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

How long after the Michael Jackson tour did you make your first album?

Sheryl Crow: I made my first album about three years later. There was a long period when females weren't getting record deals. So I kicked around for a while and got turned down by every record label. Eventually I slipped my demo to the right person and got a record deal. It was 1994 when the record came out.

What did you slip them? Was it your original songs?

Sheryl Crow: Original songs and a few demos that I had done in L.A. Jingles and things.

So you really have to hang in there, don't you?

Sheryl Crow: You do.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I really got my start much later than what rock and roll originally was designed for. You know, it used to be if you made it to age 30, then you were one of them instead of one of us. So it happened fairly quickly for me, I believe. I guess I was 24 when I moved out here, and my first record came out when I was 29. I feel like I really got in under the wire, because people were still touring, you were still really building a following. TV was not that big of a deal, and I had the opportunity to really hone my craft and to travel around the world and build a fan base that was based on word of mouth and people's emotional attachment. I think, for me that was a real gift, because I don't think that really exists anymore.

Didn't you record another album before you had the big hit with Tuesday Night Music Club?

Sheryl Crow: Actually, my first album never came out.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I made a record before the Tuesday Night Music Club record, and it was interesting, because the person that got me signed was a very powerful producer, and he was the producer on the record. And we just didn't have a vision that really melded. He loved the demos. I felt like I wanted to rock a little bit harder. So it was a bit of a predicament. What I wound up with was something I didn't feel like represented me, and luckily the record label allowed me to not put it out and make a new record.

[ Key to Success ] Integrity

That took guts. Weren't you afraid they would just drop you?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Sheryl Crow: It was the most terrifying experience because, for one thing, it's difficult to go in and say, "Look, I don't know what I'm doing, but I know what I don't want to be doing." So after much cajoling, A&M -- which doesn't exist anymore -- said, "Okay, we won't put it out," and then for about a year, nothing happened. I really thrashed around about whether I had made the wrong decision, but ultimately it did serve me well, because the record that I had made was just innocuous. It would have been lost in the bins. I kind of feel like I was looked after in some way, in that they didn't put the record out.

[ Key to Success ] Courage

Tell us about Tuesday Night Music Club. How did that record come about?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Sheryl Crow: The Tuesday Night Music Club actually was sort of the result of my kicking around for about a year, hearing that I was going to be dropped from the record label, and not having a record, and I fell in with a bunch of people that were just jamming on Tuesday nights. So that actually is how I came into contact with all these people, which was fun, because we were all kind of a close-knit group of misfits who felt we were intelligent and talented and we were being overlooked, and that was what our camaraderie was based on. Ultimately, the album came out, and it did really, really well, which is kind of funny, because it broke the mold of being one of those people that was being overlooked. So it was not without its trial and tribulation, but it was a really good experience.

[ Key to Success ] Perseverance

"All I Wanna Do," wasn't released as a single until the record had been out for almost a year, and it was the biggest hit of all. Was it surprising to you what a big hit that was?

Sheryl Crow: Yeah. That was the last song to be put on the record. We went back and forth, we were going to put it on, we're not going to put it on. In my mind it captured a moment in time. I think it was pretty authentic to the attitude -- not only in L.A., but also in the country -- a feeling of apathy and of not having a say in what was going on, but I still felt like it was a bit of a throw-away. My little brother, who still lives in my hometown, he kept saying, "That's the hit, that's the hit," and I kept saying, "That's never going to be a hit," and literally it was the fourth single. We had already toured for about a year and a half, and I was already thinking of a new record, and then we had a hit.

And then you won all those Grammy Awards. What was that like?

Sheryl Crow: It was unbelievable. I've been lucky in being recognized for doing something that I really love and feel compelled to do. So it's really been icing on the cake, but at that moment it changed the course of my career. The Grammys are so high profile that your record sales immediately double or triple, and it really created a much bigger career for me. We went all over the world because of that, and it was an incredible opportunity.

You have been outspoken about a lot of issues as your career has gained momentum, including the war in Iraq. Where did you get the guts to do that? Like that t-shirt you wore on stage, what did it say?

Sheryl Crow: "I don't believe in your war, Mr. Bush."

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I never thought about it as requiring guts to speak out about what I was feeling at the time. I think there were two things I was really amazed by, one of which was that we were buying into this idea that we were going into Iraq for any other reason but greed and oil. But the other thing that really made an impact on me, as well as dismayed me, was the fact that people weren't speaking out about it. People weren't demanding better. I'm seeing a big shift now, but at the time, it just seemed obvious and necessary.

[ Key to Success ] Integrity

I'd always been politically minded and would always post letters, articles, essays about what I felt was going on in the world. I would always back them up with great writers like Tom Friedman, people that I respected so that people could go and find out where these ideas came from. So I didn't really suffer the backlash that the Dixie Chicks did, just because I approached it in a different fashion. But yeah, I've always been outspoken, and luckily have not had my head chopped off.

Recently, you've also talked about your medical problems. You've shown a lot of courage in that too, and it has helped a lot of people. If you had a message for women who might be afraid to get a mammogram, what would you say?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Sheryl Crow: There's nothing scary about a mammogram. For me, I have no cancer in my family; I am a very unlikely candidate to have cancer. I'm fit. I take pretty good care of myself, and just the routineness of going and having a mammogram is what caught my cancer. I think you err on the side of safety when you go in and get a mammogram. It's not painful. It takes a half hour out of your day, and it definitely, in my mind, saved me from having a much worse situation on my hands than what I wound up having. Really, my message is just about early detection, because there are women, like myself, who wouldn't be able to detect anything with a self-examination. It's difficult to pinpoint the smallest of cancers, which is what I had, even with a mammogram. So in my mind, there's never any reason to not get a mammogram.

What does the American Dream mean to you?

Sheryl Crow: I think America is an amazing place to grow up, because you have so many possibilities.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I'm from a small town. I have small town ethics. I feel like a little kid still from Middle America, and nobody ever told me that I couldn't do something. I felt like I had the biggest safety net from people in my hometown who were constantly saying, "If you work hard, you can have what you want," and I think that's what America is founded on. It's founded on the right to observe whatever religious beliefs you have. It's based on the possibility of being great, of finding yourself, of making money, of making an impact. It's a pretty amazing idea that you can grow up in a place where you're being handed a ticket that you can write yourself, to take yourself anywhere in this country and to speak your mind and to educate people and to really just create your own dream and live it.

[ Key to Success ] The American Dream

Thank you so much for talking with us today.

Sheryl Crow: You're welcome.

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