The Black Crowes Reveal 'Funny' Meaning Behind Their Latest Single

The Black Crowes celebrated the creation and highly-anticipated release of their first album in 15 years with iHeartRadio LIVE on Tuesday night (February 6).

Happiness Bastards, slated for release on March 15th, is the band's 10th full-length studio album and their first album release since 2009's Before the Frost...Until the Freeze. Co-founders and brothers Chris and Rich Robinson joined iHeartRadio's Clint August for an exclusive Q&A, and an intimate show where they performed Black Crowes' classics, "Hard to Handle," "She Talks to Angels," "Gone," "Twice As Hard," "Sting Me (Slow)," and new singles (to be featured on the upcoming album) including opening track, "Bedside Manners," and single release, "Wanting And Waiting."

August asked the band why they decided to name their upcoming record Happiness Bastards and Chris immediately responded with a joke.

"We're going to change the name of the band to Happiness Bastards. It works on a lot of levels because we've been horrible to each other sometimes."

Rich interjected, simplifying the question with, "We're happy and we're bastards and those two things kind of go hand in hand." Chris added:

"It's also kind of an homage to when rock 'n' roll, well, all of us, and you included and everyone who is listening at home that is of a different age. But yes, rock 'n' roll used to be about being bad a little bit and so we're just kind of, in our way, tipping our hats. But it's also a great moniker for our future and where we're going from here."

The brothers went on to share that writing is possibly the one stage of creating a record that they actually agree on. It's their "happy place."

"We ended up composing and writing and it's the one area we could always kind of agree on. Getting in the studio we would fight. Going on tour we would fight. But when we were writing together, it was nice."

As for the inspiration behind Happiness Bastards track "Wanting And Waiting," Chris mentioned that the band was trying to stay true to their chosen genre with a "typical confusing rock 'n' roll theme" present throughout.

"I mean you heard the chorus...it's a good single. We knew we wanted to make a good rock 'n' roll record. You know, the song is funny because the subtext is about somebody who wants their lover back, but it's really a bad relationship. It's someone whose maybe like a little bit desperate maybe. They don't know what they want back but they want it back and I think that's a fairly typical confusing rock 'n' roll theme."

Taking it all the way back to 1990, August asked The Black Crowes what it was like hearing their songs on the radio for the first time ever. Rich detailed a rather classic scene of anticipation being met with sheer joy and excitement as fans across the country jammed to "Jealous Again."

"It was just one of those moments. We'd always wanted to hear ourselves on the radio."

The band will hit the road this spring and summer as part a "massive world tour" set to kick off on April 2nd in Nashville, Tennessee. The U.S. leg of the tour will conclude in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 7th.