Chris Robinson

punk commune like anarchists sort of manifesto. I mean, I mean, I think that's the record where they're really wild, you know what I mean, Like the music is wild and it's unruly, and I think that's kind of the thing that interests me in rock and roll anyway, you know

what I mean. Like, I you know, it's funny because I meet people and depending really on you know, where you grew up, like everyone in Long Island, whether you like them or not, new the Grateful Dead because they played them on those radio stations, and they even outside of their underground sort of significance to people or their

cult popularity. In Atlanta ninety six rock God bless them, they're playing Radar Love and Sugar Loaf and shit, you know what I mean, They're not I'm not hearing any of that music in the same way that people in southern California would have known the Grateful Dead, you know, even by the by the time Don Henley is referencing them in a song or something, you know. So, but when I finally found my way to it, I I I think that's the I mean, especially that Dark Star, you know what I mean, that's the.

They flew him down from San Francisco and he had one he had his twin reverb and he had his strat at the time, and they just played the love scenes from the desert on a loop for him and he just improvises those beautiful little short bursts of notes, these little melodies and stuff. And anyway, that's also my favorite, grateful to record, even though it's Jerry and on a sound stage just improvising to this beautiful, you know, art film.

You know what I mean? We suggest, because we live in an era where you know, you have so much information at the tip of your fingers in an instant, that they're supposed to be answers. But I mean, personally, I find very little interest in that. I find a lot of arrogance and science and in like things like archaeology and anthropology and things, even though the solid base of it obviously is really important and significant to our

understanding of the world around us. But we have seemed to drift away from being able to appreciate the great mystery of things.

lot of people maybe who don't know the film. You know, when Bob Dylan is wearing the white makeup and the hat with the flowers, he he that's Baptiste, one of the main three characters in that film. He is the soul of the art. He is the he is the one that can reach anyone, you know, with his art and his UH and his magic. You know. So, and it's it's funny. There's a lot of UH that movie, in that era of Bob Dylan, and and it's fun

I also I have a poster made it. You know, that film was made at the very end of the Nazi occupation of Paris. So by the time it comes out that there's some posters in the world that are reprinted on like, you know, the poster for the film is reprinted on another poster, you know, so if you get in the light right you can see it. They didn't have the materials. And the guy who sold me that poster many years ago, he was like, oh, you know, this poster is pretty rare, and I was like, yeah,

he goes, I've only ever sold one other them. I was like, oho, he said, do you mind telling me? Said I sold it to Bob Dylan, and I was like, I was like, how cool. My second favorite movie of all time is I would say the film called with Nell and I. I don't know if you know that movie about two Oh yeah, fantastic movie. Bruce Robinson directed and wrote the script. But that's more obscure. Let's just let's just call it what it is. My second favorite movie,

a movie that is the funniest movie ever made. Bit for bit, gag for gag, joke for joke, minute for a minute is Young Frankenstein and.

British he was in in the Military Police. He was a high ranking officer in the Military Police and he is assigned to Naples right after the Allied and invasion repels the Germans and the fascists and they're retreating nor you know, they're fighting the battle to go up the Italian peninsula and he's stuck there. It is it's one on one that it's a chilling horror story about the you know, the horrors of war are happening with the

violence and the and the run. You know, what's going on in those in those dramatic moments, but it's also the aftermath of that that becomes the real you know, where you see the you see the human condition at its most tender and it's most poignant, but you also see it at its most vile, destructive and evil. And I think the juxtaposition of those things in terms of just also being very interested in the subject, interested in the time, very interested in Italian culture, and many good

friends from Naples, especially just an incredible, incredible book. And I can't say enough about a guy passed away a couple of years ago named Dale Pendle. I believe the Pharmacopoeia. He has a three volume set that's basically an encyclopedia on chemicals drugs, whether it be caffeine, amphetamines, LSD, DMT, heroin, cocaine, tobacco, anything, any small thing. But he writes his text is very much alive in the way Robert Graves. I don't know

Robert Graves. He's a poet. He intertwines his story with a sort of history of human beings and their pursuit for bliss. And you know, the book starts that he retreats to some cabin way up in northern California to have peace away from everything, to start to put this book together. And he puts a sign over the front door. Are all demons welcome. And I just always found that to be amazing visual. They're very hard to find, and

they're they're kind of expensive. Now they're a trilogy, and but they it's not they're in They're just beautiful and interesting. And again I look for I really like things that are alive, and I've had the unique opportunity and perspective maybe because I, you know, am dyslexic, that I've been able to read between the lines or put myself as an outsider and see the fire and light within sometimes that maybe other people wouldn't. I don't know.

obviously the filters aren't there. And growing up in a city that I was very aware of for whatever reason, that had been punished and had been burned to the ground. The phoenix was something that I really understood as a symbol early on, because that's the symbol of Atlanta. But also, you know what I mean, and my dad, Rich and I are third generation Atlantin's. We also my grandfather was Schmada business, a Jewish guy, Ike Robinson, So I have

that side of the Atlanta experience. But being around in the woods and stuff and seeing ghosts and feeling them and no knowing that you know that people lost their lives in these trenches and stuff. You know, I just have always had a very active imagination we had. And I think the other main trust me my parents, you know, like I said, being dyslexic, like I couldn't tie my shoe, But I really knew a lot about zulus in kindergarten,

you know what I mean. It was like, why is your kid the only kid who can't tell time, but he knows a shit ton about zuluz? You know, Like, so who knows the way the mind works, well, I guess scientists, but in my case, I know, but my mom and dad also when they got together, had a lot of records, you know what I mean. I read an article not too long ago that the average family, like in the fifties or late fifties to the mid sixties maybe had eight or nine records, you know what

I mean. That would be your little record collection on those little.

You know. So there was a lot of different Johnny Guitar, Watson records. You know, all sorts of things come to mind when I think of and then as we get as I get older, I'm obsessed with music, and you know, these were the things that I could understand, you know what I mean, These were things that made me feel and made me feel a part of the world and

whatever little whatever that means. Looking out from a place like Atlanta at that time, you know, I remember having a distinct feeling of being very far away from the rest of whatever America must feel like or look like. And then at that time, you know, I luckily find Kerouac and Burroughs and Ginsburg and like thousands of others of us, Bob Dylan mins my dad. My dad was the kind of guy who didn't buy Blonde on Blonde

because it wasn't the same Bob Dylan, you know. So I grew up with that person that felt that kind of as if rock and roll wasn't pure enough. You know.

There's a lot of It's not just one thing, of course, but that I would be one of the first generations. And my mom, in her tenacity and her wisdom, wanted some answers, you know what I mean, and she found them. And I was very lucky that there's a school in Atlanta. It's still there, Skank Schooled. Unfortunate name for doctor Skanks.

