because was like growing up in Atlanta
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: or whatever. In nineteen I had my first sushi in
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: nineteen eighty nine. My guy ended up being our manager, Like,
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: took me and Rich with some friends to get sushi.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: And that place is called Imperial Gardens or whatever. It
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: was right there on Sunset. It's now like a Loco
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: place or something, but it was the Roxbury later. But anyway,
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: were sitting there and like, of course I know what
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: it is, but I'm you know, standing Nancy Robinson in Atlanta.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: We didn't, you know what I mean. Like I remember
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: being sixteen and telling my dad, like coming downstairs one day,
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: I was like, why have we never had Indian food?
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: My dad was like, you're right, we should go get it.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: And I was like we all drove to the one
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Indian restaurant, you know, and it was amazing. Wow, I'm
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: here in nineteen eighty nine. I'm still working on the
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: first album, and I'm a kid from Atlanta. But the
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: cool thing is it's a mentality. You get farther away
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: from where you come from, and like anything else, you
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: figure out what's delicious about it and what's special about it,
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: and now it has a place in your culinary like
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: thing that tonight's sushi, we want to go and you
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: know what I mean, And then you can on that level.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: But there was one time where you're you know, I
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: come to La I don't know anything about anything, and
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: I don't even know what this is.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: How far removed from Atlanta do you feel now? Like
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: do you feel like an atlantin?
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: I mean not especially, And none of that is to
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: be taken as if Atlanta has feelings. I do love
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Atlanta more than ever. But it's also I like the
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: remnants of the Atlanta that I remembered, so when you
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: go back you don't see the I mean, man, it's changed.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: There was this thing on Peach Street called the Darlington Apartments,
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: and there it used to have this digital thing and
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: it would be like two million nine nine, you know
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: what I mean that, you know, and it was the
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: population and it got older. With the population sign it
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: got bigger and it went to three million in nineteen ninety. Wow.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: You know. We used to hang around this monthly thing
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: called the Mudshack at this after hours Mexican burrita place,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: and it was a poetry.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Reading and just the poet would get it on stage, like.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: I live in a city of three million people, as
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: if it was like, you know this Atlanta of this
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: it's almost eight million people now.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, right, that sounds about right. It's huge went
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: on there?
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: I mean, of course I love it, But most a
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: lot of the Atlanta you know, the house where we
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: used to rehearse and have parties is now the Federal Reserve.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: The club that we based all our rock and roll
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: dreams and mythology on is now at that you know,
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: a place where people go get stitches.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Or whatever, you know what I mean, Like all of
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: that kind.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: Of stuff from back in the eighties, whenever the world
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: was new and music was all our career was ahead
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: of us. That's all kind of gone. Yeah, you can
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: see that, the skeleton of it, you know what I mean?
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, wellcome back with more of my interview with Chris Robinson.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: After this quick break, we're back with Chris Robinson. Do
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: you get excited to tour these days?
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Like?
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Can you still get excited about it?
