BLACK STONE CHERRY Frontman: 'We Were Pissed Off' While Making 2016's 'Kentucky' Album

Germany's Rock Bottom conducted an interview with Chris Robertson (vocals, guitar) and John Fred Young (drums) of Kentucky rockers BLACK STONE CHERRY prior to the band's November 19 concert in Hamburg. You can now watch the chat below.

Speaking about BLACK STONE CHERRY's latest album, 2018's "Family Tree", Chris said: "I've always considered a record to be a snapshot of the band's life from the conclusion of the [previous] record until the time they put the newest record out. So there's an eight-month period in there where you're finishing up touring the previous record… 'Cause you evolve and change as people every day. And I think that's why none of our records have ever been the same. They've always brought something different each time. I don't know, man… It's just like a snapshot of who we are. So if you listen to 'Family Tree', that's the perfect representation of who we were when we were making that record. We're different even now. But those songs… We don't write songs just to write songs. Every song has a feeling or a meaning behind it — whether that be just rock and roll in general or whether it be a song like 'My Last Breath' that talks… the whole song is kind of me talking to my little boy. All the songs mean something. It's not just a song to be a song."

According to Chris, BLACK STONE CHERRY's 2016 album, "Kentucky" was made at a particularly difficult point in the group's career when he and his bandmates found themselves without a record company after a split with longtime label home, Roadrunner Records.

"In all honesty… I was talking earlier about records being snapshots. When we wrote that 'Kentucky' record, for the most part, we were pissed off, man," he said. "We had just been dropped by a record label. I think we're the only band in history to ever go do a tour and sell out all the theaters and then play arenas that were packed — almost sold out — and then, a month later, we didn't have a record deal anymore. So you can see we were pissed. So that's where songs like 'The Way Of The Future' and a lot of that heavy stuff on the 'Kentucky' record came from."

"Family Tree" was released on April 20 via Mascot Records/Mascot Label Group. As was the case on "Kentucky", the BLACK STONE CHERRY members opted to produce and track "Family Tree" at David Barrick's Barrick Recording in Glasgow, Kentucky, the same studio where the four-piece recorded its eponymous debut.