The Black Crowes Singer Chris Robinson has never been afraid to let his opinion be known, even if it lands him in hot water. That’s exactly what happened in the early 90’s when The Black Crowes opened for ZZ Top and got fired from the tour.
Shake Your Moneymaker
At the beginning of the 90’s, The Black Crowes were one of the hottest new bands, having released their debut album 1990s Shake Your Moneymaker, which spawned five big singles including their cover of Otis Redding’s 1968 song “Hard to Handle”, “She Talks to Angels”, “Jealous Again”, “Twice as Hard” and “Seeing Things”.
The band’s debut album was certified 5x Platinum just in the United States and the record peaked at No. 4 on the charts. Aiding in bolstering the band’s image was their anti-establishment attitude, which also created headaches for them along the way.
The Black Crowes Open for ZZ Top
As part of the tour to support their debut album, The Black Crowes landed a prime spot opening for the Texas trio ZZ Top in early 1991. ZZ Top, meanwhile, were out supporting their 1990 record Recycler, which went platinum but failed to garner as much commercial success and fanfare, as their previous releases Eliminator and Afterburner.
The tour to support ZZ Top started in January of ’91 and was supposed to go until May but it quickly unravelled halfway through. The Black Crowes claimed their dismissal had nothing to do with music, but rather business disagreements.
The Black Crowes are Fired from Tour
The tour was scheduled to make a 3-date homecoming stand in Atlanta at the Omni Coliseum in mid-March, but after only 2 nights, The Black Crowes were let go.
Brothers Chris and Rich Robinson told their side of the story and pointed the finger at ZZ Top’s manager Bill Ham. They claimed Ham was upset with remarks Chris had made on stage, criticizing ZZ Top for using corporate sponsors on the tour, more specifically Miller Brewing.
According to an LA Times article that was published around the time of their dismissal, it claimed the band ran into trouble when ZZ Top’s management company Lone Wolf Productions warned Chris Robinson to stop making statements between songs about corporate sponsorships. One of the lines Robinson told a crowd at a show was, “This is live rock n’ roll being brought to you commercial-free.”
Chris and Rich Robinson on MTV’s Rockline
The brothers appeared on MTV’s Rockline immediately following their dismissal and discussed what happened.
Interviewer: “It’s been a little over a week since you guys were asked to vacate the ZZ Top Tour.”
Robinson: “Where we’re from, we call it getting fired.”
Interviewer: “…It’s been about a week and you’ve had some time to think about it. What’s your perspective now?”
Robinson: “…Well, First off, I just would just like to say for everyone who has heard about the whole thing… It’s not about bands or anything really. This is more of a business type thing, like management and sponsors and they were trying to censor what we’re about and we don’t really dig that.
You know we got into that because we wanted to play music and not have anyone tell us what to do, so with that in mind, we just didn’t dig the whole thing and it turned out they really had the guts to do that. I was pretty surprised… They threatened us, ‘Don’t say it,’ and I said, ‘Really?’, I mean, isn’t this the United States, man?”
Interviewer: “So you didn’t actually think it was going to happen?”
Robinson: “…Well I kinda did when they started having guys on the side of the stage, writing down what I was saying in between songs… We signed up to go out and play some music in front of ZZ Top. We didn’t sign up really for people to censor us and tell us how to be The Black Crowes. I guess it’s all worked out for the best, really.”
“…It is out of a sense of common decency and courtesy coupled with a moral and ethical obligation that this action has been taken.” – ZZ Top’s Management Company
Following the firing of the band from the tour, ZZ Top’s management company issued a statement to the press, “This decision was arrived at entirely within the organization and not as has been suggested as a result of corporate pressure. Miller Brewing has been a partner in this tour since its inception and has been very accommodating to ZZ Top and has asked absolutely nothing of the opening acts which have appeared. It is out of a sense of common decency and courtesy coupled with a moral and ethical obligation that this action has been taken.”
The Black Crowes’ guitarist Rich Robinson disputed these claims and in an interview with Q Magazine in 1991, even went on to say that the band basically dared Miller Brewing to throw them off the tour. “Miller said, ‘You don’t say that, and if you do, we’ll throw you off the tour.’ We said, ‘Hey, we don’t have a contract with you. We thought we were going on tour with ZZ. If you wanna throw us off, throw us off.’ And then they did.
Miller faxed ZZ, saying, ‘Get rid of them, we don’t want this press.’ ZZ had no idea themselves, it was their manager Bill Ham. He sees Miller giving them millions of dollars, and then sees those millions being pulled away if he doesn’t do something. So we were thrown off.”
Both bands appeared to leave the tour unscathed though. ZZ Top continued to tour with a variety of openers replacing The Black Crowes, most notably Bryan Adams.
“We’re still angry and we’re still sexy and we’re still dangerous and still trying to prove something.” – Chris Robinson
The Black Crowes stayed on the road, with Chris Robinson chalking up the disagreement over a generational divide, “I’m 24 years old, and this is the first year I’ve been doing this. We’re still angry and we’re still sexy and we’re still dangerous and still trying to prove something. When I’m ZZ Top’s age, I’m sure there’ll be different things in my life.”
Like this story? Check out The Smashing Pumpkins: The Tragic Death of Jonathan Melvoin and Firing of Jimmy Chamberlin
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