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: I do? I do. It was funny. I've done a
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: couple of interviews for this project and I'm like shocked
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: that the people have said, you're the first musician who
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: says they still find inspiration doing what you do and
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: being on tour, they say is so boring. I'm like,
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: I've never lost the dream. And again, I've never been bored,
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean, even as a kid, like
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: with my mom and go to your room, I'd be like,
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: I'm amazing. That's all I want to do. All records
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: are in there, the books I'm reading are in there.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: I can draw, I can dream, you know what I
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: mean daydream? I mean I was somewhere there's a permanent
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: record of me, and all it says is prone to daydreaming.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Not very good at math. But I was saying, I
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: mean it's just the way it is. I mean, is
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: it tedious sometimes? Fuck yes, I'm fifty seven now. Airports
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: fucking suck. Not every gig is a magical experience, but
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: you never know who you're gonna meet, and it could
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: be anyone. It could be the Guyanese uber driver who
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: pitch you up in Saint Louis, who's fucking hilarious, an amazing,
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: soulful person who's left a life behind to try to
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: eke out something better, and like it's so brave and courageous,
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: and you know, and you're only with this person eight
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: minutes from the airport or whatever, and you just two
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: people in the world laughing in a car. You know.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: But that little thing that doesn't even necessarily have to
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: be a part of the narrative. It just has to
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: be a part of that. You still believe that there's
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: dynamic and meeting people and talking and laughing and sometimes crying.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: But I'm just naive enough to still see it as
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: in the same way that I wanted. I picked music
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: on a lot of levels because I knew it was
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: the one thing that I would travel all the time. Yeah,
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: and then you set up your little thing and then
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: you put your vibes out there. You know, it is
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: pretty rare.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: I feel like, listening to you talk, the only other
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: person who has had a level of success that you've
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: had and towards as much as you do, and travels
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: as much as you do. That seems to still love it.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: I got lucky. I met Quincy Jones in Havana maybe
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: ten years ago, and the joy he has to like
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: travel and just talk to anybody. It's like he's like, yeah,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: he'll tell Sinatra stories, and I'll tell the story about
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: like the cab Driver and like Memphis, and you're like
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: everything is like new and fun and interesting in every
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: person and everything and every sound and every that's a
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: particular joy that you don't find in a lot of
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: a lot of people.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Like I said, I understand, and you know, you get older.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: It also helps in my life that after all the
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: rock and roll and all the experiences that I found
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Camille my wife, because I found someone who she understands
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: that some of that is problematic and some of it's
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: pain in the ass, and some of it is like
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: can't we just be do normal something? And like, by
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: the way, we could talk about that and do our best.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: But then she also realizes, like she's an artist and
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: she's Piss's queen Moonstone child out in the world, you know,
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: who wants to feel these things too, And you know.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: My thing is the pandemic was such a fucking head trip. Personally,
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: I didn't really find it creative. I found it stifling.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: But we were lucky enough to live out in the
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: wilds of West Marina and then we were in Southwest
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Colorado amazing, Yeah, which was really really help. But one
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: thing I thought I would really flip out on was
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: it was the first time since I was basically a
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: teenager where I wasn't working and touring and singing and
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: playing and doing the whole spiel. And you know what,
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: it was rad really you liked it. Wow, my head
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: didn't fall off, you know, our lives didn't, you know,
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: disintegrate into nothing. It was nice. I had time for
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: a lot of other things. And it's funny the travel
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: part of it. I was just talking to my manager
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: Mark last night about how at a certain point it
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: would be nice to bow out from forming the way
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: we perform before. I can't because I love the travel
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: and we fit in the things that we want to.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: But it's different to be in a place for you know,
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: we're going to Paris, I'm gonna see my friends. I
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: know all the restaurants I want to go to. I
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: know all the things I want to do, but you
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: got to leave in two days. Yeah, yeah, and you
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: have a show. When I was a kid, I didn't care.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: We would just party, go out, champagne, drugs, this that,
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: two days, do the gig, go do the gig. You know,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: like just all one thing was so when you're young,
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: you can do it, you know what I mean. I
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: don't feel that now. I'm really happy being in the
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Black Crows and really fulfilling and satisfying and gratifying. But
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: at a certain point, I just want to take my
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: wife and go to Sicily and eat linguini and clams
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: and like you.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Know, drink whine and you know, read Moby Dick.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: For the third time or whatever. You know what I mean.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: I just want to just be a part of everything
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: going on. There's lots of places I haven't traveled. I
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: haven't been to Africa. I've always wanted to go to Africa,
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean. That would be nice to
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: have some time to do that. And because Africa is
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: such a huge thing too, you know, I'm really interested
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: in West Africa. I'd like to go to North Africa.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Be cool, to see the East Africa, be good.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean, what interest you in West Africa?