But I would go to school and then go there after school three days a week to you know, to try to turn around what I could, and it never The biggest gift of that was reading, you know what I mean. But then again, the like part of my thing is like I'm an avid reader. I can retain a lot of information I've been, but I cannot spell, to say, I mean, you know, when I when I met my wife, I was like, listen, I'm going to ask you to spell things and cleats. Just try to

refrain from disgust to shame or laughing at me. You know, it just goes. I've never been able to do it. But my mom recognized that, and she, you know, she was calling, you know, from Atlanta in nineteen seventy three. She's calling people at Harvard University to get answers, you know what I mean. So I get the cerebral side from my mom, and then I get something, you know, I get something else from you know, talking about the records and stuff. That my other earliest memories. My dad

was a folk singer. He was on ABC Paramount. He had a group called the Appellations. They made two sides, you know, and it was funny because he was immersed in like traditional folk music, so his presentation would be very unlike the kind of commercial folk records. You know. He was kind of doing that serendipity sing sid rock is you know, sid right down, bit let your yeah girl in those big twelve stringth That kind of commercial folks sound would be the couple of records he made.

But and you know, in the fifties, he he had a hit record with a song called Booma. Dip Dip was the top forty hit and it was more like a I would consider like a Bobby Darren kind of rock and roll song, you know, a little edge of what was left of do wop and cool. It's a really cool song. And he cut some other singles that

didn't do as well. But when he ended up back in the South after the rock and roll phase, he was in folk music and you know, when he was home on a Saturday morning, whatever, he would pull out the you know, his Martin is nineteen fifty three Martin, which my brother you know, wrote she Talks Angels and played on All Our still played on this newest record, and he would sing and it would just open up all of this because he would also my dad was he would explain, like, okay, so this song comes from

originally is like what someone in Wales was singing like a couple hundred years ago, and then by the time it gets on a boat and comes here and it ends up in Appalachia, it turns into this and that kind of connection I always found not just interesting, but

very comforting in some weird way, you know. And I think I had a a nate understanding that the song, if you're a singer and a musician, that the music we played in the song we sing is just this one big song that's been going on for ever, you know, since there's been people. And I loved murder ballads, and I loved like the really dark side and stuff, you know, I loved all those kind of songs and so and then he would play records a lot too, and that would be that would be you know, I learned so

much from that. I don't even know I'm learning at the time, but I'm being able to put together and you know, the Alan Lomack song of the South Box that is still like a holy relic or something to me, you know. And I still have my dad's copies of those records.

I had friends when we were little always, but you know, yes, you know, the world was different in the last century and a lot of your friend group were just whatever kids you didn't want to beat up in the neighborhood or didn't want to beat you up, and you know, so I think it's different now, but I always managed to find the kids that were you know, I'm sure the kids that I was friends with were always a little bit on the outside like me and being but being able to laugh and being able to see to

be you know, that was another big thing. My dad loved Jonathan Winners and Don Rickles and George Carlin and you know Richard Pryor records. Growing up, I mean, I had access to some very saucy language, but mom and dad knew in some way that I had a more adult relationship with the language, and I found it very funny, very humanizing that he could take his pain and turn it into something like that. You know, but you know,

you know, I guess we were weirdos. You know, we looked normal on the outside, but we were pretty weird.

simple things. I find the love of my life seven years ago, and like Camille is so wise and she has such a depth of understanding, and if I get if she's the first one to say, you know, you can you know, kind of snap out and well just put me in a perspective to realize. Like when I was younger, I you know, it's like a young wizard with his first power to like, you know, blow up the castle tower. You know, your words can hurt, you know,

the poet's words are are his weapons as well. And I felt that I probably use that, you know what I mean? And so I mean, I know I did, I know, I've I can upset people and hurt them with the things I say just as much as I can entertain them, enlighten them, and encourage them, you know, So it becomes more of the poet's responsibility.

And I think my true character is is I would like to think I have an authenticity that is uh, that is obvious, you know, but that being that not being a part of it, I couldn't be in a place where Rich and I actually could be where we are today, and I think Rich would be way more available for it, you know what I mean. I don't think it was an impossibility. I just didn't have I just didn't see the roses, you know what I mean. I didn't see the forest for the trees in that instant.

sudden is the Queen of England. I don't care how anyone feels. I'm queen. You know. It's like so I don't think we were given the tools and or I don't even think we knew that there were the tools for that, just because of the way it was. And then you throw in there, you know, it's funny with my brother. He's really very when you're with Rich one on one, he's very fun very open, charming guy, very intelligent, talkative.

But if you're but if you don't get that he you know, he would have social anxieties that I don't have. So for many years, you know people you know, and then here's a guy who feels like that, who's thrust into the world of and I'm I'm your partner in the in the band, and I'm your brother, and I you know, my dressing room, I like to play Funkadelic records at full blast, have people dancing. I like to get my my vibe going. Rich likes it to be

like his acoustic guitar, very calm, very mellow. He doesn't like a lot of things coming around, you know what I mean. And in the past I would kind of be, you know, people like what's up with him and be like I don't know what the fuck? You know what I mean, Like why aren't you like this? And then in his mind he would be like, why do you have to be like that, you know, all the time? Can it just be like peaceful one time? And like,

to me, that is my plays. So I think when we're younger, and then you throw in the high Velocity Avalanche that was our early success. You want that shit. And you think you read the you read the Jim Morrison book and you read the fucking you know, True Adventures on the Rolling Stones or whatever. You think you know what it's going to be, but it's not, you know.

I mean, it was funny at the end. In the beginning of nineteen ninety, we're out here getting ready to start the whole first album tour and stuff, and Rich and I were staying at this Lee Bag motel that's now the parking lot that used to be by the Tower Records down there, and bless you, my love, and

we get a phone call. It's like Izzy Stradlin wants you guys to come over from Guns n' Roses, and like they're you know, they're fucking guns and Roses now, but they were really fucking guns n' Roses in nineteen eighty nine or whatever, you know. I mean, like that shit was still like uh, you know, and we love guns and Rows and we go to his house and

we're like, wow, this is cool, man. And I always thought it was cool because he was lifted listening to aftermath that stones record and that's what And I was like, all right, cool, I'm digging this. You know, it's not easy. And I'm like okay, and he's like, but we start talking. He goes, you, guys, you don't you won't be prepared. But when your rocket ship blast off, just hang on, man, hang on for dear life and rich and I are like, what is he talking about? You know what I mean?

