The Black Crowes’ Rich Robinson – HuffPost 6.20.14
Mike Ragogna: What advice do you have for new artists?
Rich Robinson: I’ve worked with some younger bands producing and writing and the only thing that I try to tell them is whatever you do, do it for the right reason. If you write music that moves you, if you write music that’s authentic and sincere eventually someone will come around and like it, but if you only want to be a celebrity the world’s better off if you just fuck off and go do something else. Figure out another way to be a celebrity. Be on a reality TV show or whatever the f**k it is. The creation and your intention behind the creation is too important to the world. I think that people who create should feel a responsibility in their creating. You can argue whether it’s good, bad… Everyone’s going to have their opinion. Some people are going to like it, some people are going to hate it, but if your intention is true and you’re true to yourself and you write something that’s authentic and means something to you, that intention will move forth in the universe. That’s all that is lacking. If you can do that, then f**k it. Whether you’re playing in front of five people for the rest of your night or five hundred thousand people it’s still righteous because it’s coming from a more righteous place.
MR: Is this what you would have told the fifteen year-old who wrote “She Talks To Angels?”
RR: S**t, I kind of did. That was something that moved me, I wrote it and I was proud of it and it was genuine. That’s how I’ve always done it. I think there are people out there who do that, but I just think if you say, “I’m gonna go start a band,” what everyone seems to do now is focus on social media. “If I do this I’ll get fifty hits,” and then you go back to this whole selfie thing and it’s all about shameless self-promotion. “If I like this guy on Twitter then my band gets out there and the four thousand people this guy has will look at my band.” It’s almost like this weird corporate branding gone wild. It’s cross branding. “Well I like that guy and he likes me and that guy…” what it becomes is, “You do for me and I’ll do for you,” and that’s all it is. You have that and then some bands are great at videos, they have their video faces down, and then the next thing will be the social media faces and their image and the music is last. The music should come first. None of that other s**t matters. If you’re coming from a sincere place and writing music that means something to you that vibration goes out into the universe and that’s what’s righteous. If it’s meant to be the laws of attraction will attract fans to you and the fans that like you will like you because what you’re doing is not full of s**t. It’s not duping anyone, it’s not bulls**t, it’s real. That’s just how I see it.
MR: So you left because of what you had to say, what you had to get out from inside.
RR: Exactly.