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I think maybe it has something to
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: do just with the I mean, I love North African music,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: but there's you know a lot of those West African
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: music could be because of the horrors of mankind and
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: the horrors of the slave trade, human beings found a
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: way somehow, through the vileness of that to communicate and
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: share things in art and music, cuisine. Yeah, so many
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: African parts of especially in the Deep South, and people
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: wouldn't they don't even know they're they're they're under educated anyway.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: But with these things, you know, it's like, oh, every
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: Southern person and loves the fried okra, but okra came
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: over from Africa, you know, right before that, ochra came
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: from India to Africa. So just dumb things like that,
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: Plants and fruits, vegetables, natural things and supernatural things that
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: were brought over that could never be extinged with. And
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: I just have some sort of and I don't even
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: know what it is, because I'm not obviously that knowledgeable
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: as other people, but I can put a few things
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: together and realize, you know, so much of the music, singing,
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: rhythm things guitar things, especially string things come from a
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: West African musical tradition that represents like this African mysticism
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: and magic as well, that manifests when people express themselves
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: vocally and rhythmically and with melody and things, you know,
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: like a simple as something like a string guitar, And
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: that is something that would draw me there first, be
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: that in a first person and see what it feels
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: like for me as a real outsider. Yeah, outside your
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: culture is important to me just because of whether my
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: dyslexia or just whatever my tastes and my where I
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: would find the things in life that are interesting that
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: make me happy, things that I can understand or help
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: me for things that I don't understand to understand, you know,
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: So a lot of that you have to kind of
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: just vibe out viscerally fine, and I would be curious
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: to see what it feels like.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Wow, we've gone from like psychedelic qal Houserd to
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: like psychedelic.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: Like Anthony Bourdain or some shit.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: I've gone global.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: Now call my agent. I'm down to do this job.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: That's amazing, man, I want to check out like Robert
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Plant goes to rock O Go.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he loves the Sufi music and the North African music.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: And it's funny because I have this app where you
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: can listen to radio stations all over the world. But
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: it's like, wow, right on, man, I want to listen
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: to some like rad Cambodia music, It's like, uh, it's
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Nicki Minaj like everywhere else. I know.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: That's that's kind of a bummer about radio.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: I mean it's it's like, which is cool. I'm not
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: bagging Nicki mi nuts, but I'm like, I'm thinking I'm
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: gonna like get hip to some thing I've never heard,
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: some regional vibes or whatever. And then it's like, oh,
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: it's the same shit they're playing here, is it that
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: radio app?
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Like yeah, oh so cool.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: But there's some in Morocco. And then there's a certain
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: kind of music that the horrors of things. There was
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: a slave trade in Africa for a long time too,
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: you know that within in Africa, and they're bringing sub
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: Saharan Africans to North Africa. But a great musical art
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: form is born from it that still exists today, and
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: there's whole radio stations that play it and they're basically
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: a living blues it's the same tradition of like the
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: pain and suffering of the blues that these people brought
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: with them that still lives today and it's now celebrated
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: as rebel songs. Almost.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like those North African like guitar but I
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: don't know how to pronounce their names, but like or something, yeah, right.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: I saw their first show in New York many years ago. Really,
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: I love that music, and I love Sudanese music, and
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: then you go over. I love Persian classical music, I
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: love music from Afghanistan, and I love Turkish music. You know,
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: I really have a lot of diverse interest in things
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: After this last break, we'll be back with more of
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Chris Robinson. We're back with the rest of my conversation
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: with Chris Robinson within the Crows. Like maybe, like with
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: your brother, for instance, does he have a similar musical palette.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: I think he has an appreciation. I don't think his
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: palette is as wide as mine, and he would admit
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: that I'm not. You know. He always said, like growing
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: up like Chris would bring back way more records than
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: I would listen to, or some I wouldn't be interested in.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: But I got to he could be able to cherry
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: pick what he liked, and he loves classical Indian music.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: I listened to like Mesopotamium, Sheep the music and stuff,
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean. Like, I'm really into a
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: lot of different things.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Do you listen to that stuff more than like rock
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: and roll? Like you'd rather reach for that than a
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Stones record?