There was no there were only besides ourselves. There were only you know, like George d two people in the world that believed that we would do the things that we ended up doing. But I always look back on that and said, hey, he told us. You know what I mean. We had no you know, we had really no way of understanding what he was telling us. But that was all I always thought. Hey, so if you run, Itzy, say thanks man.

world all the time, but now you're on MTV. And when you're on MTV, that means I'm on there with with a lot of other bands, and so the people can see the Young Black Crows on jealous again, hard to handle that all that shit can come on MTV and they'll see. But that also gives the person at the bar you go to, like, I fucking don't like that song, you know what I mean. So because you're on MTV, because it's a visual medium, you're also now having to deal with not you know, hey, man, backstage

everyone loves you. When you go after the show to some rock and roll bar, there's gonna be some dude in a Motorhead shirt that just doesn't like your jib, you know what I mean, or like whatever. So that was something to deal with.

really see that then. We were just knew that there was a threat.

wanted to get out on the road. I wanted to see what it's about I wanted to I wanted to feel what it's like, and we wanted to work hard, and we knew that there was something there. I don't think we knew that we would have to deal with that on the first record. I thought maybe, like some other bands, you make a record, people like it, you make another one, you figured it out, you have a

little trajectory that's not just you know, neither. It doesn't matter because that's exactly what happened, and that's the most beautiful thing that could ever happen. But like, you know, I can almost remember the entire uh, it's inerary because we were in a van and you know, the first time you're in San Diego, first time I'm in Phoenix, first time I'm in Texas. You know, like this is Texas,

Like what the fuck? You know? But the real special things would be the laughing would be the fucking frust tired. You know, where's one point of that first leg of the tour. We did eighteen nights in a row, and shit, you know, and starting to you know, our entrance into the music business as well, figure out like, oh, we're at the distributors of convention and now we're at Howard Stern, I mean, Howard's Stern, and we're doing all all that

kind of stuff. But the things that will always resonate and I'll always remember, like the very first time we played in Austin, Texas, we didn't even have a dressing room. We were in the room changing where like the ice machines were so people kept coming in and filling up the ice buckets. But we were changing and there's a knock on the door and some security guard who didn't know he goes, hey, there's some guy named Ronnie Lane

out here. He wants to see you. And we were like, he didn't know who he was, you know, like, fuck me, really, Ronnie. And we opened the door and there's Ronnie. You know, he's at the end of his life and m ass is really debilitating horrible disease. I don't really know any good diseases. But he was in his wheelchair and his partner brought him and we were just stunned. And he said and we were like, well, yeah, mister Lane, lovely

to meet you. And he was like, oh, yeah, you know, I just wanted to come down here and meet you guys, you know, because we said so many great things about my bands and my music, and you know, I just thought, well, if they're in town, I just want to come over and say hello. And we were. I mean, my heart was just like wow, I loved that music. I love

that music. And as I've grown older, I realized, like that was so special, and you know, and then the other one I remember is by the time we get through Atlanta and we come up the East Coast and we get to New York, and we played this place that used to be there called the Cat Club, and we had played CBGB's as Mister crows Garden, and we

played a place called Drums as Mister Crow's Garden. So we, you know, if we could get a gig in New York, we'd drive sixteen hours for one gig, you know, and we would spend a few days just getting completely out of our heads, you know, but not rich, but all the rest of us. But we're in the same situation.

We finished the show, we go to the dressing room, going to change, hit the club, hit the town, you know, and there's a knock on the door and it's Ian Hunter, you know, the great one of the great rock and roll lyricists, great front man, I mean, Matha Hoople his first solo records, one of my favorite rock and roll records ever made. I mean, and he there he is. He's standing there with the Ian Hunter hair. He had a black velvet. I mean, he looked amazing and he

was like, all right, see here the Black Crows. I just wanted to meet you guys, like I haven't heard a real rock and roll band in a while, and that was fucking great and stuff. And I was just like, holy shit, man, Ian Hunter wanted to meet us, you know what I mean, Like it really, I'll always remember that because he was like a you know, and he still is a real hero and one of my favorite. He wrote great rock and roll lyrics, you know, and

he still does. My brother and I are on his new record coming out.

five hundred dollars a night. I mean, we're in debt pretty much until the end of nineteen ninety when the record starts, you know, really selling big numbers, and then our of course, our guarantees are going up. So I mean, the it's still just pretty innocent psychedelics, weed, a lot

of booze, some pills occasionally some coke and stuff. We and but by the time we know, by the time all the accounting is done for that record and we've moved on into the next phase, at least for me and some of the members in the band, Yeah, we've moved on too much. I mean, the booze, the weed, the acid, the shrooms. They're all still happening, but we've really amped it up with like the other sort of powders and pills and things. Again, you know, it's funny.

I mean, I guess there would be an argument about substance abuse, and I've seen it, and we've all lost friends. It's and we've lost family members and it's a it's a real subject matter, and I don't take it lightly. But during that time also, I you know, to me, I would say by the end of the nineties, I was getting to a point where I was kind of like, I'm really I don't know why my heart is so broken.

I'm really disillusioned, and I'm really depressed, and I think probably at that point in my life, I'm definitely not enjoying it. I'm just keeping up with, you know, just chasing something that probably had eluded me earlier in the decade, which was just like a derangement of the senses. Is a powerful tool for the poet, for the artists. My heroes are, you know, my I have three heroes that like encompass a lot, sid Barrett Graham Parsons and Alex Chilton.

And then above that, in the archetypes. There's Keith Richards and Jerry Garcia. So it's like, I I'm not you know, I'm not. I'm not trying searching for them. I'm searching for there must be something in this, and I did. I found incredible inspiration. You know. I'm one of those people who I had a fucking amazing time, you know

what I mean. Like and and I was always the kind of person always in my mind, I don't have that Puritan streak, that inebriation or anything like that denotes weakness or a bad quality in a person, you know what I mean. Of course, if your subsequent behavior turns into something negative for the people around you, or if you're drunk and kill someone, I'm not talking you know

what I mean. I'm just talking about I was also surrounded in the Black Crows submarine, in the Cult of the Black Crows, so we were, you know, safely in our own cocoon in a way, right, And and you know, especially the early most of the nineteen ninety to nineteen ninety nine, you know, not everyone is built for the road, you know what I mean. Like, I've seen a lot of talented people, really talented people, really sturdy people, solid people,

and they're like, man, I just can't do this. I don't want to do this, you know, because it's talk

about a derangement of the senses. I mean, I remember I didn't know what a panic attack was, you know what I mean, Who fucking cared when it's nineteen ninety and you're like, going, you have to get on stage at the Hammerstein Odium in London and you're like, I've been I'm I would just go in a hotel and lay on the floor in my clothes and stare at the ceiling and hope when I opened my eyes that I wasn't dead or crazy, you know what I mean.

