The Black Crowes will perform their debut album, Shake Your Money Maker, in its entirety when they hit the road for a reunion tour in 2020. The Shake Your Money Maker shows will come in honor of the 1990 album’s 30th anniversary. The reunion marks a mending of the fences between famously feuding brothers Chris Robinson and Rich Robinson.
As the band continues to slowly dole out hints about, fans have begun to spot electronic billboards in NYC like the one posted below. The subway ad specifically points out two shows in the New York market. On Friday, July 17th, the Chris Robinson- and Rich Robinson-led act will perform at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. The following night, Saturday, July 18th, The Black Crowes will “shake their money makers” at Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, NY.
The newly spotted subway ads feature the same old-school Heckle & Jeckle-style Crowes art that ignited the Crowes reunion speculation late last month when it was quietly uploaded to the band’s website and socials late last month. The new art, however, specifies that the band will play Shake Your Money Maker in its entirety plus “all the hits” when they reunite next year.
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A report published in the Wall Street Journal in October first indicated that The Black Crowes were eyeing a reunion in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Shake Your Money Maker in 2020.
Related: Chris Robinson Says The ‘Dysfunctional’ Black Crowes Will Never Play Together Again [2016]
Details on the band lineup for the “reunion” have not been revealed, though original drummer Steve Gorman has noted that he will not be involved. The Wall Street Journal report cited several sources close to the band, including Gorman:
Drummer Steve Gorman, a founding member of the band, said he has heard from industry colleagues that the brothers are reuniting but he hasn’t been asked to join. “They are going to move forward with new people,” he says. Former band manager Pete Angelus, who managed the group for 25 years, says: “I’m aware of the deal that the brothers made with Live Nation for a 2020 tour.” He declined to specify who told him; a Live Nation spokeswoman says she doesn’t “have any intel.”
The report went on to highlight the fraught relationship between the Robinson brothers during the band’s tenure, even in spite of their commercial and critical success:
“Literally, nothing could have stopped that band,” former member Mr. Gorman says. “Except for that band.”
When Mr. Angelus, the former manager, first met Chris and Rich Robinson, now 52 and 50 years old, “they argued from the moment we left the curb at the airport until the moment that we arrived at the venue where they were going to be performing,” he says. “I’m not even certain that, from the time we left the curb, they were aware of the fact that I was in the back seat any longer.”
“That’s one of the things that made the band so exciting—that unique brotherly love,” says Heidi Robinson-Fitzgerald, a veteran music publicist who represented the band’s label in the early-to-mid 1990s. “It’s like the old saying about how there’s nothing like having a big fight with your husband and then having the greatest sex ever.”
The Black Crowes initially broke up in 2002. They reunited 3 years later and went on to record a critically acclaimed 2009 live album, Before the Frost…Until the Freeze. The Crowes returned to hiatus at the end of 2013 and announced their second official breakup in 2015 allegedly following a dispute between band members regarding ownership of the band and division of its revenue.
While the brotherly tension led to two separate break-ups over the years, both Rich and Chris have recently shown their desire to play Crowes music—Rich with The Magpie Salute and Chris with As The Crow Flies.
We’ll update you with more information on the Black Crowes reunion tour and the band lineup as it becomes available, but we’re excited to finally know some details and a pair of dates. Summer 2020 will have its fill of the Crowes…
In related news, The Black Crowes’ “The Remedy” was recently included in the November 2019 edition of the Live For Live Music Monthly Mix. You can listen to the full playlist below.
L4LM Monthly Mix – November 2019
[H/T Relix]