When guitar player Marc Ford joined the Black Crowes, the band was still running hot from their debut album, Shake Your Money Maker. With their high-rising singles “Hard To Handle,” “Twice As Hard” and “She Talks To Angels” garnering plenty of radio and video airplay, the southern rock band were sitting on top of the world. But by the time they were gearing up to put together their sophomore recording, original guitarist Jeff Cease was out and the Los Angeles native Ford was in. And what a time to step into America’s biggest new rock band, for The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion was another out-of-the-park homerun. Spawning the hits “Remedy” and “Thorn In My Pride,” was there really any other place a musician wanted to be?
However, nothing lasts forever and Ford was no longer a Crowe come 1997. After some well-documented drug problems and stints with various musical projects, including Blue Floyd with Matt Abts, Allen Woody, Johnny Neel and Berry Oakley Jr, and Ben Harper’s band, Ford was back to making his own music starting with 2003’s It’s About Time. It’s been four years since Ford has traveled down that solo recording path but earlier this year he released a very contemplative singer-songwriter paean to life titled Holy Ghost. Taking his music out on the road, the songs provide an intimacy befitting the clubs he is playing in currently. The rock star lifestyle the Crowes had reveled in during his time with them seems to be only a dot in his rearview mirror. Along with his guitar playing son Elijah, who opens his father’s shows with a set of his own before settling in nicely with the elder’s band, Ford surrounds himself with family. His wife sometimes joins him for shows and sings on Holy Ghost. And this is the way Ford likes it.
Glide had a chance to chat with Ford last month while he was on the road in Texas.
You’re playing these more intimate clubs. Is there anything you can do with your music in new ways that you didn’t think you could do in a larger, louder, venue?
No, I don’t think so but small clubs are great because of that intimacy. I don’t think it really changes anything on my side of it and I don’t know if it’s better. I mean, it’s working. I’m sure the songs are going to be great in the festival setting in a couple of days. It’s really about economics and getting people to know that I’m working again and getting them to come out, you know.
What can people expect in your shows this time around?
Well, we kind of cover the new record pretty good and then move into a bigger, louder thing and do older songs; kind of a little bit of everything. I’m not really doing anybody else’s songs. This is about getting my songs heard and you can expect a bitchin’ show (laughs). It’s really good. The band is fantastic and doing great and people are really enjoying it. It’s just good rock & roll music. And we got the pedal steel and we got some interesting things that are cool to see.
How long had you been working on the songs that are on Holy Ghost?
It had been kind of unfolding the last five years or so. I moved and stopped touring and stopped really getting involved in music. I mean, it was there but I spent a lot of time with the acoustic guitar and some of the songs have been around a little while. Songs will wait and finally there was a nice group of songs that seemed to go together and make a nice, full record.
Tell us about the song “Turquoise Blue.”
That’s an older one, fifteen, sixteen years ago. It was the first song that I wrote after I pulled my head out of my ass from heroin addiction.
Well, we’re glad you did that.
(laughs) Yeah, me too. It was my first burst of color and joy.
“Dream #26” is the current single.
Yeah, “Dream” is the video that we made and it was really cool cause it was a big family affair. My father-in-law directed it and my daughter-in-law produced it and it’s got me and my son Elijah and my wife Kirsten singing together in it, so it’s a big family affair.
And you actually smiled in it.
No (laughs). Yeah, I did. I smile but my face doesn’t always show what’s happening inside.
What about the song “Sometimes?” It’s one of the more peppy tunes.
That was a song that I think kind of came from playing with The Neptune Blues Club, when I was still playing electric guitar a lot. The songs on this record kind of came a lot from sitting around with an acoustic guitar rather than an electric guitar so they’re quieter in spirit and “Sometimes” is one that was written a little while ago, when I was still doing bigger, louder stuff.
Keith Richards once said that, “the acoustic guitar is what makes a guitar player a real guitar player.” Do you agree with that?
I suppose. It’s a completely different instrument and yeah, I guess some people don’t bother with it but they treat it like an electric guitar and it’s not an electric guitar. It’s a whole other beast and the best part about it is it gets you to the core of the song, I think, rather than all the busy fluff around it.
