Well, that was awkward. The Black Crowes were playing a show in Tampa and were just about to launch into their signature song, “She Talks to Angels,” when the video screens showed one of the band’s logos, a cartoon crow in an Uncle Sam costume. The crowd responded with a chant of “USA, USA!” Big mistake.
Lead singer Chris Robinson shot back with a snide remark: “Thanks for the geography lesson. I don’t know what you have to be so proud of right now.” Big mistake. The crowd started booing, and many walked out. “For those of you fucking booing us,” Robinson said, “some of us are not afraid and we most assuredly are not fucking ignorant.”
Chris Robinson has shown a pugnacious streak throughout his career. ZZ Top dropped the Crowes from a 1991 tour because Robinson kept mocking its sponsor, Miller Beer, by bragging that their own set would be commercial-free. His inability to get along with his brother, guitarist Chris Robinson, has caused the band to break up multiple times. But because they’re based in Atlanta, a lot of fans seem to assume that they share the redneck politics so common to white Southerners. Big mistake.
“She Talks to Angels” hit the top of the Mainstream Rock chart when it was released as a single in 1991, and has entered the classic rock canon. The band’s fortunes began to ebb after their second album, as grunge replaced the Crowes’ throwback blues-rock.
The Black Crowes have been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the past two years but haven’t been elected. They released their 11th studio album, “A Pound of Feathers,” in March.