But that's normal. That was part of it. I mean, I thought that would just be okay.

And the only way we could protect something that we felt was very pure and this thing that we felt that music gave us that music if we were going to be a part of this. You know, my record's in the same record store as the Loneous Monk. My record's in the same record store is Skip Spence or whatever.

It doesn't matter that there was some you know, not to repeat myself, but there was something holy about that as well, and something very deeply involved in natural magic, and that if we could tap into that and be a part of that, that we would be very defensive

and very protective of whatever. You know. It's like the movie Quest for Fire when the guy has the little fire and the thing and they're trying to save it from the other people and it like goes out and they're all like, you know, like we didn't want it to go out. And no matter what we've been through, and even on our own, I don't think we've allowed.

I think it's remained that that's a certain purity and a certain I don't know, I think a certain reverence that we get to make music and be a part of this vibration.

It's I can live with that. It was always I just I and and maybe in my naivete I didn't want to be a part of that. So If anything, the great mistake I made was in my laziness, in my sort of to be blissfully unaware doesn't really isn't an excuse. I can't say that someone ripped me off.

I can't say that, but I'm sure within but between then and there's you know, but I think we you know, also, we were set up like a real band, like you know, hey man, the fucking Beatles split everything, you know what I mean, Like we didn't know about fucking publishing and fucking partnerships and you know what I mean, we were really uh, we just we were really focused on the on the craft, and then we were focused on building the culture and the art around the craft. You know.

So I think Rich was probably a little more savvy, but I would We didn't go to the London School of Economics.

what the circumstance is. And also in my situation, you know, I have a partner who feels as deeply about all of this as I do in my brother, and you know, I think the great gift of this reconciliation is that we're available for each other to to make good decisions, you know, to make and we're surrounded by people in our careers that are facilitating good decisions and nurturing our relationship because you know what, it proves to benefit everyone.

And again, no matter what we've been through, no matter what the world looks like, no matter how people listen to their music, no matter blah blah blah, it all started because Rich and I thought we could write a song.

something that happens to lots of people. And then there's other people who are dealing with you know, abject you know what I mean. So it's like I, I've always been prepared for whatever fate puts in front of me, you know, and I want to be I want to be able to be. I don't want to become so myopic about uh one thing that I don't see everything else.

You know. Again, as I've gotten older and I have people around, I make much different decisions and I'm much more aware of like what the future looks like, you know, uh and for the things that I want to accomplish, wish personally with taking care of my wife as we get older, and my kids and stuff, you know, like things like that.

But I did it just to be like, you know, this is how I'm going to put the brakes on because I know this will be unacceptable to everyone. But that next, you know, if that was January first, the next January first promoted, Hey there's money and if you guys want to get out there, because like you said, we're worth something in the marketplace, right, every every little piece of time, there was offers on the table for us to get back together. I was happily involved with

my solo group. I wasn't even adjacent to the regular music business. I was out on my own in the most DIY independent way I could find having nothing to do. If I when we started my solo project, the CRB, if I went to a little club in Santa Cruz, California, and on that fly or that newspaper, if I even saw the fucking word black crows, we would pack up and not even do the soundcheck, you know, And that's the way I wanted that. But that same time, every

year it's coming up through some source or another. So you know, again, as I just told you about my relationship with some things, Rich and I, we're not like we really do dance to the beat of our own drummer, and things have to really feel right, and we have to there's an altruism that just exists Enrich and ize. It doesn't take away from our ambition, it doesn't take away from drive or anything we want, but we feel

that way. So you know, after from twenty thirteen to twenty nineteen and all the things I haven't spoken to Rich I haven't, you know, it just so happens that things coalesce in a certain way, and that my wife opens up my heart and my life and my mind and my soul to like a lot of new things and thinking a different way. And getting out of my own way and the importance of family, and you know, and I could start to break it down and look

at things in a different perspective. I could start to miss rich and feel rich, and you know, and then what's the itch? You know, Like, our lives as family are intertwined together because of the music we've made and the experiences that we've shared, and the laughs that we've had and the fights that we've had. And you know, you know, our dad passed away eleven years ago, and our mom's in Nashville, and you know, she's in her

mid eighties, you know what I mean. So it was just time for everything to sort of start to heal itself and come together. I mean, I couldn't have done that by myself. Again, I'm lucky to have so much love in my life and stuff. I would tend as a sagittarian to dig my heels in the dirt and be very stubborn, you know.

do that still is special and unique. And like I said a little earlier, that's Rich and ize entrance into the entire world that is, you know, that we've lived in for the last three and a half decades. Damnit, you're cool. It's my dog. Sorry, And of course, given of course Rich and I are going to write. That's what we do, that's what we love, you know, And no matter what's happened, and took me a while because I wanted to get away from it and do something else.

But you know, when Rich Rich plays Rich can play me like the very first little thing on a guitar, and it instantly sets the stage for like emotional content, for the image and the scene I want to write, the visual and all that stuff comes together very quickly. But the unique part of it is or or again, to get back to the magic or the mystery of it is, I don't know. You know, Rich might think in his mind that song is a love song, or you know, I don't know. Maybe he thinks this song

of I don't. We don't discuss that. We don't discuss the idea. Rich plays me something and it and it inspired and it clicks something in me, and then I start feeling something and then I start writing and singing. And we've never discussed it, and I don't think we ever will. It's something we do. I tell you this. We know when we like it, and we know when something's good, and we know when something's not good. We know when something needs you know, and we work hard

at that. You know, George du Coulius taught us back in the eighties. You know, one of our first, our first singles, jealous Again from Shaking Moneymaker, And I remember I always look at jealous Again as a really important song because you know, we were a band up until that point, we were one thing. And then that was like the first song that that showed up like That's

how I always referred to it, semi jokingly. That's our first grown up song we wrote, and that we found like some stuff that works for us and the griff, the lyric, the melody that you know, all the things. But while we're working on that, you know, we didn't sit down and write that song in one go. We would have that song and we you know, George would be in Atlanta, but he was still he was A and R and A and Records in New York, so

we was still living in New York. So we would you know, I have a little you know, boom box in our room and we would with the condensed mic and the cassette, we would record what we were working

on and jealous again, well I will. It's just a great example of you know, we'd be like, yeah, this is this is good, and then we'd send it to him and get on the phone when he got to be like, that's pretty good, but maybe you should get back in there, and we'd go fuck and we'd get in there and then maybe we had another little bit pretty good, but it's not dood, you know. So he instilled in us this work ethic of leaving no stone unturned but also trusting your you know, it wasn't like

we we don't. We don't. We won't suffer to go down the road of something we know isn't feeling good to us. We're not mathematician musicians, we don't we're not formulaic in that way. I mean, yes, in the verse chorus, versus chorus, solo kind of out that kind of shit, but not in the way that we get from point A to point b as songwriters. It's all visceral. It's all feeling, and it's all kind of you know, it's an overused word, but it's for us. It's a vibe thing. It's vibe.

