Exclusive: "Hard To Handle" author Steve Gorman on his journey from Black Crowes drummer to sports talk radio host

For over two decades, The Black Crowes topped the charts as a top-selling, world-touring American rock band. With hits like "Hard To Handle," "She Talks To Angels" and "Remedy," the Crowes' massive success got them on the cover of Rolling Stone, made them MTV staples and even led to them being seen as "the new Zeppelin," thanks to an unforgettable tour and live album alongside Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.

Black Crowes founding member Steve Gorman was there for all of it as the group's drummer for decades. Last year Gorman's memoir about his time in Black Crowes, Hard To Handle: The Life & Death Of The Black Crowes - A Memoir, was released via Da Capo Press to critical acclaim. Yet being "the drummer of The Black Crowes" is only a facet of Gorman's life these days.

Not only is Gorman now a well-regarded author and the drummer of the band Trigger Hippy -- beyond drumming for the likes of Stereophonics, Warren Devon, Bob Dylan, Bo Bice, L.E.O. and Lamb Of God's Mark Morton over the years -- but he is also a top-notch broadcaster within the sports world.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Steve Gorman by phone on February 13, 2020 about Hard To Handle, his transition into the sports radio and podcasting world, current musical projects and more.

The full interview is embedded below -- and will appear on a future edition of the PureGrainAudio.com-produced Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz podcast -- while part of the chat has been transcribed below.

On whether he was always a sports fan:

Steve Gorman: Oh yeah, sports and music were always the two threads in my brain. To the exclusion of most other subjects. I loved history, I followed politics, but those were -- compared to sports and music -- very minor thoroughfares in the way my brain works.

On his journey from full-time drummer to sports broadcaster:

Steve Gorman: I got to Nashville, Tennessee in 2004 and occasionally I would go in with the local [rock radio] station, I knew the afternoon host, and I would sit in with him. In Nashville I just saw "musicians talking sports," that's the simplest way to put it.

In Nashville that doesn't sound like a crazy idea, and the guy I was talking with, the PD [Programming Director], one day said, "Yeah, if you want to try your own show, I'll give you Sunday nights." That's where it all started.