The Black Crowes on A.I. Songwriting: ‘Lazy Bullshit’

The Black Crowes will release their new album, A Pound of Feathers, on Friday. Singer Chris Robinson makes it clear that the LP was recorded the old-fashioned way: without the use of A.I.

In fact, he and his brother, Crowes founding guitarist Rich Robinson, have no time for A.I. technology when it comes to writing songs. “It’s not songwriting. It’s lazy bullshit. Who the fuck are you, that you would walk around like you did something? You didn’t do shit,” Chris says during an interview on Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast.

The Robinsons and the band cut A Pound of Feathers in East Nashville with producer Jay Joyce (Eric Church), who also oversaw 2024’s Grammy-nominated Happiness Bastards.

Chris says he’s dismayed not only by the use of A.I. in music, but by the way society is embracing the tech over all.

“I find it unbelievable, as I look around our country and the world right now, and as things spiral out of control, as opinions become fact, as people’s fear and ignorance start to overtake their lives, that you’re gravitating toward something even more unreal,” he says. “I would think the chaos would start to drive culturally through people to find something that is heartful and soulful, something dynamic. I could be less interested in fucking technology. You know what? The dentist still sucks. Get back to me when that is better.”

And don’t bother showing Robinson the latest AI-generated memes either. “I want advancement in my level of comfort at the dentist more so than like, ‘Evel Knievel riding a llama and jumping across 14 boxes of macaroni,’” he says. “I’ll take every Parliament Funkadelic record over that.”

Chris and Rich Robinson also talk about returning to Nashville for A Pound of Feathers, preview their upcoming tour with Whiskey Myers, and weigh in on another brotherly reunion: that of Oasis. Watch the full episode below.

Download and subscribe to Rolling Stone’s weekly country-music podcast, Nashville Now, hosted by senior music editor Joseph Hudak, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). New episodes drop every Wednesday and feature interviews with artists and personalities like Lainey Wilson, Hardy, Charley Crockett, Kings of Leon, Carly Pearce, Breland, Bryan Andrews, Devon Gilfillian, Gavin Adcock, Amanda Shires, Shooter Jennings, Margo Price, Ink, Rival Sons’ Jay Buchanan, Halestorm, Dusty Slay, Lukas Nelson, Ashley Monroe, Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, Clever, and authors Marissa R. Moss, Josh Crutchmer, and Jonathan Bernstein.

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