The Black Crowes On Authenticity, ‘Happiness Bastards’ Grammy Nod

Last year, Chris and Rich Robinson entered the studio to begin work on Happiness Bastards, the Black Crowes’ ninth studio album and first in nearly 15 years.

In 1992, work on the group’s sophomore studio effort The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion was notoriously brisk, clocking in at about eight days. Following preproduction, work on Happiness Bastards moved quick too, with the Black Crowes wrapping sessions at producer Jay Joyce’s (Eric Church, Cage the Elephant) Nashville-based Neon Cross studio in just about two weeks.

Following nearly a ten year break, time spent apart, coupled with the wisdom that accompanies aging, helped to heal the wounds between founding brothers Chris and Rich Robinson, with a punk ethos once again guiding them as they began to move forward as a fully functioning band.

The result? Happiness Bastards is a collection of 10 tracks which finds the Black Crowes recapturing their stature as one of America’s great bands, a welcome return to form which nevertheless finds the group exploring new sounds, including a stunning duet on “Wilted Rose” with country superstar Lainey Wilson which stands as a vocal first for singer Chris Robinson.

Nominated for their first Grammy since 1990, Happiness Bastards will take on the Rolling Stones (Hackney Diamonds), Green Day (Saviors), Pearl Jam (Dark Matter), Jack White (No Name), Fontaines D.C. (Romance) and IDLES (Tangk) when the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album is announced on Sunday, February 2, 2025 during the 67th annual Grammy Awards broadcast on CBS.

Here, in their own words, highlights from four separate conversations with Chris Robinson, Rich Robinson, Jay Joyce and Lainey Wilson revisit the album in six parts, examining its origins, the band’s reformation, punk roots, recording of the record, the resulting songs and what’s next.

Origins: How Georgia And Shared Influences Would Impact The Black Crowes

Jay Joyce: I kind of grew up sort of really digging the Black Crowes.

Lainey Wilson: I remember hearing “Hard to Handle” growing up in my hometown of Baskin, Louisiana during the 90s. I can vividly picture myself in the backseat, playing air guitar to the song as my parents drove me to and from dance lessons. “Hard to Handle” was one of those songs that made me say, “Turn it up, mama.” From the moment I heard those drum fills and that knockout of a guitar solo, I was hooked.

Rich Robinson: We were wearing our influences on our sleeves. I mean, I was a teenager! I started writing Shake Your Moneymaker when I was 17. I didn’t have many life experiences. Fast forward: 22 months of touring. 350 shows touring with Aerosmith, Robert Plant, ZZ Top, AC/DC, Metallica and all of these bands. And seeing the world. You come home with a fresh pocket of life experiences – albeit weird life experiences! (Laughs) Or unusual life experiences.

Chris Robinson: And, by the way, it’s not just the Rolling Stones and Jimmy Page…

Rich: The scene that we were in when we were kids… There was all of this sort of crossing between sort of punk rock and alternative music. And we came from that.

Chris: It’s Mitch Easter from Let’s Active and Steve Wynn from The Dream Syndicate. Meeting Junior Wells. The lives that we’ve had…

Rich: As you kind of get older, and as you go through the punk movement and sort of separate out the bands that are really unique like X and The Replacements and The Clash and The Ramones – and bands that wrote a little more artistically deeper songs – then you start getting into bands like R.E.M. And what R.E.M. did for southern alternative music was huge. It opened up everything. We would go see R.E.M. and they would play an Aerosmith song – they played “Toys in the Attic” – and then they’d play “Back of a Car” from Big Star and then “Pale Blue Eyes” [by the Velvet Underground]. And it made sense! It wasn’t weird. It all worked. So, all of that sort of alternative background that we had – and that bedrock that we came from – we just always saw the world that way. And so that informed how we moved forward, you know? And we’ve kind of held onto that our whole lives.

Chris: I think the thing that motivates us is that we love music, we love records and we wanna make a great record. I think the most incredible thing is to still have the opportunity to go to amazing studios with amazing musicians and talented people and let your emotions and your imagination bring something together that feels like this.

Reforming: How The Wisdom Of Aging, And Time Apart, Would Benefit The Black Crowes

Wilson: Their intensity is what stuck with me then and still resonates with me today.

