Chris Robinson

0:06Pushkin. This is an iHeart Podcast. In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal. T-Mobile knows all about that. They're now the best network, according to the experts at Ooclas Speedtest. And they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage. That's your business, Supercharged. Learn more at supermobile.com. Seamless coverage with compatible devices in most outdoor areas in the U.S.

0:48where you can see the sky. Best network based on analysis by Ukla of Speedtest Intelligence Data 1H 2025. Every great music conversation goes beyond the surface. The influence that shaped an artist's sound. The moment that changed their creative direction. The story behind the story that fans never hear. Claude helps you discover those deeper connections. Upload interviews, liner notes, or music journalism, and Claude reveals patterns across an artist's entire journey, showing how influences become innovations. Whether you're a music journalist, passionate fan, or someone who loves understanding creative processes, Claude matches your curiosity about what really drives great artists.

1:29Try Claude for free at claude.ai slash brokenrecord. This episode of Broken Record is brought to you by Chase Sapphire Reserve. Traveling is one of life's greatest joys. Honestly, can anything be more exhilarating? Well, actually, yeah, with Chase Sapphire Reserve. It's your gateway to the world's most captivating destinations. First, you will earn eight times points on all purchases through Chase Travel. And the card gets you into Sapphire Lounge by the club at select airports nationwide and access to one-of-a-kind experiences. Whether you are booking a once-in-a-lifetime trip or your next weekend escape, Discover more with Chase Sapphire Reserve at chase.com slash sapphire reserve.

2:11Cards issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank and a member FDIC. Subject to credit approval. Terms apply. 16 years have passed since the Black Crows last put out an album of all new material. The world's changed a lot since then, and it appears so have the Robinson brothers. Chris and Rich Robinson are, of course, the backbone of the group. They started together back in Georgia in 84 as Mr. Crow's Garden before moving to NYC, signing with Deaf American and changing their name to the Black Crows. The band's debut album, Shake Your Money Maker, set them up as torchbearers of Southern rock for the 90s and beyond.

2:51As you'll hear in our conversation, the brothers Robinson have had a competitive relationship for a long time. Their ups and downs have meant hiatuses for the band over the years, but now they're back united and seemingly in it for the long haul with their new album, Happiness Bastards. On today's episode, I talk to Chris Robinson about his growing up in Georgia with Rich, their dad's rockabilly career, his listening routine that includes Sudanese and Sufi music, and how his road habits have changed from indulging in champagne and other substances to reading Herman Melville. This is Broken Record.

3:29Line of notes for the digital age. I'm Justin Richman. Here's my conversation with Chris Robinson of the Black Crows. Is that a Gun Club, like the band shirt that you got on? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, hell yeah. I love Gun Club, man. Jeffrey Lee Pierce, one of my faves. And it's funny because, you know, when we started, people would always say we sounded like, and we did. We had, you know, there was the jangle sort of indie pop thing. R.E.M. of course being the purveyors of that, but Let's Active and the DBs and then bands from California like Game Theory, we kind of were into this kind of jangly, 60s inspired.

4:06But we really sounded early days a lot like the Gun Club, you know, because Gun Club and X are very interesting to me in the early punk scene here in Los Angeles because they were the, well, I guess you could put the blasters and the plugs in there too. Blasters are from SF though, right? Oh, Blasters are a LA band too. Are they? Oh, okay, cool. They had those kind of rootsy things, you know? And it would be really early on that we would think like, okay, well, Jeffrey Lee Pierce is like a punk icon, but he plays a Robert Johnson song on the first record, you know? I mean, it doesn't sound like Robert Johnson, but needless to say, he found great inspiration and the mythology and the imagery and the vibration of like the blues and stuff, which other punk bands really didn't.

4:54Whatever music is happening in L.A., there's always some subset of it that countrifies it. It's like even with the birds, like Sweetheart of the Rodeo, like all that stuff, like the birds got into that. And I don't know, you can even feel that with Buffalo Springfield. I mean, I know Neil's from Canada or whatnot, but they're making music here. Of course, of course. Well, I mean, while that's going on, Tim Buckley's here. And you know what I mean? And while that's going on, you have bands like the Chambers Brothers. Yeah. Eric Burden leads the animals, a northern English white band playing blues music, and then he's the lead singer of War.

