Ain’t it Rich?

Kirk Baird

Friday, Sept. 7, 2001 | 8:58 a.m.

Ever since the Black Crowes first received attention outside the band's native Atlanta, guitarist Rich Robinson has heard the classic-rock comparisons.

Mainly that the Black Crowes, which perform tonight at House of Blues at Mandalay Bay, are nothing more than a retro-rock outfit, a Rolling Stones for Generation X.

After nearly 12 years Robinson has understandably grown weary of such labels.

"People who say we sound like the Stones haven't listened to our (expletive) records. They haven't heard what we do; they don't ever get past that (expletive)," Robinson said in a recent phone interview from Spokane, Wash. "There's a lot of combined musical genres that people don't get (to hear) put together that often. If you listen to the records there is a lot more to it than that.

"It's just people who are uninformed who read articles from 10 years ago, when I was 19 and I was learning how to play guitar, (and) the Stones were our heroes. We still love the Stones, but there's more music out there and there's more life experiences that we've had."

And it's not only the Stones that the Crowes are linked to, he said. After teaming with legendary guitarist Jimmy Page in 1999 for a series of concerts, the group is also drawing comparisons to Led Zeppelin.

"It's, 'I hear a lot of Zeppelin on this record.' It's the same (expletive)," Robinson said. "How about you hear a lot of us on this record, because it is us. But it's also everyone. There is Zeppelin on there. And there's Mose Allison, and Nick Drake, and Andy Irvine and Paul Brady, and there's the Stones and the Bee Gees ... everyone I ever heard is on this record."

Yet despite drawing comparisons such successful bands, the Crowes have yet to enjoy the continual success of their musical forefathers.

After the band opened strong in 1990 with its multiplatinum debut record, "Shake Your Money Maker" featuring the singles "Jealous Again," "Hard to Handle" and "She Talks to Angels" -- the Crowes have enjoyed only one other platinum album. The group's latest effort, "Lion," released in the spring, has yet to go gold.

Robinson, however, said the band is no longer concerned with its sales, and instead prefers to think of the group's longevity as proof of its popularity.

"Since 1990 think about the amount of (musical) fads that have come and gone every other year," he said. "When we came out, metal was huge. Two years later Nirvana came out and then grunge was huge. Two years after grunge it was the return to punk and then you had Green Day. And then it was ska music and No Doubt, which lasted for about six months. And now you have the return of disco music, which is (expletive) Britney Spears, 'N Sync and all those other pop bands, and the whole metal hip-hop (expletive).

"Basically, every year there's a new fad. It's no wonder that we haven't sold as many records as we did early on. But the thing is, we're here after 12 years."

It's not just the Crowes that are struggling with the same identity/lack of sales problem. Britpop band Oasis is often saddled with the label of Beatles redux, but has never come close to the Fab Four's success outside the United Kingdom.

Perhaps it was only a matter of time, then, before the groups would join forces, as they did for the brief "Tour of Brotherly Love."

Opening in Las Vegas on May 11, the tour's title referred to the fact that both bands feature a pair of brothers -- Crowes vocalist Chris Robinson and Rich; Oasis' Liam and Noel Gallagher -- who are almost as well known for their public and private bickering as their music.

"Brothers are brothers," Rich said of his relationship with Chris, who made headlines earlier this year with his marriage to actress Kate Hudson. "We get along and sometimes we don't."

When paired with Oasis, it seemed an inevitability that one of the sibling sets would begin squabbling and bring the tour to an end. Naturally the media was ready to pounce on the first sign of trouble, deluging Robinson with such questions as, "Are you guys fighting yet?" in the process.

In fact, he said the tour may have been the band's most harmonious.

"We all got along really well. Touring with those guys (of Oasis) was great. We'd go out regularly and have fun," he said. "It was really one of the first times we've had that strong a bond with another band."

Despite the tour's overall success and goodwill, the groups went their separate ways, and the Crowes are returning to Las Vegas as sole headliner.

This tour should have more appeal to diehard Crowes' fans, though, since the band's set typically runs two to three hours in length -- or roughly one-half the time the band spent onstage during the "Brotherly Love" concerts.

Not surprisingly, Robinson said he prefers the longer concerts as well.

"We can build the (musical) sets better," he said. "It's just a really cool thing."

As for after this tour, Robinson said, no one in the band has determined what to do next. There's the possibility that the group would either begin work on a studio album or release a live record, or maybe just take a break and then hit the road again next summer without promoting a new release.

"That's the cool thing about being us," he said. "We can tour with or without a record. We can sort of do what we want. I think it's a cool place to be and a lot of people can't do that."

The Rolling Stones excluded, of course.