have my little lyric pieces and stuff. I mean, I think one of the the other things that makes this record, our new record, so powerful is we really went, you know, as the years went by and we get into the two thousands, I'm bringing a song occasionally. We're continuing to write together, but Rich'll have one by himself that he wrote the lyrics and singings and not you know what

I mean. We have we're starting to move into that, but for this I felt, you know, I mean, I haven't picked up a guitar since this started, you know

what I mean. And I was playing guitar in the Black Crows at the end of the last thing, and I was like, I want to get back to what I feel is really the pure thing of the Black Crows, you know, and that's Rich And I was writing and then for me to get on stage and be the front man, because I think the front the type of performer that I am is also something kind of of the past. So while I am available to do it, I want to do it in a way that I

feel excited about, you know. And I want to get up there and do the thing that I think maybe makes me different from the other singers as well. You know.

an advance, you know what I mean. That shit's gone and that's kind of the best part of the modern thing. I think there's too much sort of I'm glad everyone has access for but not everything is interesting and not

everything is good. You know, that idea that I was saying, that George pushed us to work and work and work and work, is why that record resonated at a certain frequency with people right and and if you know, if nineteen eighty nine was today, maybe those songs that we didn't didn't make better would be the ones that are out there, you know what I mean. And I know that sounds old fashion or whatever, but I believe in

the craft, and I believe in hard work. Is the difference between something that's okay and something that could be on the verge of greatness.

That's the mind of her own, believe it or not. Ideally, it's better when Rich and I are in a room because we have a psychic I don't know if it's obviously it's because we're related, but maybe some of it is something else. But we can do things you know on the you know, sin me stuff, But it seems like all the details and all the important stuff gets done in a room together.

very up tempo energy a rock record, you know. I mean, I think that was the playing Shake Your money Maker every night for two years. I realized, like, wow, that's what we did then, and would be cool to continue this next part of whatever we are or whatever we're going to be in the same manner, not revisiting anything, not going back in time, not plagiarizing ourselves. But we want that energy of like you know that that's what

fuels rock and roll. I want it to almost be falling off the track, you know what I mean, Like we want it to be rough. And you know, in the same way that when we go when we've done the touring, not in just the past, but in the recent past since we've got back together. I mean, I don't know how many concerts you go see, but most bands today don't even use amps. They put digital referencing their guitars through the PA and it's very quiet on stage and everyone has inner monitors and and we don't

do that. We are chaos machines on stage. There's sound moving, there's ams blowing sound and monitors and no thing in our ears, and it's just a lot that's more alive to us as well. And we need that for the kind of you know, we need that to set the scene we want to set, you know, I mean, we believe in that. Still we were that way, you know,

we were the first band. I remember by the time nineteen ninety two comes around, people from other bands would see us and they're like, you guys don't have Chordlet you know what I mean, We had chords attached to everything and we were trying to go you know what I mean, we've always been and not on any sort of agenda. We've just always kind of been the opposite of whatever's going on. You know, that's probably the definition of dyslexia.

on the clock, you know. But and I imagine Jay adjusts to the different temperaments and attitudes of whatever artist he's working with. But for us, you know, like I think Rich really felt heard and he got to express his ideas. I'm the way I am as you can tell, I'm like a little more like what about that? My information comes really fast and Jay's kind of in the middle. So it was a really good tempo, you know, to work.

And I think Jay also brought a real discerning ear to helping sort of pick the material out of the lot of songs we had. I mean, I think by the time we were with Jay, we've kind of narrowed it down to eighteen twenty things, and then by the time we're get to the studio, we've narrowed it down to twelve things. And by the time we finished the record in two and a half weeks, and then it's like, okay, this is like a real record and it's gonna be ten songs, you know.

know what I mean. Maybe, And I think it's very sophisticated what he does, but it's very natural to him. And that was and he you know, he can he plays guitar, some little bit of guitar. Here's keyboards there. So I think because of his knowledge, it really it's not like he's just sitting behind a board. He's really a part of what's going on in the musical language

of it. And I and again, you know, it's nice that the dynamic works out so easy because you know, it's I part of our us versus them, especially in the first decade of the band with not being able to really trust people there. You know, I always thought, I mean my thing forever was if somebody from the record company told me anything, I'd be like, why the

fuck would I listen to you? Man? I mean, you have thirty bands on your roster forty bands, fifty bands, I have one band, I'll if any And what's the answer from the guy from the record company. You're making a big mistake. I said, well, that's my fucking mistake to make, not yours, do you know what I mean?

That's that's kind of it. Sounds like we were being like horrible, But I thought there was a real pragmatism to that in terms of what I could live with down the road, you know, and what I'm the one who has to live with the album, not you. You'll go on to the next thing and the next thing, and you'll drop the you'll drop the band that didn't meet those financial expectations, those commercial expectations, and so that I again, I was there was nothing about me, you know. I

always hate like you see like these I hate. I shouldn't say. I just don't understand. When you see like a documentary about a metal band or something, they're like, I mean, and then when their careers are going down, they're like, it's like the label didn't even care what we did. I'm like, why would you think they ever gave a shit? What are they your cousin? You know

what I mean? I knew one thing when I when I started in the bit, when we were we were outside the business, and then you're making when you're only in the music business, when you're making the music businesiness money. Now you're in the music business, right. I mean it's oversimplifying things, but but I was always like, yeah, you think these this is a real conversation. I'm not having a real conversation. This is like, uh, this is a

made up conversation. These are pleasantries, you know what I mean. They love the record that sold the most. They don't care what it sounds like, what it looked like, what it is anything, you know what I mean. And I'm just not like that. I wanted. I wanted. I want to sell a lot of records. I want to be popular, but I'm not going to be something. I'm not for someone else to do it. And that still is kind of strong with us.

a song that's the first single on that record. And I was furious because the album starts with a track called Gone, and that was my manifesto to be a part of like the same sort of I don't know, heroin chic or whatever. I just thought that culturally politically, that was the track we lead with, and and and you know, that was one of those things that like Nope, nope, you're wrong. And then then I always thought A Conspiracy was a weak single. Uh, that would be like an argument.