Chris: I looked at the Black Crowes at the end as like a tea kettle that someone had left on the stove. “Is anyone gonna turn the heat down?!” If the Black Crowes were the kettle, taking it off the stove for those years was really important for my heart and my mind and my soul. And it’s within that context that I meet [my wife Camille] and I meet the person that I can navigate this life with. And someone that can look at me and help with those elements – especially with Rich. And I think Rich has done the same thing in his life.

Rich: A lot of it has to do with age and wisdom – and also being apart. And learning a lot by being apart. Being apart that long, and then coming back into this, really opens up the perspective of, “OK. Well, it’s not just that that guy’s an a–hole. We both play a role in this.” And now I can see, by getting out of it, what I was doing to sort of drive this. And Chris sort of feels the same way. And now we’re in this really great place. And it’s the best place we’ve probably ever been, you know?

Chris: Where I used to maybe get pissy about our differences: “Why is he like that?” Now, I don’t need to know why. It just is. And I love him for it. And I respect him for it. And if we can have that sort of duality between the two of us? Do I feel like I can make things without him and make music? Yes. But I understand that if I’m talking about the Black Crowes, it’s not me: it’s me and him. And it’s me and him in a real yin and yang way. It’s him and I in a perfect symmetry. That’s how this band works. I can’t say that I always felt that way – especially the composition, the writing.

Rich: Apart from being brothers and being in a band together, I’m also a fan of what he does and what he brings to music – and to my music. I love to hear what he brings to the table. And that’s why it works, you know?

Chris: There’s a lot of great guitar players. And a lot of great guitar players know all of the licks, right? And Rich has never given a rat’s ass about playing all of the great licks. He plays what he plays. Rhythmically, there’s maybe Malcolm Young and Keith Richards – and then my brother. That’s the way I see it.

Rich: There’s no one better when Chris is at form. That sort of charisma and excitement of what he gives to the band and what he gives to the audience every night is pretty amazing.

Chris: There’s a melodic sort of reality that Rich lives in that I think is just different. It’s not just riffs. His acoustic guitar playing – which you get to hear if you see us do Brothers of a Feather or that kind of element on the records – is, again, to me, second to none. I mean, it’s very rare that we would ever have a song end in a regular tuning. Rich’s tunings and where he’ll play an F tuning with a capo? I don’t know, he’s in his own world.

The Punk Thing: Defined By Attitude Over Sound, The Punk Rock Ethos Guides The Black Crowes

Chris: Ever since we were kids, my comments can come off as being aggressive or arrogant sometimes – definitely opinionated. Well, first off, I feel it’s the artist’s job to be that person.

Rich: We came from a punk ethos. We loved The Cramps and The Dead Kennedys and X and Black Flag. The Ramones and The Clash. Sometimes, it’s allowed us to shoot ourselves in our own foot from a commercial standpoint. Because we made our decisions. And a lot of times, they weren’t necessarily commercially viable for us. But the decisions felt better to us.

Chris: We’ve done everything we’ve done in our creative lives by the way it feels to us. And sometimes I think that made it difficult for people in parts of our career. “Why would you make this decision when it would be easier for you to do this or repeat this?”

Rich: Chris said this at a very early age. And it’s a very wise thing to see and to say. When you make someone a lot of money, they want you to keep making them a lot of money. Shake Your Moneymaker sold seven million albums. The labels keep the vast majority of the money. They kept all of the stuff. And they’re like, “Yeah! Keep doing that!” And we’re like, “Well, that’s not what we want to do. We want to grow as artists.”

Chris: The music business is funny in a way. For so many artists, a lot of their stories are, “Well, I didn’t get anywhere in my career because everyone said you can’t do that. Don’t do that. You can’t do it that way. No one does it like that.” But our lives are full of inspiration and wonder and awe and emotional connection with the people that they said “Don’t do that!” to.

Rich: With every record, we challenged ourselves to sort of follow our hearts in terms of what we wanted creatively. But it was a fight. And we’re basically still doing the same thing. We follow our heart. And that’s ultimately such a great, freeing place to be. There’s a freedom in that.

The Album: Working with Jay Joyce, The Black Crowes Wrap Happiness Bastards In Two Weeks

Chris: It’s weird. I just turned 58. And that first day in the studio is still the same level of excitement. And to work with someone like Jay? I would be lying if I said Rich and I didn’t have a little trepidation. He’s a famous producer, man!

