Writing The Box Set To Figure Out The Best Album

Steve Gorman of the Black Crowes

Cris Cohen: You’ve never been a drummer who overplayed. You’ve always been Mr. Groove, Mr. Lock It Down. But I found out the initial manuscript that you turned in for this book (Hard To Handle) was 900 pages long. What did you intuitively know as a drummer that you didn’t know as a writer?

Steve Gorman of the Black Crowes / Howl Owl Howl: Interestingly enough, if I’m on a session and I’m playing a song for the first time, I overplay at first by design. You’ve got to find your ideas. The groove is going to find itself. I do my best thinking in real time at the kit. I can hear something in my head. But until you’re playing it and finding the groove, you’re not going to get every idea. And so I will play more and more fills. I like to hear a take that has too much. I know 90% of it is unnecessary, but there’s going to be something I hear that I’m going to want to keep. It’s almost like a shotgun approach. With writing, I didn’t think anybody was going to publish a 950-page book. But I needed to get it all down so then I could take some separation from it and say, “What part of this makes the best story?” I had to write the box set so that I could figure out the best album.

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