I mean we've made whole records that were and we make a record before a Marca that we called Tall, and that record was just no, no, it's doesn't sound I'm like you you know, and I would be like, you know, there's no big guitar riffs, there's none of that, and that would like infuriate me. But then that would like people around also would be like, oh, get to Rich and say, hey, you know, your brother, you know,

that doesn't sound like remedy or whatever. You know, and on things like, oh, Columbia Records was a fucking nightmare. People like Donnie Heiner, you know, fucking go to his fucking office. Here he is living this giant like this is the ship. I'm happy he's gone in the music business. Don Heiner in his big office and his fucking hovercraft and his helicopter and all that bullshit. You know what I mean? Fuck you, man, who the fuck are you? What do you know about anything? You'd be selling fucking

of admits or fucking snow tires or something. He didn't give them. Fuck well, you're going to talk to artists like this, and uh, you know I remember they were like you should he like, you should cover a rocks Off by Primal Scream. I was like, they're fucking copying me. I'm not kidding. Have you heard it? You know it's a cool song or whatever, good for Primal Scream. But I'm like, man, you didn't fucking you didn't get the memo about the Black Crows, did you? You know what

I mean? Like, so shit like that would be like just make me infuriated, you know what I mean? Like why am I? Why am I in this guy's office? You know what I mean, why am I sitting here with his fucking babe ruth baseball bat or whatever the fuck he had on the wall, you know what I mean. I was like, I want to, I want to I want to be backstage with George Clinton right now.

who are these kids? They? Who are you? And we hit it off and we had a relationship, and you know, we there's none of our success from that day without someone like Mark Deda, you know what I mean. So, but now because we're all grown ups and we've gone through it, we've gone through we can be in a

much easier working environment. And you know what where a lot Mark's been through it too, all the things that acts he's managed, the labels he's run, and you know, he's a warrior of the music business past, present and future. And it allows Rich and I also to make better decisions, you know what I mean, because we don't. We feel there's a level of trust and we feel there's a level of understanding, you know, but that goes with our

with everyone around us. You know, that goes to our our lawyer, that goes to our agents, and you know what I mean, that goes down to the how we want to go about merch deal or whatever. You know what I mean. So I think Rich and I are far more savvy as well in terms of being able to negotiate some of the murky waters.

I grew up listening to the Black Crows. And we got to just meet for a few uh seconds and talk a little bit, and then you know, she went down the line doing her press and just was like said really nice things like, oh my god, I met

you know, Chris Robinson. Oh, and then we end up with Jay and then we have this song and then it just kind of comes together and Jay's like, I think she Laney would be amazing on this, and we were like, I mean, Lane's amazing on everything she's doing, so's if she wants to do it, of course, let's do it. And you know it's kind of really the way things happen like that, it's very easy. I mean, it's not like we're releasing a duet country single at

country rating, you know what I mean. It's way more casual and way more organic than something like that. So things just fall in your lap in the best way sometimes.

But I mean, I you know, look at Luke Combs, man, I mean, that guy has connected with people on such a deep level. He's a beautiful singer. He's a very sincere songwriter. And you know that speaks volumes, you know what I mean. It's it's not a it's not just showbiz. It's not a put on. There's not a lot of To me, I might be wrong, it doesn't look like there's a lot of fucking puppet masters behind them. You know, pay no attention to the man behind the green curtain

pulling all the strings. I mean, he's just connected with people in a global way with that music. And then you see someone like Laney who's just ultimately very talented and she draws people in and she's very you know what I mean. So she has that and now she goes from success to superstarto. And then you see people like Jelly Roll, whose story is incredible, and then at the end of the day, that kid has a beautiful voice.

That kid can really sing, you know. So I think you're starting to see I mean, I think, you know, Nashville is always going to be its own entity and it's going to have its own way of doing things. And but you have to also, you know, I also appreciate that, uh there's people in those bands playing real drums, playing a fucking bass, playing a fucking mandolin, playing a guitar, you know. I mean you look at that and you think that sounds like, like, what's the big deal about that?

Isn't that how it's always been. It's like not when you see you know, the laptop nation, you know what I mean. Like there's bands who can't do their show if the laptop doesn't work. I mean, cool, but that's not for me, man, you know what I mean. I'd like to you know, I don't we That's the other thing. It's not out of an arrogance or any thing about that.

It's just you know, rich and I. If all the power went out or whatever, had a gig, we could sit at the front of the stage with an acoustic guitar and sing our songs and it would entertain people. And I think it would you know, touch, So it wouldn't be the same. Some people would be like, fuck you, I want my money back, but some people would actually really feel it, you know, I mean, and I think again,

that's what everyone's looking for, you know. So country music is in good hands obviously, and they're doing big business.

that breaks big every three or four years now. So you're putting out a record, they have something, and you talk about a radio format, even though radio means less, but it's a category. There's active rock. If you listen to that music, a lot of it is Metallica derived, fast noisy, etc. Straight ahead rock. You were almost the sole outpost of that nineteen ninety so. Now it's twenty twenty four and nobody is as big as they were

in the MTV era. Taylor Swift may be doing incredible gross, but when you had those successful records off your first album, everybody knew those records. Everybody whereas as big as Taylor Swift does an only user because she's very successful, but I can use a million other names Beyondy Morgan Wallen. If you don't want to hear it, you don't have to. So you're putting a record into the marketplace that is the Black Crows business. Which isn't really exactly like anything else. How does that feel?

The whole system was built up in this grandiose money thing, and so in one level, I think I don't feel that I didn't you know, we didn't take a million dollars to make this record, you know what I'm saying. So we we within our inner workings, we're very aware of,

you know, this is what we can afford. And you know what, it's lucky that where where we are, that we write the songs we write, that we play the way we play, and that we've done many we've made many records and done many sessions in and out of

the Black Crows that we can utilize. I kind of look at the music business in some ways as a science fiction narrative, you know, like of some spaceship and crashed on a desolate alien planet ten thousand years ago, but the inhabitants of that planet can still get in there and take some wires and like you know, a knife or whatever, and they you know, the infrastructure is

still available for survival. I think that in our situation, we're very lucky to be from the past where and we've brought an audience and we're and you know, and that audience changes, stays the same and changes. But you know what, really all we've ever been able to have control over is our presentation, which is the music and the live and luckily we were always interested in going out and playing live. That's where we are the Black Crow since day one. That's where we've always I think

that's where we've always proved ourselves. And so I mean to me, you know that the Black Crows in the year twenty twenty four, like you said, it's the formats have changed, the whole idea has changed. But we're on charts and we're on weird things. We're on Radio Sydney. They never played us. And when we were the biggest band in the world in nineteen ninety two, right, they didn't play us or things in England and Germany. I mean, our records are like in charts that we've never been

in before. And I'm not saying like that means anything other than wow. That means that this band, who plays a pure guitar driven rock and roll sound and incorporates blues, funk, soul, country, roots music influences, still can still create some interest. And I know this. I know that even on Active Rocker and with the band you're talking about, how different does our record sound when the DJ puts it on the

station twice a day. I mean that wanting and waiting is popping out of there like something a lot of people and younger people have never heard before. So again, something you know that puts us I think, in my humble opinion, back in the we're in the spearhead of what you know, and hopefully that I would like to think again, maybe super egocentric, that our example could prove to people that you don't have to make fucking producer driven bullshit. You don't have to do it the way

some guy told you to. You know what I mean, That's been my whole thing. No one we got into a band because no one. I didn't like to be told what to do. And then, you know what I mean, It's like, so we could come up with this band, and guess what if we're successful and we work hard and people like it, no one can tell you what to do with your art, you know what I mean.