Rich: Chris and I have produced other bands. We basically co-produced all of the Black Crowes records after George. George Drakoulias made the first two records and then we basically hired engineers. Three Snakes and Amorica, Warpaint and Before the Frost were all co-produced by Chris and I. We also had the one record we made with Kevin Shirley [By Your Side]. We have our own opinions and we have our own vision. But we thought it would be really helpful to us to have someone come in, turn the reins over and have someone approach what we do from like a 10,000 foot view. To bring something else to the table, that is something that we wouldn’t have thought of or was outside our sort of purview.

Joyce: [My first reaction] was like, “What an opportunity!” But, also, not really sure what’s gonna happen with the brother thing, you know? You hear so much stuff about it. But I was ready. I was ready for anything.

Chris: Rich and I are brothers. And as people know about family and brothers, we’re completely opposite people. The way we interact with the world, our creative processes – everything is different. Jay, really, is a great producer – but he’s also a weirdo and a musician too. So, I think he really picked up on that dynamic and inserted himself in there in the coolest way. In a way that just was seamless. In a way that seemed so natural and so inviting. And that’s trust as well, you know what I mean?

Rich: Jay really knew how to deal with us and deal with our dynamic: how to push us, when to push us and when not to push us.

Joyce: I think the record, the way we approached it, was very old school. We did a lot of preproduction on Zoom and talks about songs and what not. But there were no tracks or click tracks or any bulls–t. It was all like… real. It was a real breath of fresh air for me. Because a lot of times you get into these modes where… I mean, I’m not naming names but a lot of these people can’t even play through a song, you know? And then there’s these guys. These dudes are just ripping it. It was awesome.

Rich: In the past, we took a year to make Amorica, which was our third album. With this record, it was all about flow. We had these songs. Chris and I worked them out in advance and gave them to Jay. And the band is really adept at sort of jumping on these songs and getting in and playing them. After 35 years we better be! (Laughs)

Joyce: They’ve been playing for all this time! They’ve both been playing and growing and getting better and better. And you can hear that. It’s what a lot of people overlook. To me, it’s always better if you’re in a little bit of a hurry. Not everything is so damn important. There’s something to be said about the immediacy and the spirit of the moment, you know?

Rich: And the way we’ve always done it – and I think the way Jay likes to do it as well – is to go in and let the band be the band. Capturing a performance. And a performance is something that really is lightning in a bottle. I hate to use that old cliché. But it really is true. To be able to capture that moment where everyone is working on the same wavelength and everyone’s recording this song with their head in the game, bringing what they bring to the song and to the overall album I think is pretty amazing. And that’s what we did.

Chris: You try to get your strongest material together and you try to get the best performance with the coolest sounds – and that dictates what you’re about. That dictates who and what you are for this period, right? And Jay was fantastic.

Rich: Overall, it was just a great experience working with him.

Joyce: It was a blast, man. It was really nothing but positive.

The Songs: Experimenting With New Sounds, The Black Crowes Channel AC/DC On ‘Rats & Clowns,’ Find ‘Flesh Wound’s’ Punk Rock Heart

Joyce: I love that “Cross Your Fingers” was a little different for them.

Rich: When I was 11 years old or whatever, I first saw the album cover to AC/DC’s If You Want Blood You’ve Got It, where Angus Young had the SG shoved in his chest. AC/DC has always been up there as one of the great rock and roll bands of all time. And I had this riff. I was just kind of writing it. Sometimes they just write themselves. So, it was kind of cool to be able to do that and put “Rats & Clowns” together. And I love playing it live too.

Joyce: I also like that sort of instrumental section of “Wilted Rose.”

Wilson: Jay Joyce had me in the studio around the same time they were working on [Happiness Bastards]. Knowing I’ve been a longtime fan, Jay told me he had a song in mind that he thought would be a perfect fit for me: “Wilted Rose.”

Chris: Actually, it kind of started because we had met Lainey at the CMT Awards. And she was such a delight. My wife and I were doing the red carpet and we, in just a completely random situation, got out of the car and she was there. She was so sweet and so sincere and genuine. And she’s just so talented. She was big – now she’s superstar big.

Wilson: As soon as I heard the chorus of “Wilted Rose,” I couldn’t help but start singing the harmony – it just felt natural.

Chris: We’ve had female vocals. But I’ve never done anything with someone of that kind of stature. I’ve never duetted with, like, a star before.