5:30Of War. War is like such a quintessential L.A. Long Beach, in fact, group, you know? I mean, I think, obviously, their subsequent most famous records don't include Eric Burden. And it's funny, it also just goes to show how that's just how music is, isn't it? You know what I mean? I mean, I guess you obviously you can make examples of things that seem heavy handed or things that don't contain a certain authenticity. But I mean, that was a big deal when I, you know, talking about growing up in a band, being from Atlanta, being like in arguably the most progressive city in terms of race relations in if not America and maybe globally.

6:14That's interesting. It probably has to be. I mean, I might have been tempted to say New Orleans, but I think when you kind of look at the musical legacy of Atlanta over the last... I mean, New Orleans most definitely, but Atlanta is different because of the black universities. Yeah. Like, kind of concentrated there. And Atlanta having Maynard Jackson as the first black mayor, the first black police chief, the first black police force in the Deep South. When I first landed in Atlanta, I got to say, coming from L.A. because I grew up in L.A., Then when I first landed in Atlanta and I'm in the airport, I'm like, where am I?

6:46The whole airport is black. It was the weirdest experience for me. That's funny. And as I said, I'm a third generation Atlantan and I don't really make the connection of being like, I'm a Southern person, but my connection is with Atlanta. And so it's funny because Maynard Jackson's the guy who when Hartfield International Airport becomes an international airport, he's the one who's like, We're not doing anything unless black business owners are recognized and have a piece in this and what that can mean for the community. Something very subtle like that still reverberates, I think. And besides the culture, because you start to see Atlanta also be a city famous for the musicians and the hip hop and the athletes that all move there.

7:34But the reason that becomes attractive is because of decisions like that and the hard line that someone like Maynard Jackson would take and how Atlanta had been pried open. Of course, having the great reverend be from there, you know, gives Atlanta a different perspective. But I don't know. It's a unique place in that way. And it's funny, like I speak on it from the past because I really left. First check I got in the Black Crows, I moved to New York. Being in a band to me was like, you know, shooting an arrow over the mountain. I wanted to get out in the world. Had you been to New York before you moved there?

8:10Yeah, yeah. Actually, you know, our dad, Rich and I's dad, was a singer. He had a top 40 rock and roll hit in the 50s called Booma Dip Dip. You can check it out on Spotify. I've listened to some of that stuff. It's really good, man. It's really good. Yeah, it's a good song. and so I really happened and went to New York and he was like you know into the theater and music and acting and dance you know so he wanted that too at a certain time in his life and he was in New York and um and it's funny my mom was a flight attendant for the old eastern airlines and you know it's funny she told me she goes oh I served Dr.

8:51King many times on flights out of Atlanta Wow. Which I always really blew my mind as a kid. Of course you did. I mean, how many flights out of Atlanta must he have taken? Yeah, I mean, all the time. I moved to New York first, and I still love New York. And some of my deepest connections and friendships are there. My wife and I just got back from there yesterday. But I came to Los Angeles, and I don't know, it was farther away. From Georgia? Yeah, from everything. I mean, California has an idea. California, later I would get to know far more about this state. And I lived up north for six years, and I was in this little hippie band.

9:34And we started, we did nine weeks just up and down California in a van, playing all the little beach towns and hippie towns. And, you know, I got a real appreciation for, do you remember Huell Houser? Oh, come on, man. California's gold, baby. I was like the psychedelic Huell Houser. You know what I mean? you know, Hulhauser was always like, so this is an adobe wow, he was amazed about everything he's like, so this is a bowl of menudo I love Hulhauser R.I.P. the late great man the late great Hulhauser man I love, and you know what he was always so excited he saw every mission from San Diego to like, you know, the Oregon border so this is the mission You're like so excited.

10:24Everything was ecstatic to him. It was crazy. It was so, that was a funny show to watch, man. I loved it. When I moved here, I was like, what is this? This is fantastic. I also am lucky that when I'm, so I moved here in 91, early 92. That was the golden age of public television. Yeah. The weirdest, weirdest of the weird stuff would come on TV, man, on the couple of public stations on your cable like channel 6 and channel 14 or whatever the most unimaginably i mean obviously like tim and eric i don't know if you ever got into tim and eric oh yeah oh yeah tim and eric like take the inspiration of that into their twisted world for that series which is still some of my favorite stuff you don't need a chinese massage you need an italian massage it was fantastic you know what i mean and and you know the other thing about things that were really I've always been interested in outsider culture you know when those would be like driven by like this but but because it's Hollywood it made it even weirder like I'm on TV now I'm famous too you know what I mean it's kind of predated the psychosis that has become social media you know yeah yeah people always describe LA when they come to LA as being closer to the industry as being closer to things but I also find that you can find your your niches and stay way out of the way of the industry if you want.

