The reunited Black Crowes had so much fun bringing their 30th anniversary Shake Your Money Maker tour to the House of Blues in Las Vegas in November, they’re coming back for more. Brothers Chris and Rich Robinson and their band will be back at the Mandalay Bay music hall Feb. 11-12, reigniting their fans’ passion for a uniquely soulful brand of blues-rock. In this conversation from those fall 2021 shows, Chris Robinson spoke about returning to live shows after the pandemic delayed the Crowes’ comeback, creating new music with his lifelong writing partner and brother, and lots more.

What was it like to finally get out on the road again and fulfill these tour plans?

A global killer virus will dampen any weekend, to say the least, so of course it was a lot. By the time Rich and I were on the same page to do it and we put a great band together … and then to put it on the back burner (because of the pandemic), that was frustrating. But it’s not like only our band had to deal with it; it’s been so tough for millions of people. To finally get out there and do exactly what we wanted to do—all the loud guitars in this era where there’s a lack of rock ’n’ roll—to do something that’s really alive and kind of woolly and wild, it’s amazing.

The Black Crowes have never really revisited this material like this. How does it feel to really dig into these songs that are so beloved by fans 30 years later?

We are a band that has spent a lot of time experimenting and being expansive in what we wanted our presentation to be, to put our passion and energy into focusing on playing Shake Your Money Maker every night, it just feels like we got better every night. And what a different mindset, not just to celebrate that record, but to have this new entrance into what we’ve been through. It’s a celebration of all the things Rich and I have done.

What drives that ambition to sort of move away from some of your earliest material and continue to experiment?

We didn’t want to fall into the trap of making the same album many times over. That might work for some bands, but not others. The Rolling Stones never made the same record twice. During our time apart, Rich and I had in our own solo worlds, I wandered off into the hippie wilderness and Rich was doing his thing, and at some point, those things coalesced, and my interest came back to the rock ’n’ roll side of things. When we started out, we felt passionate about something that was not very cool in 1989, and it was about what we were going to do in the face of all that other (stuff) that was going on in music. And I think we kind of feel like that again.

You’ve been working with your brother on new music as well, and that has fans wondering if there will be a new Black Crowes album. What kind of sounds are you coming up with?

We’ve written some songs but I think our focus is still on (the tour). We’re sitting on some tunes and we’re going to write more, but we don’t have plans to make a record. It’s very cool stuff. In a sense, doing Shake Your Money Maker again opened it up, got us thinking, let’s just have fun and do it while we still can, make music that has this kind of energy.

How has your creative process changed through the years?

No matter what we’ve been through, the writing is always just me and (Rich). There weren’t other guys or producers around; we were always left to our own to do the composition, and that would be the time we never really argued or got into fights. Rich plays me something that sparks something or inspires me, and it can be any little thing that dictates where the lyrics and melodies come from. That’s just always been there for us, and we’re lucky that way.

House of Blues at Mandalay Bay, 800.745.3000 Ticketmaster

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