Ambitious men are praised.. we get called b*tches
EXCLUSIVE
Sheryl Crow says she has faced sexism in the music industry throughout her long and successful career. The 60-year-old nine-times Grammy Award winning singersongwriter, who has sold over 50 million records worldwide, says driven women are treated differently to men with big career aspirations.
She says: “It’s that ambition thing – when a man is ambitious that’s a good trait, when a woman is ambitious she’s a b*tch. That’s one of the reasons that in America we don’t have a female president.
“This problem with, ‘Well, she’s too ambitious, she’s not likeable’. We’re inching forward but enough already. That’s been something I’ve certainly suffered throughout all of my career.
“Being called a perfectionist is such a dig – when really it’s something to aspire to.”
The star, who rose to fame as a backing singer on Michael Jackson’s 1987 Bad tour, also spoke of the sexual harassment she says she suffered from his manager Frank Dileo, who died in 2011.
She was 25 when she joined the tour and says he promised to make her famous but threatened to destroy her career if she spoke out.
She told Spandau Ballet star Gary Kemp and session bass player Guy Pratt on their Rockonteurs podcast: “I remember exactly where I was. We were all sitting around in this giant hall and Frank came over and pointed at me. He said, ‘Remember this moment, you’ll never have it again’.
“No one on the tour knew what had been going on. That was the day it had come out all over the tabloids that Michael Jackson’s manager had been fired for supposedly harassing the back-up singer. I hadn’t gone public, no one had, that I knew of. It was a very dark time and it made me lose faith in the whole thing.”
The singer, who went on to have hits including All I Wanna Do and
The First Cut Is The Deepest, spoke out about her experience when the #Metoo movement gained momentum five years ago.
She said: “We’re at least being taken seriously when we have these stories. But 30 years ago, you were vilified.”
But she said sexism is still an issue, adding: “For me now, being in a business that’s revolved around looking
perfect, as a woman you enter an ageist moment – no matter what business you’re in. It’s amplified in the entertainment industry.”
Sheryl, who dated Eric Clapton and Owen Wilson in the 1990s before a brief engagement to cyclist Lance Armstrong, now lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with two adopted sons.
Rockonteurs, every Sunday. See www.rockonteurs.com for details. The documentary Sheryl is out soon.