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I listened to all day long, Like I like
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: to start the morning with something mellow. We'll listen to
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: a lot of Indian classical music, or personally, I like
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: to start my mornings with the late great Ben Webster
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: or some think Lester Young. I love the pres you know,
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: but we also love Rossan Rolling Kirk, and we love
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: the Lonius Monk, and we love Bobby Timm bud Path.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: We listened to a lot of jazz. We listened to
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: a lot of blues, country, R M B, funk, soul,
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: rock and roll, punk music, post punk music like tronic music,
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: rossa music.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: You know, Share your Spotify right now, Share that Spotify
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: trying to.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: I don't have Spotify envy, man, you know, Like I'm
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: just obsessed, you know what I mean? And I my
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: obsessions maybe made me way more difficult as a youth
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: in the music business because I also associated a certain authenticity, passion,
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: and purity to my obsessions and what I wanted to say.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: But I also have a waking life with music that
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: has nothing to do with me making music or being
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: a musician. Yeah, those things are simpatico, but I'm sure
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: it's annoying. I'm the guy who I get the car
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: to drive down to eat dinner and West Tli and
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: I'm like, hey, man.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Can I play the spot? Oh yeah, in the car, dude.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: I got to skicked out of a sushi spot one
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: time because I asked them to change the music. And
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: then they opened the same sushi spot across town, so
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: we tried to go there a year and a half later.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Turned the same lady with something. She's like, you look familiar.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: I was like, I don't know, I don't know. No, no, no,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: I wasn't. So did you ask me to turn off
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: the music one time?
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: I was like no, no, no, no, it must have been
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: my brother. I don't know. It wasn't me, Like, hey, hey,
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: so she's not coming in here.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: They weren't happy, but I was like, just changed it.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: I could tell it wasn't like pre pro it's like
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: it's all you're on serious or some shit.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Just change the stage.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: I saw a mask.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: I'm just always you know what I mean. I've just
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: been adventurous and things I can access what makes things
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: interesting to me. But I do that with with a
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: lot of art. I do that not with music, but
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: with literature, cinema, most definitely comedy as well.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: So it's all that going through your mind as you're
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: writing lyrics for The Crows or for your other groups.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: I imagine, yeah, I imagine it's something. It's all in there.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: But I think when it's time to focus, like on
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: writing a lyric or whatever. I've written songs with other people.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: I've written many songs on my own. The thing that
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: is the Black Crows is Rich and ize contribution together.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: You know, rich, whatever he's coming from will play me something.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of psychic energy involved in it as well,
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: and music is a great conduit to open those kind
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: of psychic channels.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: And do you go into it with that intention, like
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: do you have to set out to do that or
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: does it happen?
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: I think there's other musicians who can do the fuck
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: in math and know all the shit and they do
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: another thing. I've only ever been able to access it
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: this way. Got it is my process because of however,
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: because we didn't learn music. We don't know shit about music.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: I don't read music. Rich doesn't read music.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: But we know what it feels like and we know
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: what sounds right, and then you keep doing that. Of course,
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: through that your vocabulary is bigger. But we maybe are
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: using different words than people who are more knowledgeable about
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: the inner workings and mathematics the arithmetic of music. Yeah,
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: and that it's escapes us. But I think it's also
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: in our that makes it folk and that makes you
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: know what I mean, there's some sort of that's why
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: we look at it more and like it's kind of magic.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: When a song happens out of the blue. One minute,
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: there's nothing, one little thing like this, and then I
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: get an idea, and then that changes what Rich is doing.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: And then it's all dictated by whatever the vibe is
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: that Rich plays me. There's an emotional ingredient to what
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: he plays me, like our probably the most famous song
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: as She Talks to Angels. He wrote that song. He
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: was very young with the riff, and then we probably
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: didn't get to it till like a year later when
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: but we would be playing things around mom and Dad's house.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: He's like seventeen when he wrote that, Yes, I would
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: be nineteen.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: So there's something about the way he pulls that first
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: inn and then that would just put me in a
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: place to write a song with that kind of dark, romantic,
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: melancholy imagery. But we do that today, and we do that,
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: I think, especially if we get around to where we're
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: going right now with this Happiness Bastards record and stuff.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think that's exactly what we've done with this.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's a lot more rock and roll on it.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: There's a lot more water under the bridge. We've lived
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: a lot personally. I'm one of those people and I
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: have two children and we want everything to be the best.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: But I'm also not afraid of adversity, because I don't
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: think you should be afraid of something that you have
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: to find acceptance with, you know what I mean, Because
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: it doesn't matter who you are, what you do, if
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: you do it to yourself, if someone's doing it to you,
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: if you have the means, if you don't have the means,
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: No one escapes adversity, and it changes you know what
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, how we deal with it. The great energy
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: and power of youth and where we came from in
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: rock and roll was the anger, the fuck you part
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: of it.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, even with each other.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, but that boils into that. Yeah. I mean
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: it's like live fire, you know, and like but it's
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: also a great you know, if you can get that
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: into the dude, and you can get in the studio
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: and get it on there. You know, we weren't clever
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: enough to do the math. We were only clever enough
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: to wear our emotions on our sleeves.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: Did your parents pick up on your guys's tension?