11:47I did it, yeah. I mean, when I moved to Topanga Canyon at a certain point, I moved to Topanga because I have these romantic notions of what Northern California, and why I've been to Northern California, but what it might feel like not to be in LA, but to still be able to be in LA for different reasons. I'm of the firm belief that Los Angeles is one of the great cities in the world, which is also unique because of how new this city is comparatively. In 1860, there's 5 ,000 people living here. That's wild. Ranchers and spread out, and it's just come over from Mexican rule and stuff, from that government, and they had, you know, gave everyone deeds to these massive fincas and ranches and things that were all of California, you know.

12:35So it's not that old in the big scheme of things. But the other funny thing is when I came here, I was I laugh all the time because like growing up in Atlanta whatever in 19 I had my first sushi in 1989 my guy wanted ended up being our manager like took me and Rich with some friends to get sushi and uh that place was called Imperial Gardens whatever it was right there on sunset it's now like an aqua place or something but it was the Roxbury later but anyway we're sitting there and like, of course I know what it is, but I've, you know, Stan and Nancy Robinson in Atlanta, we didn't do, you know what I mean?

13:18Like, I remember being 16 and telling my dad, like coming downstairs one day, I was like, why have we never had Indian food? My dad was like, you're right, we should go get it. And I was like, we all drove to the one Indian restaurant, you know, and it was amazing. Wow. But when I'm here in 1989, I'm still working on the first album and I'm a kid from Atlanta. But the cool thing is it's a mentality. You get farther away from where you come from. And like anything else, you figure out what's delicious about it and what's special about it. And now it has a place in your culinary thing. Tonight's sushi.

13:54We want to go. And you know what I mean? And then you can enjoy it on the level. But there was one time where I come to L.A. I don't know anything about anything. And I don't even know what this is. How far removed from Atlanta do you feel now? Do you feel like an Atlantan? I mean, not especially. And none of that is to be taken as if Atlanta has feelings. I do love Atlanta more than ever, but it's also, I like the remnants of the Atlanta that I remembered. So when you go back, you don't see the... I mean, man, it's changed. There was this thing on Pete Street called the Darlington Apartments, and there it used to have this digital thing, and it would be like 2 ,900 ,000 ,000 ,000, you know what I mean?

14:37It was the population and it got older with the population sign. It got bigger and it went to 3 million in 1990. We used to hang around this monthly thing called the Mud Shack at this after hours Mexican burrito place and it was a poetry reading and just the poet would get on stage like, I live in a city of 3 million people as if it was like, you know, this Atlanta. I was, it's almost 8 million people now. Yeah, right. That sounds about right. It's huge. So we're not there. I mean, of course I love it, but most, a lot of the Atlanta, you know, the house where we used to rehearse and have parties is now the Federal Reserve.

15:18The club that we based all our rock and roll dreams and mythology on is now a place where people go get stitches or whatever. You know what I mean? Like all of that kind of stuff from back in the 80s whenever the world was new and music was all our career was ahead of us, that's all kind of gone. You can see the skeleton of it, you know what I mean? Yeah. We'll come back with more of my interview with Chris Robinson after this quick break. In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal. T-Mobile knows all about that.

15:59They're now the best network, according to the experts at Oocla Speedtest, and they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage. With Supermobile, your performance, security, and coverage are supercharged. With a network that adapts in real time, your business stays operating at peak capacity, even in times of high demand. With built-in security on the first nationwide 5G advanced network, you keep private data private for you, your team, your clients. And with seamless coverage from the world's largest satellite-to-mobile constellation, your whole team can text and stay updated even when they're off the grid.

16:44That's your business, Supercharged. Learn more at supermobile.com. Seamless coverage with compatible devices in most outdoor areas in the U.S. where you can see the sky. Best network based on analysis by Ukla of Speedtest Intelligence Data 1H 2025.

