People_USA_April_24_2017

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RAISING TWO BOYS HELPED THE ROCKER

FIND SWEET HARMONY

ByJEFF NELSON

took a break. “When you

have kids, your priorities

definitely change. I really

felt consistency was the

most important thing,” says

Crow, who spent the past

two years in mom mode

back home in Nashville.

“I recorded an album but

only during their school

hours. It was a good feeling

to be home every night for

dinner.” It also gave her

time to mold and shield

them. “I’m very protective

of them being allowed to

have the innocence of being

children,” says Crow, who

keeps her boys out of the

public eye and limits their

screen time to 30 minutes

a day. (“[Technology] is like

giving a kid a hit off a crack

pipe and saying, ‘How did

you wind up being addicted

to crack!’” she says.)

Now 11 years in remis-

sion, Crow says it was her

harrowing breast-cancer

diagnosis that made her

“reevaluate my life.” The

singer, who broke off her

engagement to Lance

Armstrong in 2006, is still

open to love (“it’s trickier

when you have kids”) but

says she’s happy with life

as is. “At this point in my

life, I am grounded and

peaceful knowing the

order of things. There have

been days when I think,

‘I suck as a mom; I can’t

do anything right.’ But

at the end of the day,

there’s nothing

better than

family. I’m so

blessed.”•

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3

PHOTOGRAPH_OR_ILLUSTRATION_BY_FIRST_LASTNAME

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She’s won nine Grammys

and sold millions of albums,

but at home, “I’m a super-

geeky mom,” says Sheryl

Crow. “We listen to the

radio on the way to school,

and I’m constantly bopping

along to the Chainsmokers.

The kids are like, ‘Mom,

quit dancing!’ They think

I’m the biggest goofball on

the planet.” The singer and

single mom—she adopted

sons Wyatt, 9, and Levi, 6,

in 2007 and 2010, respec-

tively—is gearing up to

release her ninth album,

Be Myself.And these days

Crow, 55, says she’s

happiest with her role as a

parent. “Adopting my

boys—that’s just been the

biggest everlasting event

that has informed every-

thing,” she says, “and really

for the better.”

After promoting her last

album, 2013’sFeels Like

Home, Crow had an epiph-

any: “I didn’t want to spend

any more nights away from

home,” she says. So she

SHERYL

CROW

How

Motherhood

Changed Me

A Family Affair

1. Crow and oldest
   son Wyatt, now 9,
   in a 2013 throwback
   Instagram post.


2. Her sons and
   three of their friends
   sing onBe Myself
   (out April 21).


3. Crow (in 2017)
   says “completely
   retiring would be
   hard for me.”

RYAN PFLUGER/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX; INSETS, FROM TOP: CHRIS HUDSON PHOTOGRAPHY; DIMITRIOS KAMBOURIS/GETTY IMAGES