In 1995, Elektra Records rolled out New Orleans alternative rock band Better Than Ezra’s “Deluxe.” It sold more than a million copies, making it one of the most successful albums ever by a Louisiana rock band.
Over the ensuing 30 years, the members of Better Than Ezra endured all manner of rock ‘n’ roll drama, spanning drugs, divorce, multiple drummers, lawsuits and lost record deals.
The band not only survived but is thriving.
“We’re having more fun playing music now than we’ve ever had,” guitarist/vocalist Kevin Griffin said recently. “The crowds and the guarantees are better than we’ve ever had.”
During the 2025 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Better Than Ezra sold out the 2,200-capacity Fillmore for a celebration of the 30th anniversary of “Deluxe.” Days later, the band played to thousands of fans at the Fair Grounds’ Gentilly Stage.
Lead vocalist Kevin Griffin of New Orleans-based alt-rock band Better Than Ezra perfoms on Jazz Fest's Gentilly Stage on Local's Thursday, May 1, 2025.
Come January, Ezra will sail aboard The 90s Cruise. Departing from Tampa, Florida, they’ll ride the waves of '90s nostalgia alongside TLC, Sugar Ray, En Vogue, Tonic, Smash Mouth and other MTV-era favorites.
“Better Than Ezra is a great example of perseverance,” said Griffin, 56. “It took us seven years to get signed (to a record deal). Nothing ever fell into our laps. We were the quintessential ‘get in the van, play for $50 and pizza, sleep on floors.’ We worked hard, but we never quit.
“You’ll have moments where maybe you’re not as hot, or people aren’t coming to the shows like they were. You stick around and suddenly it’s back. We’re in this era now of ‘90s love.
“So many of our fans are in their 40s, or maybe they’re empty nesters, and they’re coming to the shows and bringing their kids. I still haven’t seen three generations yet. But it’s coming.”
Born at LSU
Better Than Ezra formed on the LSU campus in March 1988. The band slogged it out in college bars and self-released a cassette called “Surprise.”
Following the 1990 suicide of guitarist Joel Rundell, the remaining trio — Griffin, bassist Tom Drummond and drummer Cary Bonnecaze — wrote a fresh batch of songs.
The lyrics are “a tour of my education, of being an English major at Louisiana State University,” Griffin said. “The Killer Inside,” for example, was inspired by Jim Thompson’s 1952 novel “The Killer Inside Me.”
They recorded what became “Deluxe” in the Los Angeles apartment of producer/engineer Dan Rothchild, whose father, Paul Rothchild, produced albums for The Doors and Janis Joplin. They used half-inch analog tape and only 16 individual audio tracks.
The cover of New Orleans alternative rock band Better Than Ezra's "Deluxe" album, which Elektra Records released nationally in 1995. It would sell more than 1 million copies.
“That’s almost hobbyist-level quality,” Griffin said. “But (Rothchild) was so gifted that it just has a vibe.”
They bought red velvet fabric in the garment district of East L.A. for the album’s cover art, hoping it looked “deluxe.”
The total cost to create “Deluxe” and print 2,000 CDs? Approximately $8,200.
They initially released “Deluxe” in 1993 via their own Swell Records. After it started selling, major label Elektra Records signed the band and re-released “Deluxe” in 1995.
The first single, “Good,” was built on four guitar chords: G-major, D-major, E-minor and, at the end of the chord progression, C major seventh, which, says Griffin, “was how you made it a ‘90s rock song.”
The formula worked. “Good” exploded at modern rock radio, propelling “Deluxe” to platinum status.
“There’s a lot of love for those songs,” Griffin said of the album’s enduring appeal. “There’s something about that collection of songs that’s special.”
Taylor Swift a fan
Following the “Deluxe” tour, Bonnecaze departed acrimoniously and sued his former bandmates. The case was settled on the eve of trial.
With new drummer Travis McNabb, Better Than Erza recorded its second album at Daniel Lanois’ famed French Quarter studio, Kingsway. They spent $500,000 making “Friction, Baby.” It sold barely half as many copies as “Deluxe.”
“It just goes to show,” Griffin said, that “it’s not the money you put into it. It’s about the spirit of the songs, the performance, the moment.”
Better Than Ezra performs at the 2018 Jazz and Heritage Festival on the Gentilly Stage in New Orleans, La. Saturday, May 5, 2018.
After McNabb left to join country-pop hitmakers Sugarland, Ezra enlisted Michael Jerome Moore, a powerhouse drummer known for his work with James Hall’s Pleasure Club.
No subsequent album sold like “Deluxe,” but Ezra songs still turned up in popular culture. “Juicy” was used in commercials for the second season of the hit TV series “Desperate Housewives.”
Taylor Swift covered two songs from the band’s 2005 album “Before the Robots,” “Our Last Night” and “Breathless.” She showcased “Breathless” during Hope For Haiti Now, a January 2010 charity telethon for earthquake victims.