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: Yes, I mean, fuck, I mean even more so probably
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: the older we would get, but they weren't around when
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: it was like, for some reason, you know, we he
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: had his own bedroom. I had my own bedroom when
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: we lived in the suburbs, and I had like a
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: twin bed and a desk, stereo whatever. Rich had like
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: a queen size Bendings room for some reason. I don't
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: know why we ever got that. But it was funny
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: because when we were kids and it would be like
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: if we started getting annoyed, we'd have this game where
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: we'd both get on the bed, and he'd be like
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: I'm mad Max and I'm like I'm Snake pliskt and
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: then we would like who could who would win in
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: a fight? Mad Max or Snake clisktting? Like whoever could?
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: Like fucking throw the other one off the bed? Was
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: like the Winnersten Snake always win in that got a
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: batch on the eye, fucking cool outfit. I was like,
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: it's my motherfucker there, you know, but like dumb show
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: like guy. And then we've said it before, but we
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: fought brothers fight, but we would never punch each other
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: in the face. We would hit each other bodyguards, throws
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: at each other, try to strangle each other, nothing from
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: the neck up. It was weird. I don't know that
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: rule always.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Applied, unspoken, unwritten, just.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: As if that makes it like worse than all the
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: other cruel shit. I love it, man, I love it.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Ye Snake doesn't need muscles though, just being a pure
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: badass is sometimes enough.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they couldn't stop, you know what I mean? The
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: craziest come out from under the street. He gets away
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: from all of them.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: Didn't matter. So great soundtrack to that amazing soundtrack. John
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Comber is always the favorite one is.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: A movie he made called, uh is it called the
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: Prince of Darkness?
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: You know that movie?
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: I don't know that one part of the trilogy he
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: did that. I think that Escape from New York, Prince
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: of Darkness and maybe they See or whatever. I think
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: those are like a trilogy he made. But Prince of
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: Darkness is a really cool movie. Like in this weird
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: church in Oakland or whatever is like where evil is
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: and like this liquid container and like these people find
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: it's really deep. Man. But the sound that one's really
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: I listened to it all the time.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: I missed that one. I like, I like Assault on
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: Precinct thirteen.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: That soundtracks amazing, very far ahead of his time, actually.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Way ahead of his time. It sounds like what's you know,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: like a lot of like electronic composers would now go for.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: Is he from Kentucky? I think originally is from Kentucky.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: It's like if Tangerine Dream were from Kentucky. Yeah, yeah, right,
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: Tangerine Dream is from Kentucky. Maybe they just call that
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: like Pineapple upside down cake Dreamers.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: How do you feel with a new record? I think
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: it sounds amazing.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're very happy. I think we were really focused
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: on what we wanted the record to be touring the
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: last few years and doing the Shak Your Money Makers show.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: At first, I was a little bit I had a
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: little trepidation about it, just because I was like, Oh,
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: isn't that what other bands kind of get into sometimes,
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: is playing their most popular record or whatever. Yeah, But
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: once I thought about it, and I thought, Yo, don't
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: think about it, just do it. This is important record
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: to you know, this is where it all begins for us,
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: and let's revisit it. Let's see what happens if we
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: remove ourselves from the way of thinking before. You know,
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: why did I think that was dumb? Maybe it's not.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: Maybe there's something there. And I think part of where
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: the Black Crows are today is getting out of our
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: way and you know, don't think it, do it, and
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: then you'll have more information about what works and what doesn't.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: And it was fantastic, And that was kind of the
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: impetus to get us to like a real focus, up
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: tempo rock and roll record that hits all the notes.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: I think that we finally didn't have the perspective to
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: know what the Black Crows sound like, and to me,
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: happens Bastards is like an arrow pointed towards the future
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: for us of what the Black Crows could be. And
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: once we work with a guy like Jay Joyce who
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: produced the record, who's very successful, popular producer. We've never
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: really worked with like a super producer like that. And
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: you know, we met so many talented people and had
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: so many great conversations. There's just something about Jay. Well,
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: first off, we felt like this guy not only can
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: we get him, but he could get us, and we're
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: incapable of doing something that we don't feel is sincere,
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: sincere to us of what we want to do and
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: how it sounds. And of course when he comes on board,
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: he starts to help shape the songs as well, like,
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: all right, we have a discussion about what I think
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: the record should be. What's the concept in a sense?
