THE BLACK CROWES' RICH ROBINSON: 'For Us, Playing Live Is What Is Magical About It'

During a March 16 appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", THE BLACK CROWES guitarist Rich Robinson discussed his band's insistence on still releasing full-length albums despite the fact that young music consumers are increasingly gravitating toward singles. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We're creative people and we love the creative forces of music. And it's not just playing — it's writing, it's recording. Being in the studio is a creative element. Writing is a creative element. You go in and you make this record, and I think that a record is still almost more viable than it used to be — maybe not from a sales standpoint, but from just an expression standpoint. You get to take someone on a journey for 10 or 12 or however many songs you wanna put on there. And there's something about that that still moves us to this day. We'll sit down and listen to a whole record. The sequencing of a record means a lot. You put everything in a sequence because you kind of curate how you want this thing to be unveiled and how you want people to hear it and how you hope that it'll take them somewhere. And that's what we've always done and that's what I still love to do. And that's what we're doing now."

After "Trunk Nation" host Eddie Trunk noted that THE BLACK CROWES still play shows completely live, "which, sadly, is becoming a dying thing out there on the road," Robinson said: "Look, anyone does what they do — good for them — but for us, playing live is what is magical about it. Rock and roll music, there's an abandon to it. And you can have unbelievable shows and then you can have a show that's almost ready to run off the rails. But sometimes you pull it back and it can be something that's unbelievable. And it's like lightning. Everyone that goes to see you play, there are moments within those shows that can be so profound and so beautiful. And also I look at music like a wheel. The music is the hub and the audience and the band are all the spokes, and we're holding it together and we're all viewing this music. We're in this one hall together, experiencing this. Some of us are experiencing from different perspectives, but we're all there. And that's what's really cool about it. Plus we change our sets every night. We play new songs, we play old songs, we play covers, because we love music. And that's why it's called playing music, not working music."

THE BLACK CROWES' latest studio album, "A Pound Of Feathers", came out on March 13 via Silver Arrow Records. The 11-song set was recorded over a 10-day period in Nashville with Grammy-winning producer Jay Joyce, and with only Cully Symington, the band's drummer since 2023, joining Rich and his brother, THE BLACK CROWES singer Chris Robinson, in the studio.

THE BLACK CROWES will play shows in Australia and Japan in April before kicking off a North American tour with WHISKEY MYERS and SOUTHALL on May 17 in Austin, Texas.

THE BLACK CROWES' 2026 touring lineup will consist of the Robinson brothers alongside Symington, keyboardist Erik Deutsch and guitarist Nico Bereciartua. Longtime bassist Sven Pipien will sit out the tour and will be replaced by Mark "Muddy" Dutton of BURNING TREE.