“When you’re a band, you want people to like your later albums, not just the biggest album,” Griffin said. “The fact that she knew (‘Before the Robots’) was super flattering.
Better Than Ezra features, from left, keyboardist/guitarist James Arthur Payne Jr., singer/guitarist Kevin Griffin, drummer Michael Jerome and bassist Tom Drummond.
“‘Breathless’ is track 12 — it’s the last song. It was the newest song that we recorded for that album. Often, when a song makes it under the wire, it gets put at the end (of the album) because you just don’t know how good it is. It gets buried. She found it.”
In February 2010, Better Than Ezra performed at the Saints’ postgame Super Bowl party in Miami, the result of the musicians’ long-standing friendship with general manager Mickey Loomis and now-former coach Sean Payton.
“We got to ride on the team bus from the hotel to the stadium,” Griffin recalled. “In that bus was James Carville, the archbishop of New Orleans and Kim Kardashian and her mom, because Kim was dating (Saints running back) Reggie Bush.
“Now, it sounds like a joke.”
A promotional poster for the 2025 Pilgrimage music festival in Tennessee, which was founded by Better Than Ezra's Kevin Griffin.
A Nashville Pilgrimage
Griffin sold his New Orleans house after Hurricane Katrina and settled in Los Angeles. He now lives in Franklin, Tennessee, just outside Nashville.
He excels at creating his own opportunities. One reason he moved to the Nashville area was to develop his lucrative sideline as a songwriter for other artists.
His credits include Howie Day’s 2004 hit “Collide.” “Collide” first took shape at BTE’s former Lower Garden District recording studio, which is now owned by Trombone Shorty.
Griffin also co-wrote Sugarland’s 2010 smash “Stuck Like Glue,” among the most downloaded country songs of all time.
The day after Thanksgiving 2013, he went jogging in The Park at Harlinsdale in Franklin. Gazing around, he thought, “This is the most beautiful site for a festival I’ve ever seen.”
In 2015, he and two associates co-founded the Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival. The 2025 Pilgrimage Fest is Sept. 27-28 and features John Mayer, Kings of Leon, Turnpike Troubadours, Young the Giant, Father John Misty and Sam Fender.
“What Jazz Fest taught us is you can have something that’s family-friendly and super-cool, relevant and authentic musically,” Griffin said. “That was the DNA. We were unabashed in saying, ‘We got that idea from Jazz Fest.’”
Initially, he didn’t book Better Than Ezra at Pilgrimage.
“I didn’t want to give anybody any ammunition like, ‘That guy from Better Than Ezra started a festival, and guess who’s playing?’
“After year one, I had musicians and other people say, ‘Why aren’t you playing your own festival? That’s stupid.’ So now it is shameless self-promotion.”
Better Than Ezra performs at the 2018 Jazz and Heritage Festival on the Gentilly Stage in New Orleans, La. Saturday, May 5, 2018.
'Well, that happened'
Griffin went through a messy divorce from his first wife; substance abuse was a factor. Sober for more than 10 years now, he married Gibson Guitar Brands executive Erica Krusen in 2022.
People magazine covered the couple’s dual ceremonies. The first was in Positano, a town on Italy’s scenic Amalfi Coast; actor Jonathan Silverman officiated. Two weeks later, Griffin and Krusen exchanged vows again at a legally binding ceremony in Seaside, Florida.
Other relationships have also stabilized. James Arthur Payne Jr., who had contributed guitars, keyboards and backing vocals to Better Than Ezra as an auxiliary musician since 1996, is now an official band member.
Taking a page from the Taylor Swift playbook, the band re-recorded many of its old songs so that the musicians, rather than a record company, own the master recordings. That pays off every time a BTE song is licensed for a movie, TV show or commercial; Griffin says he fields such inquiries at least once a week.
The cover of New Orleans modern rock band Better Than Ezra's 2024 album "Super Magick." It is the band's ninth studio album.
“The master, the actual physical recording, is the most lucrative thing for bands,” he said. “Re-recording is a smart endeavor.”
They’re still making new music, too. In 2024, BTE released “Super Magjck,” the band’s first album of new material in more than a decade.
The path to the present was sometimes difficult, but Drummond, Moore, Payne and Griffin are in a good place.
As Griffin puts it, “You start in life saying, ‘That’ll never happen to me.’ And then something happens and you’re like, ‘Well, that happened.’
“Hopefully, over those years, you get some self-awareness and want to better yourself. Better Than Ezra has been this vehicle with a group of friends that I’ve gotten to experience so many of life’s ups and downs and twists and turns” with.
He doesn’t take his current good fortune for granted.
“When I’m on that stage, I always have a moment like, ‘I get to do this thing that I first wanted to do when I heard Elton John and Kiss so many years ago and picked up my dad’s classical guitar and learned how to play it.
“I’m 56 years old and I (still) get to do that and sell out the Fillmore? It’s a blessing, man. It’s the best job ever. And we show no signs of stopping.”