And I think again it gets to like compliant, being compliant or being defiant, And we've always been defiant in the pursuit of whatever we want our art to look like, smell like, feel like, move like. And I think what you see today is you know, only compliance only What can I do for more viewers? What can I do for more lights? What can I do? You know what I mean? And it's like so much music that we

liked was almost made. They demanded you as a certain person in the marketplace, like you know what I'm making. That's difficult for you. I like that, you know, you know what I mean. It wasn't just about saccarin and sweet hits and you know what I mean now, the cutesy things and everything in the third person, and woe is me? You know what I mean?

We're not going to play it every night, But now I also realize the reverence of that song not and its popularity. But we have to play that. It's our and I play it with I enjoy singing it every night. I have to we have to play Hard to Handle, we have to play Remedy, we have to play Jealous again twice as our You know, there's just certain things that uh that the audience expects, and you know, I think we're we I think for the first time we

know with certainty that that's what we have to give them. Ah, but we do have this new record, and you know what, it just so happens that these new songs they can live side by side with this, you know what I mean, And we have occasion here and there for the deep fan and for the person who's interested in the Black Crows catalog to play something that maybe you didn't think

we were going to play. You know, I think within our within what we're doing, we can hit a lot of notes that way without really deviating from playing our most beloved songs. You know, I think we can make everyone happy. And you know, yeah, let's be honest. Once this happened, as Bastard's tour over, I'm sure we'll go back to a more hit related presentation, throwing in, like, you know, the songs from this record that work the best.

But for right now, we've we've moved from the bigger venues to theaters because we know we're gonna do something a little bit different, a little looser than than the greatest hits kind of vibes we've been doing the last couple of years.

things they see. And you know, I'm not the only you know. I'm like, we just put out wanting and waiting. I'm like, it can't be wanting and waiting for the new BMW, you know what I mean, Like, I'm not opposed to it. And actually, I think the one funny thing is because we were always so opposed to it and we had made such a fucking stink about it is I don't think anyone wants to deal with us.

You know, the corporate memory is much longer than the average persons I think, you know, I wouldn't know, but no, I mean again, and they these are all the you know, without the the benefit of some of those things, then we find ourselves in a place where we're not being able to finance albums and tours and you know, keep the business going. So there is a pragmatic reason to do it. That's not just for our own wealth or whatever.

It's also to keep the show going. You gotta do some things that we wouldn't have done when we were kids. And by the way, if you're going to do them, you have to do them with because you're happy to do it, you know. And I think that's probably the difference between where we were and like the even in the first two thousand and five twenty ten era to today, you know, I mean, we happily do the things that we agree to.

and I don't. And again it gets back to I'm not going to pretend to be someone else to make I mean, I'm talking about it in the general way, not in like I don't want to make someone on, you know, and whatever I mean, I I hardly uh, I hardly think of myself. You know. I travel around, I go anywhere I want. No one bothers me, no one, you know, people who know the band know me, and

they're always lovely, you know what I mean. And I always have time for them, and I always you know, I meet people at airports, I meet people at hockey games. I meet people at I met you know, we're at clubs all the time in LA looking at young bands and young artists and friends with these people and inspired by what they're doing. And really it's beautiful to see. But but but then there is a side of if you know, you don't like the way I dress, you

don't like what I said. Yeah, you know that's kind of still like, you know, I didn't get into rock and roll because I was conforming to anything. I got into rock and roll because I was a nonconformist. I had problems with authority. I didn't like you know what I mean. I'm a person who you know, is a subject to dandyism and you know, I mean, I think the difference also as being young, and we don't really talk about is you know, I like millions of people. I still I don't know if I would say I

suffer from depression, but I definitely have moments. But I'm not completely I'm not doing drugs every day. I'm not drinking every day. I'm not you know what I mean. And that only compounded sort of the depression into being lashing out and being more negative socially or in interviews,

or you know, not being patient or you know. But those are things also like that I hope you leave behind as you move into you know, a real adulthood, you know, And I don't need to have those attitudes, and I'm far more open and available for all sorts, for all manner of things. That's something that would make me really upset when I was twenty seven, I would just you know, water off my back at this point,

you know. But but like I said, I do think that, you know, there's still a little bit of rock and roll that you'ld be like, yeah, well fuck you, you know what I mean, Like, not in like a violent way or weird way, but just like, oh really you don't like that? Well, you know, And I know that sounds like.

going on, no one gives a fuck. You get a gel, get it, You did a gig, man, you know what I mean? And I really appreciate now that younger people, and I mean, I do think it's funny too. It's like they cancel the tour because they're like depressed. I'm like, wow, that must be nice. We were watching documentary about like shoegazs, the history of shoegaze music. I think it was if It's not the if it wasn't the guy from the Cocktail Twins, it was the guy from My Bloody Valentine

or something. They were and they were like, yeah, things were going so well, and then you know, then things weren't, and then you got to keep going. And then you're back in the studio and everyone's fighting and that guy's in a spiral and I'm on drugs and whatever, and he goes, Man, no one ever just said we should take six months off. I was like six months. It took six weeks. But you know what's funny, You hear that story a lot from people, and I can identify

with that. Yeah, you know, if we just looked at each other and said, let's take thank you, let's take six months off and get clear our heads or whatever, and you just never did back then.

blown away. Let me think what and then maybe maybe one of the other best things that I got to see the late Great Least Scratch Perry at Wetlands in New York at the like around ninety eight, maybe twenty seven ninety eight, And that was three hours of we went from the depths of the invocation of the human being in Africa to our ascent into outer space in three hours. It was life changing and life It just was like I never I just couldn't believe it. I've

never saw anything like it. And I will say I'll throw this into I know you said too, But I saw Camille and I saw Bob Dylan at the London Palladium. Not this last October, but you know, October twenty twenty two, I might have seen Bob more than any other like artist. You know, I probably first saw him in like, you know, not in them, of course, but like nineteen ninety or ninety one or something. But was sublime. I mean, it was so good and I was And it's funny because

I was lucky enough to have dinner. We had dinner with Jimmy Page the next night, and he had been to the show the night before I saw him, and all he wanted to talk about was Bob Show, you know. So it was fantastic because it was you know, I look at someone who's been you know, who who truly has done it all, you know, and the the spell that he evoked at that concert was mesmerizing and and I just couldn't believe it. I like floated out of there, you know what I mean.

ninety six, they would be very different presentation. I think once you relinquish yourself to Bob's vision or what he wants to say, then you can really get something out of it if you go and you have expectations that or other than whatever that artist, that particular artist too. Hey, who wields the power and who wields the talk about someone who doesn't give a far. He doesn't give a far.

