Sheryl Crow lied to us.
In 2019, he told All Things Considered She was releasing one last album – threads – Then his album was finished. He called the format “a dying art form”.
On March 29, 2024, he released a new album, Development,
“I know, I know, I can’t trust what comes out of my mouth next,” she shot back. morning edition Host Debbie Elliott. “I didn’t intend to put out a full-length album. It still feels like a playlist of new songs. So that’s what I’m going to call it: A playlist of new songs by Sheryl Crow. How’s that?”
Here are some highlights from the conversation about Crowe’s new “playlist.”
On the inspiration behind his new songs
It started with a really deep conversation about AI and what it would mean, not just for artists but what it would mean for our humanity. I think it was the advent of the Beatles using John Lennon, and soon after that, George Carlin was being used with a new comedy routine that someone wrote and used his likeness. It felt very, very dangerous and very challenging for me as an artist to know that my voice could be put into someone else’s work, and a program could write Sheryl Crow songs. But it goes deeper than that. It’s really about truth and how do we recognize what the truth is and are we even interested in the truth? This is where – as a mother who has lived most of her life without technology – this is where the mother and the artist come into contact with each other. I found myself just writing an artistic download that ended with me performing these new songs.
On the song “Broken Record”, which criticizes social media
That song was actually in response to the hate I got for speaking out about the Covenant shooting, which was right down the street from us in Nashville. I think because of texting and social media, we’ve gotten so carried away with this idea of ​​empathy, we need to remember that the words we say – whether you know a person or not – can be hurtful. All things should be based on intention. My intention is this simple: Gun control doesn’t mean the government coming in and taking away people’s guns. My intention is to try and find a way to make my children safe. And instead of acknowledging the intention, there’s a lot of “shut the fuck up and sing.” I mean, just some pretty ugly stuff. And so this song is really guided by something my mom told me when I was a kid: “It’s as easy to be nice as it is to be stupid.”
On the song “Alarm Clock” – and the challenges of being a touring rock star and teen mom
I miss taking my kids to school. One of my children is 16 years old now and he takes his younger brother to school. But, you know, every morning, get out of bed at 6:15, pack lunch, make breakfast, make sure everybody’s got everything, get in the car, drive her to school. And back home I finally drank my second cup of coffee and felt a sense of accomplishment: Okay, I did it! I sent my kids to school!
It’s weird when you think, well, you Were A rock star. And when you were there there were still mornings reach home At 6:15, and now you’re on the other side of it. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything. But I don’t love mornings. Not even my 13 year old child. So we’ve always said, man, I hate my alarm clock. So I decided, you know, there’s a song in it.
On the inspirational song “Love Life”
There are times when I think: I will remember this moment. Actually, last night I was playing basketball with my kids and the basketball bounced off the wall and came back and hit me straight in the head. And we all love cockroaches on our backs, we were laughing so hard. And I remember thinking, I’m going to look back at this moment.
I think you reach a certain point in your life – it’s like the song says, “We’ll just look back.” You reach an age where you start trying to list all the moments you want to remember, because when you’re young, your whole life is in front of you and you think about it. It will never end. Then as you get older, you realize that time flies fast, you know? Especially when you’re raising kids and you start counting down the summers, like, how many more summers do I have with my kids? That’s really what the song is about: stopping for a moment and accepting and living in that moment.
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