A reunion of THE BLACK CROWES appears to be on the horizon. According to The Wall Street Journal , several sources close to the band aren't denying that a 2020 tour is being planned. The group's former drummer, Steve Gorman , has been informed of a potential comeback, although he was not approached to participate. Former manager Pete Angelus said that he is "aware of the deal" that Chris and Rich Robinson "made with Live Nation for a 2020 tour," while another source that is "familiar with the matter" simply said that "there might be something in the works."
THE BLACK CROWES have been inactive since they played their final show in December 2013.
Last year, Chris put together a band called AS THE CROW FLIES to perform primarily BLACK CROWES songs. Joining the singer in the initial version of the group were fellow former CROWES members Adam MacDougall , Andy Hess and Audley Freed , plus Marcus King and Tony Leone .
Rich Robinson is currently involved with THE MAGPIE SALUTE in which he is joined by Marc Ford from THE BLACK CROWES , bassist Sven Pipien (also from the CROWES ) along with lead singer John Hogg ( HOOKAH BROWN , MOKE ), drummer Joe Magistro and guitarist Nico Bereciartua .
In a recent interview, Gorman said that Rich and Chris Robinson will "probably be on the road soon together with a whole new band calling it THE BLACK CROWES ."
THE BLACK CROWES drummer and co-founder, whose "Hard To Handle: The Life And Death Of The Black Crowes - A Memoir" was released last month, made his comments while promoting the book on the Detroit radio station WRIF .
Speaking about THE BLACK CROWES ' untimely demise, Gorman told WRIF's Meltdown : "The band blew up in 2014 in a manner that will never be anything short of disgusting. Chris demanded all the money, after 27 years, from not only me, but from his brother. 'If we're gonna continue, I need all the money,' basically, was what he demanded. And, of course, Rich and I said 'no,' and that was the end of THE BLACK CROWES . It was an insane thing for him to have done. Right when we were about to do a 25th-anniversary-slash-farewell tour — we were gonna wrap it up and say, 'This is it,' and we just wanna thank our fans and thank each other and just go out on a high, for once. That wasn't possible… And when it happened, it was so over the top, it was kind of laughable. And Rich and I literally did laugh — we were, like, 'Oh my God! Are you kidding?' So that was the end of the band."
As for his decision to write a book, Gorman said: "A couple of years [after THE BLACK CROWES split up], Ed [keyboardist Eddie Harsch ] died, and then, within a few months of Ed 's passing, I was aware of a real calm, a real sense of… I knew the band was over, but now with Ed gone, THE BLACK CROWES that I loved and THE BLACK CROWES that mattered to me, there was no way, with Ed gone, that that could ever happen again. And not that I expected it to, but now it was real clear that we had crossed the rubicon. And my anger had completely gone away and my bitterness had completely gone away. I was sad, and I will always be sad about how the band ended and how the band never lived up to its potential, but I was at peace with it. And I could see how much greatness we did and how great it was. And it just all fell into place where I wasn't thinking about it consciously, but within, I would say, six months of Eddie 's passing, I just said out loud one day to my wife, I said, 'I think I'm gonna write a book.' It just hit me, like, 'I'm ready to do this now.' 'Cause I never wanted to write a book where I was angry or bitter. Now, I write the book, there's passages where I'm writing my mindset at the time, and, yeah, I would be furious about things that were going on. But when I was writing it and now that I'm talking about it, it all makes perfect sense. It just sits where it sits, and I'm cool with how everything shook out. It's not how I would have wanted it, but I can't imagine it any other way."
According to Gorman , THE BLACK CROWES had two members that suffered from LSD (Lead Singer's Disease), the tendency for the lead singer of a rock band to become egotistical and impossible to work. "One of 'em happened to play guitar," he explained. "We had two guys that were… Their internal struggle, their existential I-hate-my-brother nonsense, it's horrifying on the most basic level, which is they're siblings — they only have each other in life as family and as true life partners. So that's a tragedy right there — when you see two brothers that can't get along and can't show the slightest amount of respect for each other, that's a sad thing on a human level. As far as how it impacted the band, it's contagious and it's toxic, and their relationship infects every element of the band's existence and it becomes impossible to function in any sort of efficient or collectively inspiring manner, and that was the ultimate fatal blow to THE BLACK CROWES ."
Gorman said that he has not been in contact with either Rich or Chris since he started working on his memoir. "I know that they were both very upset that I was writing the book," he said. "They don't even care what's in it; they hate that I would have the audacity to establish a narrative, 'cause in their mind, it's all about them. And they'll probably be on the road soon together with a whole new band calling it THE BLACK CROWES , and that'll be fine — if people wanna hear 'Hard To Handle' every night, that's totally cool. But it's not the band that I gave my life to for 27 years, and that a lot of other people did too. That's just two guys in their 50s who've painted themselves into a corner going out and playing music. And again, they have every right to do that. But my book is about a band; it's not about a brand."
The drummer went on to say that Chris and Rich will likely be reuniting on stage soon out of necessity more so than a genuine desire to be creative together.
"I don't think either one of 'em wants to do it," Gorman said. "In a perfect world, I don't think they'd ever be in the same room together again. I just don't think they have a lot of options right now."