That's what he's going to do. That's the way he wants to do it, and that's you know again, that's just one of the reasons why he remains one of my heroes and one of the great inspirations, not just as a singer, songwriter, lyricist, but.

into each other, you know, go to gigs. But I've run into him and all sorts of weird situations that I never would have thought as a kid running into Bob Dylan, and you know, it just it makes me laugh too, that one of the great I was friends with David Crosby for since nineteen ninety one or whatever, and I'm very sad when he left. And I know a lot of people have opinions about the cross, but I'm a Bird's fanatic. Crosby, Steals and Nash, if I can only remember my name is one of the most

beautiful records. And I was lucky enough to sing on a live record that he released in the mid nineties called It's All Coming Back to Me Now, and I got to sing with it. I sang with him a few times throughout my career. But Crosby, Seals, Nash and Young were playing when they toured last maybe it was ninety nine and they played at Madison Square Garden, and I've also been very lucky in my life to meet the Great Jim Keltner, who is another one of my

musical heroes. And the rhythm section was another one of my heroes again, the late Great Duck Dune Donald Duck Dunn, and I got to be friends with Duck, and that was also another very special relationships to me. But I took a friend. We all go down to Madison Square Garden and I, you know, I have my lamb and it's my tickets, and we go backstage and I was just I've never gone anywhere expecting anyone to say hello, to meet anyone, any of that. You know, I don't

have those expectations. But I did know I was going to go say hey to Duck because I'm Duck. We were friends. Uh. Duck's son, Jeff was the Black Cros's front of house for like the first eight years of our career, so that's how I know him. So as I'm walking backstage, it's like before the show, every you know, I see Cross and he's like, yeah, Chris, how are you? And he gives me a hug, and Stills is like, hey, Chris, I'm Steven. We've never met before, you know, but I

hear you're the rocker. I'm the rock and roll dude. You're the right, you know. I had met Neil before, and Neil was very friend. Hey, Chris, how's it going, man? I was like hey, And then Graham Nash. I had met with David once, and I'm like, if you had told my thirteen years you know what I mean. I was like that it was it was surreal. And the music that they've made together, the music they made on their own, that every one of them my name came out of their mouths, was like like such a just

such a head trip, you know what I mean. And I really was one of those nights. I was like, I'll always remember this, you know.

and cases and hysteria and we're always playing music. And he I think he was, you know, like impressed and with my CD collection and with the stuff we talked about. And we went out and we were playing at the Zeneth in Paris the next like in the you know, a couple of days later, and our dear friend, the photographer Ross Halfin, was like, Jimmy wants to come around. We're coming to the show. And I was like, I'll hook up everything, well, hit the you know, hit the

town afterwards. He goes, if you ask him, maybe he'll get up. And so he was there and I said, you want to play? You know, we played. We played like woke up this morning, you know, the BB King song, and there's some blues that we had in the set. Might even been like a Champion Jack two press. I don't know what. I don't actually remember, but he was like yeah yeah. And then I said, all right, well maybe we'll do shake your money Maker too, olmar James

say yeah, yeah, whatever you want to be great. So I'm like ladies and gentlemen, you know, Jimmy Page, and we're in the Zenith in Paris and people are fucking losing their minds and we went out and had a

great night together. And then the next thing that happens with us is there's a benefit in London and we're on tour with Aerosmith and doing stadiums and stuff in ninety nine, and it comes up there's like, well, they would like to get Jimmy and you guys are gonna you guys are in town, maybe you guys can collaborate with Jimmy on something. And we were like, I mean, yeah, fuck,

of course, that's really where it comes from. So we rehearsed a little bit and we did a couple of things out the gate, and then it was just kind of like poking around after that. And then there we were in a rehearsal space in New York before roseland with Jimmy Page for eight days, learning the led Zeppelin catalog and teaching him she talks to angels and shit, and again we just got on. Jimmy's a wonderful guy

and you know, taught me many valuable lessons. So that's a guy that Jimmy Page is the legend dairy person that he is because is he talented most definitely, does he have a vision for that talent? Most definitely, that he also works very hard. I never rehearsed that heart in my life. I never. I didn't even know that was possible, you know what I mean. We were from the rolling Stone school of yeah, we'll do it when

we get up there, you know. And Jimmy a lot of things happened up there that had nothing to do with the rehearsal either, but that he really I was like, Wow, he's the most maybe one of the most famous, you know, arguably the greatest rock guitarist of all time. And he takes it seriously and works hard. And that is always always been a part of something that I took from Jimmy as well.

a troublemaker. There's always going to be the outsider, you know. You know, last I was in Hollywood seeing this kid, Billy Tibbles that I produced his last two records and put them out on Silver Arrow. And he's like young kid, he moved to LA when he was eleven from England and he writes great. I mean we we kind of consider him. What did we say? He's garage glam hunk show tunes kind of you know. And and the guy these band the Uni Boys that play here in LA.

And I'm working with this really special artist named Dagger Polyester. And and although these young people are coming, you know, there's power pop and punk and glam and this and that and avant garde music, and like all of a sudden, someone's mentioning Terry Riley and then there's like you know, the Walker Brothers or whatever. But there's there's a real there's a you know, ay you always will see you know, when we were in Nashville. I went out and saw

cool bands. You know where I lived to go see bands.

So there's always sells, Queens of the Stone Age recently, you know, amazing concert So from the littlest, from the smallest, little fucking stinky dump to the big thing, there's still music happening in guitar music, different ages, different different worlds sometimes, but it's alive and it's well, you know I said a million times, if you go to go to a MEBA right now, you're gonna fucking stand in line with your stack of shit to pay for it, you know

what I mean. Because people are buying records, Vinyl records, old ones, new ones, reissues, you know what I mean. There's someone still you know that, you know there's a kid who still goes out and buys a poster lou Reid and puts it on his wall, and that's important.