The Black Crowes influenced Jackie Greene long before he joined their ranks. “I loved them when I was a kid – I grew up on Shake Your Money Maker and Southern Harmony,” an awestruck Greene says during his first tour with the veteran Georgia rock band this spring. “There weren’t many straight-up rock bands and boy bands were starting to take off. It was easy to go in one direction or the other.” He pauses to chuckle. “I went the rock direction.”

Two decades after he first discovered their music – and more than a decade since he completed his roots classic Gone Wanderin’ – the 32-year-old singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist has revisited those classic Crowes records.

“This is a true rock and roll band,” he says, revealing a bit of the inner rocker he’s kept hidden through years playing songwriter-driven Americana and psychedelic-country. “It’s loud – it’s got a lot of electric guitars. When you’re a kid learning how to play, that’s everything you want. It feels really good – I’m still flattered they even thought of me in that light.”

Not that it was a straight shot from California singer/ songwriter to Crowes guitarist. While still in his mid-teens, Greene started working the bar and open mic circuit around Sacramento. He released his acoustic-laced breakthrough in 2002, contributed to the Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain soundtrack in 2005 and issued his critically-acclaimed Verve debut American Myth in 2006. All signs pointed to a folkie “new Dylan” career.

Greene’s course changed direction that year, however, when Phil Lesh name-dropped him in an interview tied to Bonnaroo. They started talking and, a year later, Greene joined Phil & Friends, thrusting him in front of a new audience of open-minded music listeners and picky Deadheads.

“I knew maybe a half-dozen Grateful Dead songs…‘Casey Jones,’ ‘Friend of the Devil,’ stuff like that,” he admits, “I’ve learned so much by playing with Phil. Not only Grateful Dead tunes but American music.”

For a while, Greene seemed reluctant to fully embrace his new fanbase. He was hesitant to talk about the Dead in interviews and determined to avoid the stigma of other artists
associated with the jam scene.

“It took me a couple of years but I’ve turned into a Deadhead,” Greene confesses. In 2010, he dropped an EP of Dead covers and, the same year, his worlds converged on the sprawling Till the Light Comes.
“It came right after a few heavy Phil & Friends tours so a lot of things on that record are hugely Grateful Dead-influenced sonically – even lyrically,” he admits. “For example, ‘A Moment of Temporary Color’ is a nod to ‘Bird Song.’ I love that song so I decided to make my own. A lot of songs have these codas and these drastically different parts.”

At the same time, the record alienated a portion of Greene’s original audience. “Some of our core fans thought it was weird or too heavy and didn’t really like that record,” he says. “But whatever…”

It was through his work with Lesh that Greene entered The Black Crowes’ orbit as the bassist regularly brought singer Chris Robinson and keyboardist Adam MacDougall into the Friends fold. He drifted deeper into the Dead world when his friendship with Robinson and Bob Weir resulted in a new trio. And, by chance, he also joined Trigger Hippy, a supergroup that features Joan Osborne and Crowes drummer Steve Gorman. When Luther Dickinson was unavailable to tour with the reformed Crowes, Greene was a natural choice.

“Steve asked me if I’d be interested in playing guitar for their tour this year,” Greene says, noting that he’d played with three of the band’s five members during their 2011-2013 hiatus. “I jumped between thinking, ‘This will be super awesome’ to ‘I can’t do it.’ Finally, I realized that it’s another challenge – the same as when I started to play with Phil.”

Despite his new gig with the Crowes, Greene already has his eyes set on a new solo album. “I started recording last summer at my home studio,” he says. “I wasn’t totally pleased with the result I was getting so I put it on hold for a bit.” In the meantime, he released a live Record Store Day 45, and Trigger Hippy recorded a studio exclusive for Record Store Day’s Black
Friday counterpart. Plus, he’s as eager as ever to play with Lesh and Weir.

“Phil is one of the most generous, loving people I’ve ever met and so is Bob, but they’re very different guys,” he says. “Bob likes to watch football and hang with the boys. He acts like he’s 25.”

As for his own career, Greene knows he’s just getting started. “I don’t feel young anymore, but even in my band I’m the second youngest person,” he laughs. “I’ve learned that when opportunities present themselves you have to take them. The worst that happens is I come out as a better musician or songwriter.”