Despite the fact that next year marks the 25th anniversary of their debut album, Shake Your Moneymaker, The Black Crowes may be calling it quits for good. After the blues rock band wrapped up their San Francisco tour last year, singer Chris Robinson, guitarist Rich Robinson, and drummer Steve Gorman all agreed it had been a successful run but then went their separate ways. Now, Gorman tells Rolling Stone that the separation might be permanent. “I’ve said in the past, ‘I know we’ll work again’ or ‘there’s no way we’ll work again,’ and I’ve been wrong. But right now, the likelihood of us doing anything again is as low as it’s ever been. We could obviously all see things differently in a year, but I’ll be surprised if The Black Crowes do something again. Ever.”
This decision has been slow in coming, as frontman Robinson even told Ultimate Classic Rock something similar this past March. “It felt like, in my mind, that my Black Crowes tour of duty ended on December 14, 2013 [their last concert] and I probably won’t deal with it for awhile…I feel like the Black Crowes, we really had a great time. But I can’t think about it because I’m really so focused and we’re so excited to get back on the road and we’re really excited about Phosphorescent Harvest.” January 24th, 2015 will mark their debut LP’s 25th anniversary, which included the hits “Jealous Again,” “Hard to Handle” and “She Talks to Angels.” But on that subject Gorman says they have no plans to celebrate. “You could certainly make a strong case that we should tour next year, but we’re all doing our own projects.”
These solo projects include Phosphorescent Harvest released in April by Chris Robinson as a Chris Robinson Brotherhood album, and in May Rich Robinson released The Ceaseless Light, his third solo project. As for Gorman, he has been fully immersed in Trigger Happy, the Americana supergroup he formed with Joan Osborne. They also recently released their self titled debut album on September 30th. Currently the band is touring California. On October 16th in Fayetteville, Arkansas the Chris Robinson Brotherhood will start their tour, while Rich Robinson will take part in the Experience Hendrix package tour through the end of the month, after which he will kick off a U.K. tour starting in November. As of now, it sounds like The Black Crowes will be too busy doing their separate things to plan out a 25th anniversary celebration.