The Black Crowes will release a new covers EP on May 4th, via Amazon Music, titled 1972. Glide magazine reported the band tracked the tunes back in January 2022 at L.A.’s famed Sunset Sound, with the project’s first single — a new take on the Temptations‘ “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” out now. The other songs on the set are the Rolling Stones‘ “Rocks Off,” T-Rex‘s “The Slider,” Rod Stewart‘s “You Wear It Well,” Little Feat‘s “Easy To Slip,” and David Bowie‘s “Moonage Daydream.”

Crowes frontman Chris Robinson said of the new collection, “The year 1972 was a watershed moment, some of the greatest rock and roll songs ever made came out of that year. To get our band back together in the studio, it had to be a celebration of rock n’ roll. This record is about love and devotion to something that makes us feel good. We hope that it makes fans around the world feel the same.”

On May 4th at 10:00 pm ET, the Black Crowes will be performing the EP live from the historic Whiskey a Go-Go in Los Angeles via Amazon Music’s channel on Twitch. The date also marks the 50th anniversary of a legendary Little Feat performance at the famed venue in 1972.

Contrary to popular belief, Rich Robinson and his older brother, Chris, were not retro-obsessed Southern rock apostles while growing up: “Chris and I never sat down and said, ‘We’re gonna be in a band.’ Like, we just started doin’ it. We went through our little punk rock phase for about six months, and then it’s easy to grow out of that — ’cause we grew up in a really rich musical household, ’cause of my dad. So once we started getting into R.E.M., which spoke to us, ’cause we weren’t into southern rock. We never associated ourselves with that. R.E.M. spoke to us, more because it was so unique sounding. When I first heard ‘Radio Free Europe’ on the radio, I was like. . . I’d never heard anything like that.”