Trivia / The Black Crowes

• Broken Pedestal: Chris grew up as a big Aerosmith fan, and was mighty disappointed when their bands toured together to find out that Steven Tyler was using pre-recorded vocals to cover some of the harder notes. He made allusions to this in the press, making enemies out of Aerosmith in the process. Years later, he patched things up with Joe Perry, enough to even guest on Perry's solo album 'Sweetzerland Manifesto' in 2018.[1]
• Genre-Killer: The breakout success of their debut album in 1990 was a sign of the twilight days of Hair Metal's strangle-hold on rock radio.
• He Also Did: Chris Robinson has carved himself a nice little niche producing albums for others, including:
  • The fourth album by Indiana-based family blues band The Kinsey Report, titled 'Crossing Bridges,' in 1993
  • The third album by British psychedelic rockers Thee [sic] Hypnotics, titled 'The Very Crystal Speed Machine,' in 1994. Fellow Crowes Marc Ford and Eddie Harsch also appear on the album. This was during the same period where he worked with his supergroup Foamfoot and Amorica was recorded twice over. He personally persuaded American Recordings to sign Thee Hypnotics, after falling in love with the group when (according to lead singer Jim Jones) their music was played on The Crowe's tour bus while everyone tripped on acid [2]. He was apparently a real task-masker in the studio, sending people back home if they showed up drunk or high (talk about irony), but the band ended up happy with the final product. Unfortunately, right before the album's release, the label ended up in litigation with their European distributors, so all available funds were routed to handling the court case. There was no promotion from the label, and they couldn't even pay for a proper tour.
  • Jayhawks frontman Gary Louris' first solo album, titled 'Vagabounds,' in 2008.
  • A collaborative album between Louris and former Jayhawks frontman Mark Olson, titled 'Before The Flood,' also in 2008.
  • Debut self-titled album by roots-rock band Truth & Salvage Co., released in 2010. Chris also signed the band to his own label, Silver Arrow.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Lots of stuff:
  • Despite releasing most of the material from the abandoned "Tall" and "Band" session on the Lost Crowes anthology in 2006, it was still not every song from the sessions. Bootlegs still circulate, and some fans consider great numbers to among them.
  • Just prior to releasing Amorica, Chris Robinson found out how much money had been set aside for EPK's (Electronic Press Kits, those unimaginative talking head interviews that every local news station airs). Apparently, this was a good chunk of money, and the band decided it could be spent better. They used the money to decorate the recording studio in crazy 60s gear (see the image on the main page), and bought a ton of marijuana, magic mushrooms, LSD, and alcohol of every variety. Then, members of the press, record executives, promoters, and other industry types were invited to a costume party - no costume, no admittance (according to Chris, "the costume aspect really helped to get every to put their guard down, open up"). Once inside, a bacchanalia ensued. Why is it listed under this trope? They filmed the whole thing. Obviously the footage could never see a legal release, but excerpts do circulate online. Years later, Chris would say that he'd love to see the footage come out, as it's reportedly "pretty awesome."
  • The full live show at the Greek Theater with Jimmy Page. Only the Zeppelin covers and blues standards were allowed on the album; Jimmy playing the Crowes material was blocked by the record company. The tracks can be found online.
  • The Crowes regularly write and debut new songs while on the road. Most of these songs never get recorded in the studio. Plenty of Crowes material exists only as bootlegged "road songs."
  • A live show with Chris Robinson's supergroup side project exists as a bootleg called "Foamfoot" See below under Solo Side Project for more info.
  • They also personally endorse bootlegging. Taking inspiration from their heroes, The Grateful Dead, they are perfectly fine with fans recording shows and trading them, as long as no money changes hands.
• Promoted Fanboy: Chris is a lifelong fan of The Grateful Dead, and was ecstatic when the Crowes opened for them in '95. He has since shared bills with several Dead members successor bands, and his own post-Crowes band (The Chris Robinson Brotherhood) is heavily Dead influenced.
  • Chris also had this to say to Rolling Stone: "To me it's so obvious I'm a Steve Marriott rip-off that I never think about Rod. I admit it. Steve Marriott is the guy, him and Paul Rodgers and Gregg Allman. The thing I do with the mike stand, I picked that up from Steven Tyler."
  • Chris was surprisingly of mixed opinion when it came to the tour and live album with Jimmy Page: he was a fan of Page, but not a fan of Robert Plant, so he didn't particularly like singing Plant's melodies and lyrics on all the Led Zeppelin covers.

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