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18:39It's just like doing my eyes closed. I'm Manny. I'm Noah. This is Devin. And on our new show, No Such Thing, we get to the bottom of questions like these. Join us as we talk to the leading expert on overconfidence. Those who lack expertise, lack the expertise they need to recognize that they lack expertise. And then as we try the whole thing out for real. Wait, what? Oh, that's the runway. I'm looking at this thing, see? Listen to No Such Thing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. we're back with chris robinson do you get excited to tour these days like can you still get excited about it i do i do it was funny i've done a couple of interviews for this project and i'm like shocked that the people have said you're the first musician who says they still find inspiration doing what you do and being on tour they say is so boring i'm like i've never lost the dream and again i've never been bored you know what i mean even as a kid like with my mom and dad go to your room i'd be like i'm amazing that's all i want to do records are in there the books i'm reading are in there i can draw i can dream you know what i mean daydream i mean i was somewhere there's a permanent record of me and all it says is prone to daydreaming not very good at math yeah right But I was saying, I mean, it's just the way it is.

20:06I mean, is it tedious sometimes? Fuck yes. I'm 57 now. Airports fucking suck. Yeah. Not every gig is a magical experience. But you never know who you're going to meet. And it could be anyone. It could be the Guyanese Uber driver who picked you up in St. Louis, who's fucking hilarious, an amazing, soulful person who's left a life behind to try to eke out something better. and is so brave and courageous. And you're only with this person eight minutes from the airport or whatever. And you're just two people in the world laughing in a car. But that little thing, that doesn't even necessarily have to be a part of the narrative.

20:48It just has to be a part of that you still believe that there's dynamic in meeting people and talking and laughing and sometimes crying. But I'm just naive enough to still see it as in the same way that I wanted. I picked music on a lot of levels because I knew it was the one thing that I would travel all the time. Yeah. And then you set up your little thing and then you put your vibes out there, you know? That is pretty weird. I feel like listening to you talk, the only other person who has had a level of success that you've had and tours as much as you do and travels as much as you do, that seems to still love it.

21:26I got lucky. I met Quincy Jones in Havana maybe 10 years ago. Wow. And the joy he has to like travel and just talk to anybody. It's like, he's like, yeah, he'll tell Sinatra stories. And I'll tell the story about like the cab driver and like Memphis. And he's like, he, everything is like new and fun and interesting and every person and everything and every sound and every, there's a particular joy that you don't find in a lot of, a lot of people. Like I said, I understand. And, you know, you get older. it also helps in my life that after all the rock and roll and all the experiences that i found camille my wife because i found someone who she understands that some of that is problematic and some of it's a pain in the ass and some of it's like can't we just be nor do normal something and like by the way we can talk about that and uh do our best but then she also realizes like She's an artist and she's a Pisces queen, moonstone child out in the world who wants to feel these things too.

22:33My thing is the pandemic was such a fucking head trip. Personally, I didn't really find it creative. I found it stifling, but we were lucky enough to live out in the wilds of West Marin and then we were in Southwest Colorado. Amazing. Yeah, which was really, really hell. but one thing i thought i would really flip out on was it was the first time since i was basically a teenager where i wasn't working and touring and singing and playing and doing the whole spiel and you know what it was rad really you liked it well my head didn't fall off you know the our lives didn't you know disintegrate into nothing it was nice i had time for a lot of other things and it's funny the travel part of it i was just talking to my manager mark last night about how at a certain point it would be nice to bow out from performing the way we perform before i can't because i love the travel and we fit in the things that we want to but it's different to be in a place for you know we're going to paris i'm going to see my friends i know all the restaurants i want to go to i know all the things i want to do ah but you got to leave in two days yeah yeah and you have a show when i was a kid i didn't care we would just party go out champagne drugs this that two days do the gig go that do it again do the gig you know like it's all one thing it wasn't when you're young you can do it you know what i mean yeah i don't feel that now i'm really happy being in the black crows and really fulfilling and satisfying and gratifying but at a certain point, I just want to take my wife and go to Sicily and eat linguine and clams and drink wine and read Moby Dick for the third time or whatever.

24:29You know what I mean? I just want to just be a part of everything going on. There's lots of places I haven't traveled. I haven't been to Africa. I've always wanted to go to Africa. You know what I mean? That would be nice to have some time to do that because Africa is such a huge thing. I'm really interested in West Africa. I'd like to go to North Africa. It'd be cool to see East Africa. You know what I mean? What interests you in West Africa? I don't know. I think maybe it has something to do just with the, I mean, I love North African music, but there's, you know, a lot of those West African music could be because of the horrors of mankind and the horrors of the slave trade.

