Greatest Hits Package Marks A New Beginning For Black Crowes

For some bands, releasing a greatest-hits record is their parting shot, a final salvo before stepping into the murky underworld of county fairs and "Where Are They Now?" documentary segments. For the Black Crowes, last week's release of "The Black Crowes: A Tribute To a Work in Progress...Greatest Hits 1990-1999" is merely one facet of a career that's still roaring along at full throttle.

"It was a contractual thing," guitarist Rich Robinson said of the greatest-hits release. "When you leave a record label, they have a right to a greatest-hits record, so they did it. We wanted to pick songs that touched on all of our records up to this point. We picked songs that were actually singles. We wanted to do it in chronological order and have it be representative of that time."

Including "She Talks to Angels," "Remedy," "Jealous Again" and "By Your Side," the greatest-hits collection is the Black Crowes' final album for Columbia and serves as a reminder of what went before for current fans and as a crash course for newcomers.

The Black Crowes recently inked a deal with the label V2. "We really took a long time to decide what we wanted to do," Robinson said. "We met with 30 or 40 labels and sat down with them to feel them out. This is the first time we switched labels since we started. No one wanted us to be who we are; they wanted us to be 'Shake Your Moneymaker.' They always tried to make us go in that direction, but we would never do it. They want to make money and that's all they give a s*** about.

"So we'd ask the labels, 'Who do you think we are, and how do you feel that we're sort of proud about the fact every one of our records is different?' V2 was the most positive and most willing to let us be who we are at the time and work with it."

Robinson said he's written 22 songs towards a new album that he described as "like Amorica... beautiful and heavy." But before the Black Crowes make the latest a matter of record, there's the summer tour with former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page still ahead. Last year's outing with Page yielded an album of the Black Crowes and Page playing Led Zeppelin songs.

Even though the Crowes have played a slew of dates with Page in the last year, Robinson said the band is still thrilled to have him onboard. "He's like one of us, but yeah, it's Jimmy. We always watch him and we get so excited when he plays. He's sounding better than ever....It's sad that no one out there is that signature anymore."

The Black Crowes recently shuffled their lineup, replacing bassist Sven Pipien with Greg Rzab, who has played with Buddy Guy, among others.

Pipien got his packing papers for failing to show up on time, said Robinson. "Sven pulled a lot of s*** he didn't need to pull. He started messing with gigs and showing up late. He showed up late, 30 minutes after when we were supposed to start playing. We were f*****d. We've never missed a gig, never been late in over 1,000 shows. His ego got out of control. He really came close to losing his mind. He was saying he knew John Lennon. Maybe he needs to take a break."

Robinson recently scored "Trip," formerly known as "Leonard Cohen Afterworld," a film about a pair of Nirvana fans who travel to Seattle to attend the vigil for Kurt Cobain.

"I scored the whole movie. I did all the atmosphere music.... I'd look at a scene and try to figure out how it made me feel and then write around it. I looked at it like I took the whole movie and made it into a 40 minute song."