Sheryl Crow Interview (page: 2 / 3) Award-Winning Singer and Songwriter	Print Interview

Weren't you also a drum majorette?

Sheryl Crow: I was, yes. It was fun. I was never really cut out to be a cheerleader. I just was always in music, but it was fun. It felt like a leadership role to me, but at the same time, it was just all about flamboyance and also being in front of a large musical entity, and I really loved that.

Do you think that served you well in your future?

Sheryl Crow: I guess, in a certain way, it did.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I was not a person growing up that ever thought I was going to be well known or famous, and it was never really interesting to me. I always wanted to be great. I grew up listening to Bob Dylan and to country artists because of where I grew up -- it was all country on the radio -- and most of what I heard was Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams, and then later on, Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn. Then I got into these great songwriters, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, and really sort of made a study of it, and really wanted to make an impact, really wanted to be a great songwriter, wanted to write about important things. So the whole fame thing was not ever very interesting, but definitely wanting to matter was more interesting.

[ Key to Success ] Vision

Did you read a lot as a kid?

Sheryl Crow: Read a ton. In fact, my dad loved books so much that he would act out Pudd'nhead Wilson at the dinner table, or he'd read from Ellery Queen mysteries. He was very animated, and he made it so much fun. He raised us really reading everything from Steinbeck to Mark Twain, who was big in our house. Great character writers, and I really wanted to do that more than anything else. I wanted to be a great writer and toyed with the whole idea of writing short stories and essays, but the music thing kept pulling me back in.

What was your college experience like?

Sheryl Crow: I went to the University of Missouri and studied music. I studied with this wonderful piano professor that I really wanted to study with, Raymond Herbert. I got my degree in classical piano, but played in rock bands the whole time I was there, and I really think that was where I honed my chops, learning different styles and learning a lot of different instruments. I loved college and didn't particularly want to leave. I moved to St. Louis and taught school for a couple of years before I went off to L.A.

What did you teach?

Sheryl Crow: I taught music in the elementary school system in St. Louis. Sadly, the music department doesn't even exist in public schools in St. Louis anymore. I taught for two years, 1984 and 1985.

Did you enjoy it?

Sheryl Crow: I loved it. I really loved it, and I think I was a good teacher, but I was young and felt like if I was ever going to pursue the songwriting thing that I needed to do it well. I was still unattached, and I was doing a fair amount of studio work in St. Louis. So I used that as my jumping-off point.

What was your first professional gig as a singer?

Sheryl Crow: In Los Angeles, I started doing studio work fairly quickly when I got out there. I sang on a Johnny Mathis record and on Rod Stewart's record, and I did a few commercials.

Hadn't you done jingles in St. Louis?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Sheryl Crow: I had done jingles in St. Louis, and I came out to L.A., didn't know anyone, and I took my cassette tape -- at the time, we were using cassettes -- took it to every studio in L.A. and dropped it off and asked people to hire me, and eventually I started getting hired. And about seven months after moving here, I got the Michael Jackson tour, which really changed things for me.

[ Key to Success ] Preparation

Is it true that you crashed that audition for Michael Jackson?

Sheryl Crow: I did. Yeah.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. My mother says I have a lot of chutzpah. I did. You know, I was really naive about my career. I just figured if I kept working hard, and if I just seized moments, that things would happen, and that is really the way it worked. I was doing a recording session for a jingle, I believe, and I overheard some singers talking about an audition that was closed, supposed to be on recommendation, and I found out where it was and I went, and that's how I got it.

[ Key to Success ] Perseverance

That made a big difference in your career?

Sheryl Crow: Made a huge difference. I didn't even own a passport. I had never been out of the country, and the next thing I know, a month later, we were playing for 70,000 people in Japan. So it was very life-changing.

How many of there were you in the back-up vocal group?

Sheryl Crow: Four, myself and three guys. It was fun. It was long. It was a 19-month tour. So for me, it was very much a crash course in the music business, but favorable. It was a great learning experience.

That was right around Michael Jackson's heyday. What was it like to work with him?

Sheryl Crow: Actually, it was probably a little bit after his heyday. It was the Bad tour. By this time, he had already done quite a lot of touring and he was very reclusive. I didn't really have a lot of interaction with him, but every single night, he was unbelievable. You really got a sense of somebody whose creativity is just not definable. He was going out every night and doing dance moves that we had never seen before. He really changed things and came up with very original ideas. I give him a lot of credit for that.

Sheryl Crow Interview, Page: 1   2   3