GALLERY
Playing
Memphis’ Beale
Street Music
Festival in 2005,
Robinson pins
a note on his
Bigsby-equipped
1963 ES-335,
which became
the inspiration
for the Rich
Robinson
signature model
currently built
at Gibson’s
Memphis factory.
You’re best known for your work with
the Black Crowes, the band you and
your older brother, Chris, formed. Do
you come from a musical family?
Yes. Music was all around us when we
grew up in Georgia. We were always
listening to blues, gospel, and classic
rock albums in the house, and we
had sing-alongs as well. My dad, Stan
Robinson, scored a Top 40 hit in the
1950s—“Boom-a-Dip-Dip”—but became
a sales rep instead of a professional
musician. He played folk and country
music, and a highlight of his short
musical career was getting to play at the
Ryman Auditorium in Nashville with
Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. Most
important, my dad taught me my first
three chords—C, G, and D—and his
1953 Martin D-28 is my desert-island
kind of guitar.
Click here
to see photos
and read about
the restoration of
obinson’s ooddamaged ES-335.
Given your late father’s short time as a
recording artist, what did he think of
your career choice?
At first he tried to discourage us from
being professional musicians, because he
thought that it would make for a difficult
life. But once the Black Crowes took off
he was fully supportive.
Despite the negative energy, you and the
Crowes really brought back Southern
rock in a big way. Was your music a
conscious response to the hair metal
that dominated the airwaves in the ’80s?
Not exactly. We just played what felt good
and natural to us. We tried to write great
70 PREMIER GUITAR SEPTEMBER 2016
Photo by Frank White
Speaking of desert-island guitars, you’re
quite the collector. What was it like when
the Black Crowes’ storage space was
flooded by Hurricane Sandy in 2012?
I’ve had a lot of great guitars throughout
the years, including my old ES-335
that got damaged in the flood and then
restored. But the truth is, the guitar isn’t
much more than a hunk of wood with
strings attached to it. Any guitar is just a
tool for expressing your creativity. In the
end, rather than feeling sadness about the
flood, I felt a bit of relief—it was almost
like the flood washed away some of the
negative energy I had with the Crowes.
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