25:08Human beings found a way somehow through the vileness of that to communicate and share things in art and music, cuisine. So many African parts, especially in the Deep South, and people don't even know they're under-educated anyway. But with these things, it's like, oh, every Southern person loves to eat fried okra, but okra came over from Africa. Right, right, right. Before that, okra came from India to Africa. So just dumb things like that, plants and fruits, vegetables, natural things and supernatural things that were brought over that could never be extinguished. And I just have some sort of, and I don't even know what it is because I'm not obviously that knowledgeable as other people, but I can put a few things together and realize, you know, so much of the music, singing, rhythm things, guitar things, especially string things come from a West African musical tradition that represents like this African mysticism and magic as well that manifests when people express themselves vocally and rhythmically and with melody and things, you know, like a, simple as something like a string guitar.

26:24And that is something that would draw me there first. Amazing. I see that in a first person and see what it feels like for me as a real outsider. Yeah. Outsider culture is important to me just because of whether my dyslexia or just whatever my tastes and where I would find the things in life that are interesting, that make me happy, things that I can understand or help me for things that I don't understand to understand. So a lot of that you have to kind of just vibe out viscerally fine. And I would be curious to see what it feels like. Yeah. Wow. We've gone from like psychedelic Hulhauser to like psychedelic Anthony Bourdain or some shit.

27:03We've gone global now. Call my agent. I'm down to do this job. That's amazing, man. I want to check out like Robert Plant goes to Morocco. Yeah. He loves the Sufi music and the North African music. Yeah. And it's funny because I have this app where you can listen to radio stations all over the world. But it's like, wow, right on, man. I want to listen to some rad Cambodia music. It's like, oh, it's Nicki Minaj, like everywhere else. I know, that's kind of a bummer about radio. I mean, it's like, which is cool. I'm not bagging Nicki Minaj, but I'm like, I'm thinking I'm going to get hip to some thing I've never heard, some regional vibes or whatever.

27:43And it's like, oh, it's the same shit they're playing here. Is it that radio app? Yeah, yeah. It's so cool. But there's some in Morocco, and then there's a certain kind of music that the horrors of things. There was a slave trade in Africa for a long time, too. Within. And they're bringing sub-Saharan Africans to North Africa. But a great musical art form is born from it that still exists today, and there's whole radio stations that play it, and they're basically a living blues. It's the same tradition of the pain and suffering of the blues that these people brought with them. It still lives today and is now celebrated as rebel songs almost.

28:22Yeah. It's like those North African guitar, I don't know how to pronounce their names. They're Narwin. Tito Narwin or something. Yeah. Right. I saw their first show in New York many years ago. Really? I love that music and I love Sudanese music. And then you go over, I love Persian classical music. I love music from Afghanistan and I love Turkish music. You know, I really have a lot of diverse interests in things like that. After this last break, we'll be back with more of Chris Robinson. In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal.

29:05T-Mobile knows all about that. They're now the best network, according to the experts at Oocla Speedtest, and they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage. With Supermobile, your performance, security, and coverage are supercharged. With a network that adapts in real time, your business stays operating at peak capacity, even in times of high demand. With built-in security on the first nationwide 5G advanced network, you keep private data private for you, your team, your clients.

29:43And with seamless coverage from the world's largest satellite to mobile constellation, your whole team can text and stay updated even when they're off the grid. That's your business, Supercharged. Learn more at supermobile.com. Seamless coverage with compatible devices in most outdoor areas in the U.S. where you can see the sky. Best network based on analysis by Ukla of Speedtest Intelligence Data 1H 2025.

30:27nations. Travel is its own reward, you know. You're out there having experiences you can't have any other way, and with your Chase Sapphire Reserve card, you're also being rewarded. You earn eight times points on all purchases through Chase Travel. So let's say you book a trip to Hawaii, you go surfing at Sunset Beach, you go hiking on a volcano, and you go out to dinner. With the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, you're actually earning points for going on a grand adventure anywhere you go, any trip you take. And that's not even mentioning how the card gets you into the Sapphire Lounge by the club at select airports nationwide and access to one-of-a-kind experiences like music festivals and sports events.