Hear an Early Clip of the Black Crowes Performing ‘Jealous Again’ on the Stern Show in 1990

"[Howard Stern] helped break the Black Crowes," music exec Mark DiDia would later tell Billboard

May 16, 2017
Photo: Getty Images

Chris Robinson returned to sit down with Howard Tuesday morning, 27 years after the Black Crowes made their first pivotal performance on the Stern Show’s airwaves in February of 1990.

“We sang on your show in L.A., like one of the first times anyone ever heard ‘Jealous Again,’” Chris recalled as he caught up with Howard. “I was 23 years old,” he added.

The show was doing a special broadcast from Los Angeles more than two decades ago when Gary Dell’Abate announced that among the guests set to come through, he had the Black Crowes standing by, who had caught Howard’s attention with their debut album, “Shake Your Money Maker.”

“I always like to introduce the next big thing,” the King of All Media told listeners at the time as Chris, his brother and guitarist Rich Robinson, and bassist Johnny Colt joined him on air (drummer Steve Gorman was at home during the trip).

After introducing listeners to the band and their origin story, Howard invited the Black Crowes to jam on the hodgepodge of instruments he had lying around and they happily obliged with “Jealous Again” from that first album.

The impromptu performance had a lasting impact, too. “[Howard Stern] helped break the Black Crowes,” Mark DiDia, then GM of Def American record label, told Billboard in 1992, attributing at least some of the band’s success to that Stern Show performance as well as the fact that Howard wore the band’s T-shirt during one of his famed appearances on the “The Late Show with David Letterman” (the one where he tried to comb Dave’s hair with his left foot).

Hear a clip of the pivotal “Jealous Again” performance below.