Sheryl Crow

The singer-songwriter on her all-star new album, her future, and why Woodstock ’99 was her worst live experience

The singer-songwriter on her all-star new album, idolizing Emmylou

Harris, and the failures of Woodstock ‘99.

‘It 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 Kristofferson, 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 welldeserved 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 studio with 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 Harrison’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 different 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 sobering way that I didn’t want to put my voice on it. Johnny is untouchable. I had a big conversation 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 portapotty 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 saying 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.