New KQRS host Steve Gorman is pumped to join another Minnesota institution: Golden Smog

Tom Barnard's replacement has settled into his new Minneapolis surroundings and reconnected with musician friends from his hard-touring days as the Black Crowes' drummer.

By Chris Riemenschneider Star Tribune

November 14, 2024 — 7:00am

According to his former Black Crowes bandmates Chris and Rich Robinson, Steve Gorman has a mouth on him, one that stirred conflict and distrust between them during his 27 years in the multiplatinum Southern rock group.

Gorman, of course, scoffs at the allegation.

"Me causing them to not get along would've been like trying to heat up the sun," the ex-Crowes drummer said.

However, there's no denying there's a gabby and brazen side to Gorman's personality. It has helped him carve out a busy career after the Crowes as a syndicated radio host — a changeover that brought him to the Twin Cities last year to replace maybe the mouthiest man in local radio history, Tom Barnard, as host of classic rock station KQRS' morning show.

After proving he could handle one of the most enviable yet precarious time slots on the local FM dial, Gorman is now aiming to fill another high-profile but somewhat dubious position in the Twin Cities music scene.

The once-and-forever drummer, 59, has signed on as the new man behind the kit in Golden Smog for the Minnesota all-star band's first official gig in two years Friday at First Avenue.

An offshoot of the Jayhawks and Soul Asylum — bands Gorman crossed paths with as they all gained mainstream success in the early '90s — Golden Smog was launched in that era as a for-fun side project to contrast its members' more serious and calculated endeavors. Thus, Gorman finds it quite fitting he's joining the fun this year.

"Radio is more my full-time gig now," he said, "so for me this is especially a fun way of stepping out."

Talking last week at a coffee shop near the riverfront St. Anthony Main condo he shares with his wife, Rose Mary — their adult daughter and son are off in other cities now — the tall, graying but still long-haired, rock-dude-looking music industry veteran sounded happy he made the move north for the KQ job.

"I knew [Barnard] and was aware of the huge footprint he had here," Gorman said. "I think it was actually easier for me to take on the role coming from out of town. I was somebody new and somebody very different."

Our interview happened to fall on Election Day, a subject Gorman and his cohorts on the morning show mostly steered clear of, aside from urging listeners to vote. He's been far less controversial and polarizing than Barnard was in his top-rated 36-year tenure, focusing on topics related to rock 'n' roll, sports and other nondivisive diversions.

KQRS program director James Kurdziel said Gorman is affable enough that he's not off-putting even when he might be putting something down.

"He's a confident guy, but he's also empathetic and kind with a good moral compass he sticks to," said Kurdziel, who noted how quickly and deliberately Gorman tied himself to Minnesota culture.

"He and the team work very hard to make it a show that could only be done in Minnesota, and Steve has fit right in with that."

There was a learning curve on that front. Gorman grew up in rural Kentucky and suburban Baltimore. He moved to Atlanta to join the Crowes and eventually wound up in Nashville, where he spent the previous decade before moving to Minneapolis.

"I'm still learning how to pronounce some of the local city names like Shakopee," he said, comically mispronouncing it like "shuh-copy."

Sports talk was actually Gorman's first gig in radio, when he started working for Nashville stations during downtime from the Crowes starting in 2008. He still roots for the Orioles and Titans but has gotten into the Twins, Vikings and (much to his surprise) Timberwolves, too.

Gorman was hardly a stranger to the Twin Cities. He first came to town to play First Ave in 1990 with the Crowes, who also opened dates for Soul Asylum around that time (first time he met his future Golden Smog bandmate Dan Murphy). The drummer remembered going bowling with local acquaintances after the First Ave show and thinking, "I could live here" (it wasn't wintertime).

He came to town many times in the interim with the Crowes, including the opening dates for their "Southern Harmony and Musical Companion" tour in 1992, when they settled in for several days of rehearsals and shows.

"I already knew there was a great music scene here and great venues like First Avenue here," he said. "That was definitely one of the things that made it easier to decide to move here."

The main factor, though, was the morning show job itself. KQRS had already been airing his still-rocking syndicated show "Steve Gorman Rocks" — a product of the station's parent company, Cumulus Media — when the station approached him about replacing Barnard. Getting the job capped a career makeover that Gorman said he was content to make after he played his final dates with the Crowes in 2014.

"I'd been traveling in rock 'n' roll bands for a long time," he said (25-plus years). "The traveling part gets harder the older you get."

He didn't give up drumming, though. He formed a Nashville-based band called Trigger Hippy, coincidentally featuring two Minnesota natives, bassist Nick Govrik and singer Amber Woodhouse. He and Govrik also perform in the Bag Men with North Mississippi All-Stars blues-rock scion Luther Dickinson, who served as a guitarist in the Black Crowes from 2007 to 2011.

Gorman also wasn't entirely done with the Crowes after he split from them. First came his 2019 memoir "Hard to Handle: The Life and Death of the Black Crowes" (written with Twin Cities author Steven Hyden), which recapped the decadence and dysfunction the drummer saw within the group. Then he filed a lawsuit against his ex-bandmates over unpaid royalties that was settled in 2022.

Those two developments prompted the Robinson brothers to speak out against Gorman in the press, a rift that remains unchanged even after the sibling rockers re-formed with mostly new members in 2021. The ex-drummer said he has no opinion or interest in the new lineup.

"The things I loved about the band aren't there anymore," Gorman simply said.

One of the first musician buddies Gorman called after leaving the Crowes was Jayhawks and Golden Smog singer/guitarist Gary Louris. The Jayhawks were frequent tour mates with the Crowes in the early '90s, when they both recorded for Rick Rubin's record label and worked with producer George Drakoulias.

Now that they're finally performing together years later, Louris said it's fitting that he and Gorman are doing so in the peculiarly long-lasting side project that is Golden Smog.

"Steve is a friend, which fits the concept of the Smog: fun first," Louris said. "He also happens to be one hell of a drummer."

The Jayhawks frontman went on to say the new recruit "adheres to the Smoggy lifestyle, holding the same Smoggy values — whatever those are."

Gorman seems to have a pretty good idea what Golden Smog is all about: "It's all for fun," he said, "but at the same time when the bell rings you have to be ready to come out swinging."

He follows a Spinal Tap-ian array of drummers to play in Golden Smog since its inception, including the Replacements' Chris Mars, Big Star's Jody Stephens and the Honeydogs' Noah Levy.

While Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy — another of Gorman's acquaintances from those hardscrabble early days on the road — won't be a part of Friday's Smog show as he was for most of their '90s gigs, Gorman likes that the First Ave set will be pared down to just the Minnesotans. He singled out the Smog player with the lesser national profile, Kraig Johnson of Run Westy Run: "His songs are some of my favorites on those records."

"These guys play down just how [expletive] great they are," Gorman said. "They are so Minnesotan in how humble and self-deprecating they are."

Sounds like the drummer really is getting into the rhythm of his new hometown.