Guitarist David Immergluck has admittedly had a bizarre relationship with the Counting Crows.
Though he wasn't an official member until 1999, Immergluck has been a huge influence on the West Coast rock band. Before he joined the band, he was a friend and session guitarist who played on their albums. He even introduced singer-songwriter Adam Duritz and guitarist David Bryson, who formed the group. Though Duritz asked Immergluck on several occasions to join the group before 1999, Immergluck politely declined.
"It was a matter of timing," he said.
For several years in the 1990s, Immergluck was playing with alt-rockers Camper Van Beethoven and singer-songwriter John Hiatt - gigs he didn't want to give up. But when he finally joined the Counting Crows, Immergluck was glad he did.
"I just gave in," Immergluck said. "It's where I'm supposed to be. Playing with the same people for so long and having a musical dialogue with Adam for 20 years - you can't replace that with anything. When I finally came in full time, I was like, 'Oh, yeah.' "
Immergluck first met Duritz in the mid-'80s. He was immediately impressed with Duritz's music, which he thought was natural and unpretentious.
"Everybody else in the [San Francisco] Bay area was trying to sound like the Cure or putting on Iggy Pop or Metallica," he said. "Adam was doing what he was doing. It had nothing to do with anything else that was going on."
That individualism and creativity would eventually help Duritz lead the Counting Crows to sell more than 20 million albums worldwide. From the runaway success of the band's first single, "Mr. Jones," to the Academy Award nomination of the 2004 song "Accidentally In Love," the Counting Crows charmed fans with their earnest, earthy songwriting. Their first album, "August And Everything After" was comfort music at a time when grunge and dance music dominated the radio.
That feeling is still present on the band's latest studio album, "Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings." Released last year, the album is split between driving rock tunes and acoustic numbers.
"It shows us in more extreme detail - what we do," Immergluck said. "It pushes the envelope. It's as hard-rock as we get and as acoustic as we get, more than any album we've done."
"Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings" was also the Counting Crows' first studio album in nearly six years. Each song came together differently, with band members making various contributions and Duritz working on the lyrics.
