Former THE BLACK CROWES drummer Steve Gorman, who recently published his tell-all memoir, “Hard To Handle: The Life And Death Of The Black Crowes”, has told the “Infectious Groove” podcast that he still looks back on his time with the band with pride and gratitude.
“My feelings for the band — I mean, the records are always there; the gigs are always there; they were recorded,” he said (hear audio below). “The music speaks for itself.
“It’s a sad story, and I’m really glad it happened, and I’m grateful for all that came to my life from that experience.
“There’s a lot of ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’ in the story of THE BLACK CROWES, like in so many other bands. I think we took it to the nth degree — we carried that thing as far as we could. The old snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, we were pretty great at that.
“If you just look at other bands around us, and not just bands from our generation, but older and now even younger bands, I’m forever sad that we didn’t do all we could have done. But in terms of my life, just me on this planet, it’s fantastic, man. I said to somebody once it’s like being seventh in the world at the hundred-yard dash. You might not get a gold medal at the Olympics, but, hell, you’re still seventh in the world — it’s still pretty amazing.
“When I talk about all that we left on the table, it doesn’t mean that I’m not supremely appreciative and proud of all that we actually did get done.”
THE BLACK CROWES guitarist Rich Robinson announced the band’s breakup in Janary 2015, saying in a statement that his older brother Chris demanded a greater ownership stake in the group and wanted to make Gorman, a fellow CROWES founding member, into a salaried employee.
“When Chris blew it up in 2014, it’s easy to say — he did everyone a favor,” Gorman told “Infectious Groove”. “A clean break, it’s harsh in the moment, but it’s easier long term. And that’s what it did to me.
“When he made his demands, I didn’t lose sleep over it, I didn’t yell, I didn’t rage,” he continued. “Honestly, it was so absurd, we did laugh about it at first. But the thing that hit me was quite simply, this is great. I now know I’ll never be in a room with that guy again. Why would I? Why would I spend one second of my life with somebody who thinks that’s something he can demand after 27 years? It’s just not something people do.”
According to Gorman, the members of THE BLACK CROWES always had divergent visions of what their success meant.
“Everybody came to that band from different planets, it looks like sometimes in hindsight, but certainly by 2014, we were in completely different worlds,” he said.
“When a bunch of guys in their late teens and early 20s get together, you don’t have long-winded conversations about your values, your ethics. You talk about, ‘Oh, man, we sound pretty good. Let’s go get a record deal.’ We didn’t have any conversations about why we wanted a record deal. It was just a given in 1987, when you go get a record deal, you put a record out and you tour. I mean, that was the depth of our conversations.
“We wanted the same thing desperately, but why we wanted them and what we thought they meant was worlds apart,” Steve added. “And by the time you wake up, hopefully sometime in your 30s and start discussing these things, it can be pretty jarring to realize, ‘Wow, we’ve never wanted the same things ever.’ Not for the same reasons, anyway.”
Gorman is not involved in THE BLACK CROWES‘ upcoming reunion tour, which was originally scheduled to take place this past summer but has been postponed until next year. Joining Chris and Rich Robinson will be an all-new lineup of THE CROWES featuring EARTHLESS guitarist Isaiah Mitchell, former TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND bassist Tim Lefebvre along with ONCE AND FUTURE BAND members Joel Robinow on keyboards and Raj Ojha on drums.
Photo courtesy of Westwood One