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, you can't do it one hundred percent because
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: it's music and things change, but if that's what we're
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: going for, and so he, you know, we have a
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: bunch of songs. He comes in, tells us what he
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: likes about these songs. We go back work on some songs,
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: write some new ones. But again, as we're in the
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: studio making the record, it only took us two and
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: a half weeks to make the record.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: That's quick.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it has an energy. It has to be
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: that way. Like I said, we're not the kind of
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: people to what are we doing, you know? And what
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: are we selling? What do we want people to get
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: from this? What are we putting out there in the world.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: And we haven't made a record a long time. Basically,
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: you got to, like, you know, put your money where
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: your mouth is and if you're going to say this
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: is what you are, then it better fucking sound like that. Yeah,
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: And I made a record in so long and we've
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: been talking about it. We've been proving it every night
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: on tour of like what the presentation is, what the
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: vibes are, what the band sounds like. We're rich and
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: I are, but we're playing old songs and we're playing
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: songs people know, and now to do it with something new.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: But after all the talk about we're a rock and
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: roll band, this is where we're doing this. We're in
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: a good place, we're creative. But then you have to
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: do it.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, do you think you could go out and play
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: when you go out on tour. You're going on tour soon.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Could you play a lot of this album or do
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: you do you feel you have to do a lot
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: of the old stuff.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's the purpose of the tour. And we've
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: gone from bigger venues to a little smaller because we know,
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: you know, there's always going to be someone like this
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: is our new single and they go to the bathroom
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: or whatever.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well you want to play the new record, like
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: that's the point of this.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, we feel that it's right there with the
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: best of everything we've done. And as we move on
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: from this new record and being able to focus on
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: it for this period, of course, you know, we have
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: to play she talks angels hard to handle, jealous again twice.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: It's hard during to my pride remedy. You know, we
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: know there's certain things wiser times, soul sing and whatever.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: We know there's certain songs. I think when we were younger,
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: we were more arrogant and we didn't want to play along.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: We wanted to push people more into we're more than
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: just these hit songs, and that was our right and
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: we did it, and we felt there was some importance
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: there that wasn't just ecocentric. Yeah, but I think now
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: we realize and that oh we can say the things
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: we want to say, but we also have to respect
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: our audience and know that somebody's going to be mad
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: if you don't play. She talks dandel yea And by
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: the way I look at she talks to angels or
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: hard to handle or whatever. Now in such a different
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: light because I realize how special it is to have
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: those songs in your catalog, you know, to have songs
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: that we play for people, but that after almost soon
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: it'll be getting there forty years that are been in
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: people's lives and it's important to them too, and they
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: and they want to hear it and they want to
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: hear you do the best you can do. Yeah, and
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: make it special and have that relationship with the audience.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you said you feel like this is like an
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: arrow pointing to the future, like you want to do
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: more Black Crows music.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I mean, I know it sounds weird to, like,
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: you know, start wrapping up my fifties and talking about it,
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: But then again, you know, there's so much about what
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: we are as a band and as artist and as people.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: It looks like one thing on the surface, but it's
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: not underneath, you know, in the same way that it
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: breaks my heart a little bit to hear like people
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: musicians say that they are bored or listless or not inspired,
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, well, I don't feel that way. And
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: this record is really even greater sort of proof that
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: I don't have to give up on my passion, on
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: my creativity. I can put it all in the correct
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: order and we can continue to move on. We don't
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: have the same expectations that you had in nineteen ninety
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: five when you made a record. When you know you're
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: spending a million and a half dollars on a record,
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: they want you to go out and sell fucking ten
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: million records and have four hit singles, and everybody's trying
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: to do that, and the radio is pumping your songs
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: all day long. And that's that's how it used to work.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: Kids used to they play your records all the time
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: on the radio, and people will go buy your record.
