Chris Robinson: “One of the most violent things I’ve ever seen”

The rock star’s life is exposed to various risks and dangers: sex, alcohol, drugs, overly insistent fans and so on. But the danger of performing in places where political stability is not very solid should not be underestimated either. Starting from these premises the frontman of Black Crowes Chris Robinson guest of the podcast Club Random with Bill Maher recounted a couple of violent experiences he experienced while playing around the world with his band.

The first of these bad adventures took place in September 1991 at Monsters of Rock in Moscow.

I.Black Crowes were on the bill together with Metallica, Pantera and AC/DC. At that time the Soviet Union was disintegrating and the situation was not the clearest, the military was everywhere. Robinson stated that there could be around a million people eager to participate in the event after years of being closed to the Western world. “In the chaos of the people the officials wanted to form some areas. How did they do it? The riot police beat the people with clubs as much as they could, as if both sides were fighting, as if they were digging holes towards each other. That day they kicked me.”

The situation was incomprehensible, we couldn’t understand anything. It was chaos. “There were millions of people behind the scenes, soldiers and police for miles. I couldn’t find a bathroom. There must have been 38 semi-trucks back there. I walk around where I don’t see anyone. I pee behind a truck, I look up and I see a guy with a rifle and this long green Russian jacket. He starts yelling in Russian. I was like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’. He came up behind me and kicked me in the back really hard. The face the truck hits me and I was still pissing. He’s still yelling at me and he’s holding the rifle. I pulled up my pants.”

Five years later, in January 1996, Chris Robinson had a similar experience in Chile, in Vina del Mar, i BlackCrowes that time they opened for Jimmy Page And Robert Plant. Even that time the confusion was caused by the tumultuous political situation in which the South American country found itself.

Here is Robinson’s story: “It was strange. It was very strange. They were all at that concert. It was the first time for rock music in that country. I didn’t realize it.” It happened that an army officer came to the band and asked to take a photo together. “He came backstage accompanied by some soldiers. He said: ‘I want to take a photo’. We take photos, then he takes the gun and acts as if I wanted to kill. I took the photo. It was funny, but it wasn’t that funny.”

After that tasty little scene, i Black Crowes they ascended to the top of the stadium just as the fans entered. “I had never seen it. Someone said: ‘Let the people in’. So they opened the stadium gates and the kids started arriving. But someone, maybe the soldier in the photo said: ‘Wait a minute, I didn’t say to proceed.’ They tried to close those gates, we were at the top of the stadium and there were maybe, I don’t know, 10, 12 guys on horses with these huge sticks, really long. They rode their horses at the guys and just started beating them and pushing them back. . This is one of the most violent things I’ve ever seen.”