Black Crowes Set Take Flight?

Fri., Aug. 20, 2004 11:25 AM PDT by Charlie Amter

We're guessing Chris Robinson is getting sick of being introduced as Mr. Kate Hudson and former frontman of Black Crowes.

The Crowes have been all but dead since breaking up, er, going on hiatus in 2002, but now, the rumor mill is churning that a reunion is in the works.

Aside from playing hubby to Hudson, Robinson has been trying to get his new band, New Earth Mud, off the ground, but without much success. Earlier this year, he was reported to be talking to former members of Stone Temple Pilots and Guns N' Roses about forming a new band, but that project never seemed to gel. This week, the shaggy rocker scrapped plans for a fall tour with New Earth Mud, fueling speculation that he might be ready to reteam with younger brother, Rich, and the rest of the Crowes.

The oft-battling siblings recently met with former manager Pete Angelus to hash out a possible reunion, according to Billboard. Angelus has commented on the chances for a Crowes concert swing, but did tell the magazine, "Keep your resin-covered fingers crossed."

Billboard also notes that the long dormant Black Crowes Website, BlackCrowes.com, was recently updated with an animation of two crow heads, joints ablaze, bopping to the band's tunes.

Rich Robinson, whose band Hookah Brown imploded last year, has just finished up his first solo album, Paper, which is dropping next Tuesday on his Key Hole label.

Until the reunion rumors surfaced, Chris Robinson had been making headlines of late for the state of his marriage to Hudson. Star magazine got things rolling Aug. 16, alleging the couple were all but finished just three years into their union. Us Weekly reported just the opposite the following week, saying the couple couldn't be happier and are still very much in love. Robinson and Hudson vociferously denied any problems within their marriage in the Us Weekly interview. A publicist for the couple issued a statement to E! insisting Hudson and Robinson were copacetic.

The Almost Famous star is often portrayed--jokingly or not--by Crowes fans as the band's Yoko Ono. Star quoted a music industry source as saying "since going solo in 2002, Chris has not had the kind of success he had with the Black Crowes and he may be resentful."

Chris Robinson's glory days with the Crowes were back in the 1990s with the mulitplatinum breakthrough album, Shake Your Money Maker, and the hit cover of Otis Redding's "Hard to Handle."

Hudson, meanwhile, has been playing the part of happy new mother to the couple's first child, a son named Ryder Russell Robinson born in January, and finishing up work on the film Skeleton Key.