The Mix
DOVESHORE40 | Rolling Stone | September 2019
The singer-songwriter on her all-star new album, her future,
and why Woodstock ’99 was her worst live experienceBy BRIAN HIATTSheryl Crow
‘I
T WASN’T meant to
be Cavalcade of Stars,”
says Sheryl Crow.
“Hopefully it feels natural and
cohesive.” She’s talking about
her impressive mic-drop of a
new album, Threads, which
includes a Rock & Roll Hall of
Fame induction ceremony’s
worth of guests (among them:
Bonnie Raitt, Chuck D, Eric
Clapton, Sting, Kris Kristof-
ferson, St. Vincent, James
Taylor, Maren Morris, Gary
Clark Jr., Emmylou Harris,
and Neil Young). The album
is intended as the final full LP
from Crow, 57, as she plans
to focus on singles and other
quicker releases. Still, she
says, “Never say never.”
This lineup is a real
testament to how much
your peers respect you.
Is it also a bit of well-
deserved muscle-flexing
on your part?
My fear would be that
anybody would think that.
Honestly, I made a country
record and promoted that,
which felt like everything but
having an authentic musical
experience. So I wanted to
just make music with people
I love. And it did feel kind of
like, “I don’t know how to
follow this up, and I don’t
really think I want to.”
How important were
Emmylou Harris and Stevie
Nicks in helping you dream
of a place for yourself in
music?
Oh, my gosh, so important.
Emmylou, she made so many
records I loved even before
she worked with Daniel
Lanois, and then she went on
to a whole new way of writing
amazing stuff. Red Dirt Girl
is a desert-island record for
me. I hold her up as a great
template. And Stevie is a
fully realized artist. She looks
at life as one big cinematic
moment, and all her songs
spring from that. And she still
brings it live.
How did you pick “The
Worst,” an obscure country
cut on Voodoo Lounge, for
your Keith Richards duet?
The first time I heard that
album, I was like, “I want
to record that song.” It’s the
quintessential pre-apology
to a woman, like, “I’m not
the kind of person you want
to get involved with.” And
I thought, “How great for a
woman to sing that.” Keith
and I hung out for a couple of
days in the studio — it’s like
being invited to the party.
You were in the audience
at the ‘86 Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’
Roll concert, where Steve
Jordan, who produced this
album, played with Richards
and Chuck Berry, right?
I was a young schoolteacher
in St. Louis, and I was there
the first night. Cut to 30 years
later, and I’m in the studiowith these two guys. To me,
that’s the American dream,
that you can be a girl from
a small town, and if you just
keep putting one foot in front
of the other, fantastical things
can happen.
Two covers on this album
— Bob Dylan’s “Everything
Is Broken,” George Harri-
son’s “Beware of Darkness”
— really seem to speak to
our present moment.
I am, for better or for worse,
really suffering a great deal of
sadness, and I cannot help it.I’m raising two boys, and I’m
sort of in mourning over what
they are not going to get to
experience. It’s just a differ-
ent world. Music is the place
I go to when I can’t seem to
make any sense of it all. I get
“Shut up and sing” all the
time, so I’m shutting up and
singing, and the songs I’m
singing are speaking for me.
Where does your
respect-your-elders ethos
come from?
I know a lot of people that are
like, “Hey, get off the plane,it’s time for someone else to
take a ride.” And I get that.
But if people believe in old
souls, I think I was born the
way I am. Secondly, I grew up
around parents who got off
playing loud music as much
as I do. Great music was
always in my house.
You hesitated to add your
vocals to Johnny Cash’s,
who covered your song
“Redemption Day.” Why?
I didn’t want to tamper with
it. Hearing him at the very
beginning of it just grabbed
me in such a deep and sober-
ing way that I didn’t want to
put my voice on it. Johnny is
untouchable. I had a big con-
versation with Steve [ Jordan]
— he’s like, “Dude, you got to
put your vocal on it, it’s your
record.” I had to sing it a lot
of times to figure out how to
make it work.
Any guests you couldn’t
get?
I’m a huge Tom Petty fan,
and if he were alive I’m sure
I would’ve begged him to be
a part of the album, although
he probably would’ve
declined. He wasn’t really a
guy who showed up on other
people’s records — unless you
were a Wilbury, clearly.
Twenty years ago, you
played Woodstock ’99. What
are your memories of that?
No one could bring in any
food or water, and the bottled
water was superexpensive.
It bred rebellion. The porta-
potty got turned over, and the
next thing I know, I’m playing
bass and there’s feces being
thrown on the bass rack right
where I’m playing. Insane
Clown Posse was right after
us. It was the single worst
gig I’ve ever been on. We
got out of there as fast as we
possibly could.
What do you think your
post-album future will look
like?
I mean, I’m certainly not say-
ing I’m old, and I definitely
feel like I still have some great
songs in me. But I feel like it’s
almost a waste of time for me
to have to wait for a whole
album to put a song out,
especially when I’m writing
songs that I feel are bound by
an immediacy. But I’m also
finding my peace with not
knowing what I’m going to do
next. And that’s good.Q&A