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: That's how it works. Yeah, So even though that's gone,
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: that doesn't mean we don't see or feel there is
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: still some importance in that. And I don't feel that
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: making albums is that antiquated or archaic or anything. People say,
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: you know, you go to fucking Amiba, man, You're gonna
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: wait in line to pay for your shit. It's not
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: like there's Humble Weeds blowing through a record store or something.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: It's true there are a fewer around, but you know, like, yeah,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: go to Freak Beating in the valley.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: There's people in the way, you know, and they have
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: great records in there. It's like anything else. The media
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: doesn't cover it because it would take too much imagination
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: and interest in something that isn't status driven, in something
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: that is collectively uh more dynamic, that contains more soulful information,
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: or something of a cultural reality that's not just reality
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: TV and going to the gym or whatever. Yeah.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so you do feel like it's an arrow
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: pointed in the future. You want to make more music,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: but you mentioned earlier, maybe less touring at some point.
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: It's a deposition. I have to give you a day.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: No, I'm just curious. No, I'm just curious.
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: Like it's like I don't know, like I'm just trying
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: to figure out where you're at here answered a Grand
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: Journey played this back to you. Remember you said it
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: you Miranda rights Man. Uh, Yes, there will come a
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: It's not in the near future, but maybe you know,
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: give me another. I don't know. It's hard to say,
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean, because getting a bit older
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: is weird because I don't feel older, but like, oh
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: fuck my knee hurt or whatever. Yeah, okay, it doesn't
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: dictate my dreams and passions my age, but no for
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: the near future, and I think, you know, it would
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: be pretty safe to say for the next decade of life.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: I want to keep doing it while I can. Yeah,
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: that was another thing about the record, like, let's make
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: a fucking rock and roll record while we can still
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: fucking rock and roll. Man, you know what I mean,
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: Because at a certain point it's gonna be like you,
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: thank you rock and rolling, but intensity level comes down,
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: which is totally normal and fine, But rock and roll
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: is specific to a certain energy that you need. There's
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: all sorts of things that you can be passionate and
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: you can again have that kind of emotion and there's
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: still a smoldering intensity to those things. But I think
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: if you want to get out, shake your ass a
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: little bit, put it on a rock and roll show.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: Hopefully people still get up and dance, and that's what
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: it's about.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: Incredible man. Well, look, man, thanks for thanks for taking
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: the time. To talk. I love the new album, Excited
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: to see you play it, and fun talking to you. Man,
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: you got a lot to say. I love it all right.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: I appreciate that.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: Thanks to Chris Robinson for hanging out and talking about
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: his career along with the Black Crows new album, Happiness Bastards.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: You can hear it along with our favorite songs from
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Chris on a playlist at broken record podcast dot com.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: Subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: broken record Podcast, where you can find all of our
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: new episodes. You can follow us on Twitter at broken Record.
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: Broken Record is produced and edited by Leah Rose, with
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: marketing help from Eric Sandler and Jordan McMillan. Our engineer
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: is Ben Tollinday. Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries.
• 42:06
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• 42:09
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• 42:19
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• 42:23
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• 42:26
  Speaker 1: Our theme Music's back Anny Beats. I'm justin Richmond,