Thank you for taking the time to share. Very much appreciate hearing from someone a lot closer to the musician in question (Audley) than me.
To clarify a bit, I said there were guys who were a better fit because I find it impossible to believe there's a better fit for the Black Crowes than Marc Ford. I mentioned Damon Johnson specifically because he's always been one of my absolute personal favorites, and he has played in Alice Cooper's band and been a member of Thin Lizzy; I think that between his talent, his track record of sublimating his abilities in order to fit into an existing band's footprint, and his mention in one interview of literally wanting to be in the Black Crowes, he'd have worked out well.
But I don't know, the Robinson brothers are famous world-class assholes. Maybe Damon wouldn't have fit in with how they saw the band circa 1998-2001, because there is nothing specific about Audley Freed that lends itself to saying "oh, well here's why he didn't become an indispensable member of the band". The talent was there and, judging by what you're saying, his personality wasn't a problem. While I grant there are worse ways to make a living than as a hired gun lead guitarist for the Black Crowes, I've always thought it was a shame that his role was by all accounts limited to just that. Whether it would have made a difference or not, I personally think it could only have helped having Audley involved more deeply in the band's creative process. But I've never been in a downward-trending sibling-driven multi-platinum selling band before, so my opinion of how their creative process should have worked 20 years ago isn't particularly valuable.