THE BLACK CROWES SHAKE YOUR MONEY MAKER
Rewind to February 1990. With the grunge cavalry still a distant rumble, it is a godless age of choking hairspray, tiger-stripe Kramers and gratuitous go-faster solos. And with an almost perverse sense of timing, it is now that the universe chooses to push The Black Crowes into contention with debut album, Shake Your Money Maker.
In thrall to The Stones, clutching scuffed Teles and beat-up Goldtops, vocalist Chris Robinson and kid brother/guitarist Rich’s unapologetically retro brand of rock ’n’ roll is widely tipped for oblivion. If the prevailing music scene doesn’t kill them then the Robinsons – hot-headed Southerners who proudly tell the rock press that “we knuckle” – will surely do the job themselves.
And yet, here we are, three decades later. The Robinsons are bona fide rock stars. Shake Your Money Maker is a five-million-selling classic, sufficiently iconic to be given a new Super Deluxe reissue treatment. Most unlikely of all, the brothers who once ran the Gallaghers close for sibling rivalry are back on civil terms. “It’s funny,” agrees Chris. “For me, the unimaginable part is to be sitting around talking about this record 30 years later…”
How were The Black Crowes doing when you first started recording Shake Your Money Maker back in 1989?
“You mean, anonymity and abject poverty? That was pretty much the vibe. Life is very different when no one gives a shit. [] was the first time we put something together that people would listen to. Up until that point, we were like, ‘Please, someone come to this fucking show!’ You used to tell someone you were in a band
