Sometimes the members of a band don't always like all their songs. Everyone's taste in music is different. And of course, we know that there are occasionally nasty arguments among people in a band about what constitutes a hit or even a song worthy of recording.
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Which brings us to a band called Counting Crows. You probably recall them from the 1990s. They had a bunch of hits back then like "Accidentally in Love," "Round Here," "Hanginaround," and a cover of Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi." Then there was "Mr. Jones." (It was on their monster freshman album, a seven-million seller.)
Per Whiskey Riff, let's throw in some numbers. "The song has over 866 million streams on Spotify and continues to get a lot of radio play today. It peaked at number 5 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart."
Counting Crows' Drummer, Steve Bowman, Loathed 'Mr. Jones'
Despite its popularity, there were some snags. Co-writer and lead singer Adam Duritz had trouble getting the song right and said he did it 100 times before being satisfied. However, drummer Steve Bowman did not find the song appealing at all. What turned him off was that he felt it was too country. And I guess country music was simply not his thing.
Adam Durnitz Clearly Remembers Bowman's Extremely Strong Aversion To That Song
In an interview, Durnitz said, "Our drummer hated the song. Just hated it. He said he 'didn't sign up to play country music... I might as well wear a straw hat and stick a blade of grass in my mouth playing this [expletive] thing.' And I was like 'This is not a country song. At all. It's only a country song cause you're making it sound like a country song!'"
He added, "[Bowman] just hated the song and it made it really hard to play because he could just not get a feel for it. He just kept saying it was country and we're all like, to be it's like a soul song, but whatever it is there's a way to play it and it made it so hard to sing over it..."
Bowman's dislike of the song actually became a huge sticking point with the band. According to Durnitz, "He just had it in his head that it was a country song. I could never understand why he felt that way but thinking that way he played it that way and it ruined it, over and over again."
Counting Crows Finally Found A Workable Solution
Steve Bowman stubbornly insisted that "Mr. Jones" was way too country for him. Enter drummer Denny Fongheiser, who agreed to play drums on the song to relieve Bowman of the burden of doing it. Bowman exited Counting Crows in 1994.
