The Counting Crows are kind of a post-grunge band, if you really think about it. The alt-rock heroes didn’t put their first album out until 1993, and interestingly, they took a pretty stark directional pivot in the mid-90s due to the tragedy that was Kurt Cobain’s death.
In an October 2025 editorial for The Guardian, Counting Crows members Adam Duritz (vocals) and David Immerglück (multi-instrumentalist) opened up about the band’s early days. They even shared a little about recording their hit song, “Mr. Jones”, and how it was a lewd studio note from producer T Bone Burnett that gave the song its feel.
In his portion of the editorial, Immerglück offered some insight into the band’s mindset, following the death of Nirvana’s frontman, which had a profound impact on music and culture overall.
“Counting Crows was in some ways a reaction to grunge,” Immerglück explained. “Kurt Cobain killing himself was like its final act. Everyone was on heroin. The object was obliteration, not mind expansion. The nihilism had gone too far; the pendulum swung to something more human and more emotional. Counting Crows was folk and rock with a heavy dose of Van Morrison soul.”
David Immerglück became a permanent member of the Counting Crows in 1999
Going on to talk about the recording of Mr. Jones, Immerglück confessed, “The song never gets old. Sometimes, on stage, when I am rocking out with Adam, I will remember that moment when he played me the demo of the song. It’s insane.”
He also shared the infamous note he got from Burnett while they were recording “Mr. Jones for the Counting Crows’ debut album, August and Everything After.
“T Bone cued me in to play my guitar behind the tempo of the drums,” Immerglück recalled. “He said: ‘If you rush ahead of the drums, you sound like an adolescent j***ing off too quickly.’ He’s got the southern accent because he’s from Texas, and his advice was just to imagine that you’ve put your feet up on the mixing board and chewing gum while you’re playing.”
For his part, Duriotz, the song’s writer, says that he thinks “it’s one of the best things I’ve ever written.” He added, “We played ‘Round Here’ on Saturday Night Live in 1994, and the record jumped 40 spots a week for five or six weeks. After that, ‘Mr Jones’ became a big deal.”
The post How This Counting Crows Hit Became a Directional Pivot From Mid-90s Tragedy (And the Lewd Studio Note That Gave the Song Its Feel) appeared first on VICE.
