How did The Black Crowes insult Jimmy Page?
In the 1990s, Jimmy Page made a career out of playing Led Zeppelin songs in any configuration but a full-on ‘Led Zep’ reunion. He famously began a new project with Robert Plant after a well-received three-song guest appearance at a Knebworth benefit show. He played some gigs with Aerosmith, and he toured and recorded with Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale. Put simply, he went and made a number of ‘Zep’ fanboys’ dreams come true by blessing them with his presence. So, when the news broke that he’d be teaming up with the boogie-rock throwback outfit The Black Crowes for a tour, it was seemingly a match made on the ‘Stairway to Heaven’.
While the Atlanta natives formed in 1984 and came to prominence in the 1990s, they were arguably as indebted to the 1970s as Jimmy Page himself was. Formed around brothers Chris and Rich Robinson on vocals and lead guitar, respectively, the proto-Kings of Leon showed that there was still an audience for balls-out, no-frills classic rock, even in the ultra-ironic heyday of grunge.
By 1999, the band was comfortably at its peak, yet they showed their due diligence to their inspirations by backing Jimmy Page during a benefit concert. The two acts gelled so well that they immediately announced a full tour together for later in the year. Which makes sense, doesn’t it? A band clearly modelled after 1970s heroes teaming up with arguably “the” 1970s hero, it was bound to be a slam dunk, right? Well, not quite.
The signs were all there, too. After all, The Crowes took their inspiration from the choogling, down-and-dirty southern rock end of ‘70s rock. They were all about The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top. No bullshit, no frills, just riffs, solos and Chris Robinson’s primal howl of a singing voice. On the other hand, bullshit and frills might as well have been Page’s middle name in ‘Zep’s’ heyday.
This was a man who made his band pick out magical sigils from an occult book he had found to represent them. Who regularly dressed in spangly, dragon-themed leotards and played his guitar with a violin bow. The pairing might have looked good on the surface, and the initial team-up went down well enough, but cracks almost immediately began to show when the pair began touring together.
The full tour was going to be 55 dates, but only 11 of them were completed before Page pulled out, citing a back injury as the reason. However, according to The Crowes’ drummer Steve Gorman’s eye-popping memoir, Hard To Handle, Page flounced off the tour after feeling insulted by Chris Robinson’s ego. As Rolling Stone reported, “According to the drummer’s recollection, Page told him that he offered to write songs with the Robinson brothers for their next record, but Rich blew him off with a ‘No thanks! … We don’t need more songs.’ ‘I was insulted,’ Page said to Gorman, who furiously called the Crowes’ manager and told him, ‘I’m driving to Connecticut, and I’m going to kill Rich in his home.’”
Almost in response, Robinson himself was typically forthright about his experience on the tour. He told Classic Rock magazine barely two years after the tour wrapped, “I didn’t really have that much fun doing it. It was alright, and Jimmy’s a phenomenal guitarist, but to me, it was just a job. I’m not a big fan of Robert Plant’s lyrics or his singing so that part of it was a little boring for me.”
At the time of writing, we’re getting a remastered album of the concert Page played with The Crowes at the Greek Theatre as an expanded box set. It’s going to rule, no question about it. However, if the stories above are true, and the personalities are so massive that I wouldn’t put it past them, then don’t go expecting anything else from these titanic rockstar egos.
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