COVER UP: The Black Crowes’ new album,...

COVER UP: The Black Crowes’ new album, “Amorica,” won’t hit the stores until Nov. 1, but the band is already anticipating some friction regarding the cover art.

It’s a picture of a female crotch, adorned with a skimpy American flag bikini with a tuft of pubic hair showing at the top. The photo was originally the cover shot of the 1976 Bicentennial issue of Hustler magazine, and Crowes singer Chris Robinson thought it was a perfect illustration of the title concept, which plays on the words America , amore and amoral .

Crowes manager Pete Angelus says that one record store chain has already said it won’t carry the cover (he wouldn’t name the chain). An alternate cover has been prepared, with the skin and hair blacked out leaving just a triangle of flag material. The band is still deciding whether it will offer the alternate to stores.

“It’s OK to see guns and violence, but God forbid if we see pubic hair,” says Angelus.