What was the surprise song on this record, the one that maybe was the last one to come in or the one that changed the most from it’s original version?
The last one to come in would be “In You.” I was kind of whining out loud to myself that I didn’t have time to myself to write and like, where are the songs, why aren’t they coming; all the stuff writers have when they are not writing. Then all of a sudden my wife and my daughter said, “We’re going to go take a nap,” and then I found myself immediately alone and this song just dropped in like twelve minutes.
Did you produce Holy Ghost as well?
No, I produced a band called Phantom Limbs a couple years ago. They’re from Bristol, England, and I think it’s a beautiful record. They are so fantastic. So I asked him to produce this record cause I just didn’t want to wear both hats. I just wanted to show up and play and I trust his opinion and I trust his judgment. And he just kind of let it happen. He had some great ideas but mostly it was all just there. He had a great band and I thought the band was perfect for these songs.
Who is your go-to musician when you need a boost of inspiration?
Probably Neil Young or Bob Dylan. I’ve been listening to the Richard Thompson record a lot, the Dr John record Locked Down. There’s a lot of great music around but the go-to is usually anything from Neil. I just think he’s a pure source. There’s no baloney with him.
As your music has evolved, do you find that your musical interests have changed as well?
I don’t think so. I have a pretty healthy knowledge of quite a bit of music and history and you can’t explore everything all the time. It’s just periods of things that I’m interested in and it’s really about where the songs are coming from and to serve those songs on that album and you create a band and a pack of guys to create that sound. I write as long as I can and then when it’s over you’re usually bored with that and I want to do something else (laughs). I don’t think it’s evolving so much except that I’m evolving.
Are you more inspired now?
I’m inspired by different things. I was desperately, aggressively searching out music a long time ago, well, not too long ago, but I took some time off. I think I just got over music in a way, like, enough is enough and I’m going to cut it out and spend time at home with the family and I learned how not to care about music so that now I can come back to it and it’s really precious to me.
Your son Elijah is playing with you and he has his own band as well. When did you first notice that he had talent?
I think he was maybe fourteen or something and I started hearing him play guitar and he asked me about some chords and I started hearing old records that I was on playing out of his room. I think that for a while, and I can’t really speak for him but I know that he’s said this before, that music as a boy he related that to his family being gone. I was gone on the road a lot so I think that he didn’t really want to get too involved with it. Then, you know, music sort of picks you and you just say yes (laughs). But he really is just whippin’ ass. It’s hard for me to sit and listen every night cause it’s just like, what! (laughs) I’m like, “Easy on the old man, would you?” (laughs). He’s doing it so good, it keeps me on my toes. We’re out sharing the same band on this tour so he goes out and does some songs by himself and the band sort of joins in and then there’s a break and then I come in and we all play together.
What are your plans for the rest of this year?
We’re on the road till November and then I’m producing a band from Brazil. Then it’s going to be Christmastime so I think that’s going to be about it for this year. But I think there’re offers coming in for next year, some festival stuff. I got to work. That’s what I do. I really don’t know anything else. I’ve played guitar for thirty-eight years now.
Do you like that your music is more settled down than when it was in the crazy days of that band you used to be in?
Well, I’ve been in a few bands (laughs). I don’t know, it’s not so much that my music has settled down, it’s just settled down right now. I just have to be as honest as I can and this is the music that has come out of me the last few years of my life, where I’ve kind of really unplugged and just had an acoustic guitar around. It’s not to say that maybe the next one is going to be bigger and louder. I’m proud of all the things I’ve done, all the different styles and intensities. It’s just right now is what’s happening right now.
But you’re saying a lot in these songs. It didn’t seem like you were holding back a lot on Holy Ghost.
No, you got to be transparent I think. You have to be brave to be a fool.
After everything you have been through, who do you think you turned out to be?
I think I turned out to be the guy that I was supposed to be. Maybe I don’t quite go to my heart as much and hopefully I’m kinder and I’m still a jerk sometimes but I want to keep getting better and I think there was a time when I just thought I was all of it already (laughs).
