Over the course of a decade in the public eye, the Black Crowes have proven to be nothing if not consistent. |

Barring a couple of personnel changes, the recently released fifth album, By Your Side, is cut from the same meaty-greasy-heavy-funky slab of get-yer-rocks-off soul as 1990's Shake Your Money Maker. Simply put, if you can't handle Sly and the Rolling Stones, don't bother with the Crowes. If you can, roll up your sleeves and dig in.

One warning: If you've got any preconceived notions about front-Crowe Chris Robinson, check 'em at the door. First, for all his enjoyment of the occasional bit-o-"herb," he doesn't spend his days in a blissed-out hallucination. Second, don't think for a second that he feels a bit at odds playing the Crowes' down 'n' dirty rock & roll at an upscale, sit-down venue like New York's Beacon Theater -- he'll tell you straight-up that his band should be playing Carnegie Hall, dammit.

And finally, mistake his trippy, Woodstock-hippie-in-sparkly-red-shirt-and-hot-pants vibe as an invitation to hop up in his spotlight and share the love, and you're asking for a little taste of Altamont, as one overzealous Beacon fan learned the other night when a fuming Robinson rammed him off the stage with his mic stand. "You gotta feel like a fool," quipped Robinson, "when somebody dressed like *this* wants to kick your ass."

Sho 'nuff. People of the congregation, meet Atlanta's real dirty bird.

You're back in theaters after a recent back-to-the-clubs tour. Did you enjoy getting to play smaller venues again?

It served its purpose, but that doesn't mean that's what I wanna do all the time. I never had aspirations of being in a bar band. I'd rather be playing Madison Square Garden. Clubs are for the fans, not for us, because there's no room, and we've been doing this for a while. It's a lot easier to have our own production, to have everything go the way you know it's gonna go on a daily basis, and that is what makes the road a lot easier, that consistency.

The Black Crowes have been tagged "the world's most rock & roll rock & roll band." How do you deal with all the cliches that come with a title like that?

I would imagine there was a period in the mid-Nineties where the drugs and that sort of thing started to feel that way. But, then again, the most out-there I've gotten was to anesthetize myself from some of the apathy and bullshit all around me. But I didn't really feel like a cliche. I thought I was being honest by doing whatever I wanted to do, and then I realized I wasn't being honest with myself at all, and I was spending more time dealing with a bunch of bullshit than dealing with my music. I don't have any regrets or anything. I learned a lot, and you know nicks and scars and bruises are the things you draw wisdom from, hopefully.

Was there a rock-bottom period for you?

It was never like that, because singing always makes me feel better -- even when I was in my most wrist-slashing, depressed, drugged-out thing, I could get up and sing and that always made me feel better.

So the drugs themselves were never the main outlet?

No. It wasn't like Ozzy Osbourne's Behind the Music. They're doing a Black Crowes one, actually. It's funny because I think we're the only band that actually talked about music. The people from VH-1 were totally shocked.

When you started performing, did you know from the get-go that you'd be the frontman?

Yeah. I mean, I really love to play the drums, but this is the only gig I think I can do. Plus, when I was a kid I realized that as the lead singer I didn't have to carry my shit -- the clubs always had a mic, while Steve [Gorman] had to carry his drums around and Rich [Robinson] had to carry amps and guitars around. So I always had this extra time to do more shit, but now that gets back to me, because now they actually have time in the day to do their shit and I'm doing interviews talking about us. See, that's what Karma is.

So let's talk about you. Have you ever been bitten by the bug to do a solo album, to come out of left field with a batch of songs the Crowes would never touch?

Well, I write a lot of songs that aren't Black Crowes-type songs -- more mellow, folksy country stuff. I have a backlog of those songs, and one of these days I would like to do it, but I just don't have the time. I look ahead, and we're on the road for the next eighteen months, and by the time that's done I'm gonna wanna take a break, and then I'm going to have so many more ideas for this band. This band is all-encompassing, it's the only band I've ever been in, and my brother [guitarist Rich] is the only other person that I've ever written songs with.

You and Rich have had your share of rock & roll brother scuffles. What's one thing either of you can say to the other that will always end with a throw down?

Wow. There's a number of things. Usually it's just a look -- I mean, we know if this argument is going to come to blows or not. But all of our fighting is all surface level, and it is nothing but family. It has nothing to do with music. When we were younger, we didn't have good communicating skills. We're very passionate people, but we're complete and total opposites. The thing about my brother is, I love him more than anything in the world -- I just don't like him very much sometimes. And I think he'd say the same thing about me.

What's the most un-rock & roll thing about you?

Probably how much I respect women. I think you're supposed to be this misogynist or something, and I've never really felt that way. There's that, and the fact that when I watch the Dallas Cowboys at home I wear my Dallas Cowboys jersey.

You're a Cowboys fan?

Hell yeah, man! When you grow up in Atlanta you have to find something to enjoy football with, and it definitely wasn't the Falcons. We were at the Super Bowl, I was happy to see them go, but I knew they were gonna fuck it up, and they did -- royally.

I'm a *huge* football fan. The best thing on our new bus is we have two satellites. We actually follow the European [soccer] leagues pretty closely, and it's good because now with all the satellites and all the digital TV and shit you can get all the games. We get like three or four games a week. I also really like to go to baseball games. We like to collect ballparks. We try to go to as many as are humanly possible.

Do you at least support the Braves to make up for shunning the Falcons?

Nah. Since I moved to L.A. six years ago, I'm a Dodgers fan. Raul Mondesi -- I'm all about Mondesi.

RICHARD SKANSE(February 26, 1999)