Wilson: There’s something so raw and soulful about “Wilted Rose.” And blending my voice with Chris Robinson’s was a special moment for me.

Joyce: It all worked out great. And it all worked out because of the music. It really was organic. She’s a fan, they were a fan. A lot of times they don’t even really meet or it’s more of a business management negotiation than an organic thing. But this was real.

Chris: For me, it was just like, “Wow!” She’s an electrifying vocalist.

Joyce: Chris particularly was really kind of inspired by a lot of garage rock and early punk at the time. Which I kind of think gave Happiness Bastards a little bit of youth, a little bit of an edge to it.

Chris: To me, “Flesh Wound” has a little bit of a 60s garage thing, like The Seeds or something. I think there’s like a Between the Buttons Stonesy kind of attitude to the song.

Joyce: Rich is just always kind of tapped into that sort of classic Stonesy thing.

Rich: To me, the funny thing about it is it was almost more like an old X or an old Clash song. There’s a drive. There’s this specific drive rhythmically how I sort of wrote it. And the bassline on the demo that I was playing, which is what Sven Pipien wound up playing – that sort of ascending thing while the guitar is doing this descending thing – I always liked the juxtaposition of that.

Chris: On stage, sometimes when we play the song I’ll introduce it and say, “You know, one thing that we probably all here have had is our hearts broken. And although it hurts, it can’t f–ing kill ya.”

Rich: “Flesh Wound” does have kind of a punk pop element to it. And it is different from something we’d ever done before. That’s why we liked it.

Joyce: It really does not sound like your typical band trying to figure out what people like and trying to fit in again.

Chris: I think it would’ve been obvious if we were trying to be something that we’re not. And I don’t think that that’s something that we’ve ever been clever enough to do.

Postscript: The Black Crowes Look Back as Happiness Bastards Garners Grammy Nod

Chris: It’s funny. But more than ever, I realize that if we’re going to be the Black Crowes at its most potent, then the way that Rich and I worked on this record is the way that the Black Crowes work. And I think that’s why the people feel the way they feel about Happiness Bastards and why we’re getting the accolades we’re receiving. I think.

Rich: It’s getting to a place where we accept each other for who we are. And we’ve done the work. And kind of purged the people around us that kind of always tried to drive wedges for petty little gains. And to have a group of people around us that are supportive and happy when Chris and I get along? (Laughs) Who would’ve known how pleasant this could’ve been if we just didn’t f–ing try to drive a wedge between those two? So, we talk about things. We accept each other. And we get along. There’s none of that sh-t anymore.

Chris: Even though the Black Crowes aren’t usually synonymous with humility, I think, ultimately, our love and passion and the depth that we feel for this gift of being able to live our lives as creative people and as artists, coming as outsiders into something and having success and suffering the slings and arrows of 35 years of showbiz? Yeah, it feels good. And I think it’s empowering as well.

Rich: To be able to play music your whole adult life and to have people come out and see it is pretty amazing. It’s just a gift, you know what I mean? It’s definitely something that is incredibly profound. And to be able to do what you love every day is, ultimately, what success is to me. And it’s been cool this year to be able to go out on this tour and play five or six new songs a night and have those songs work really well with our older songs too. That’s a really cool thing. And that isn’t expected. It allows the set to be something different every night. Which is cool.

Chris: It feels good. I wouldn’t have thought it would’ve gone over like this a couple of years ago. So, it’s really fun.

Rich: To be nominated with the Rolling Stones? (Laughs) I mean, that’s pretty cool.

Chris: For me, to be recognized in the industry that we have somehow kept at bay for 35 years? That feels good. And to be included with the Stones and Pearl Jam and Jack White and Green Day? And the younger bands! IDLES is such a f—ing strong group. To be included with all of those bands makes me feel really good. And, yeah – it’s something that I’m not used to.

Rich: We always want to move forward. We’re always pushing ourselves to write those songs. “How do I write a better song? How about these sounds? What are we doing? How is Chris bringing this thing or singing over this? He’s doing something different than I thought he was but it’s really kind of cool.” So, pushing all of these things? To me, it’s the only reason we do this.

Chris: Rock and roll has definitely saved me and Rich many times. It heals our past and it makes our present really gratifying. But it also is a big arrow pointing toward the future for The Black Crowes. And that’s an amazing place to be.