The Singer-Songwriter Talks About What She's Learned Over a Rough Year
Sheryl Crow told ABC News' Diane Sawyer about how she beat breast cancer and heartbreak and came out stronger.
Sheryl Crow is one of those celebrities who seem much the same onstage and off.Many fans see the rocker from Kennett, Miss., as a down-to-earth girlfriend who's easy to relate to.
Many more women can relate to the 44-year-old now that she's a breast cancer survivor.
Crow told Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America" that she's fully recovered and feeling great. "I actually feel the best I've felt in years," she said.
Crow was diagnosed with cancer in her left breast in February. It was a total surprise. She isn't a smoker and doesn't have a history of breast cancer in her family.
Luckily, the cancer hadn't spread to her lymph nodes. The singer underwent a lumpectomy and a course of radiation that wiped out the cancer.
"Radiation was all that was required. It was seven weeks, five days a week, and not kind of a long process. You'd go in -- and literally eight [minutes] or 10 minutes long," Crow said.
"But over a course of seven weeks, you become fatigued and the breast becomes tougher and more painful and looks sunburned. And mostly what I experienced was fatigue".
Friends, Fish and 'American Idol'
In many ways, Crow was lucky. Weeks before, she and her boyfriend of two years, cyclist Lance Armstrong, had announced their separation.
"I was tired a lot," she said. "And also I was going through, you know, obviously, the trauma that I was going through before I was diagnosed. And so, all of it culminated at the same time and really forced me to just work my way through all of it."
Crow said she talked to Dana Reeve, who died of lung cancer in March, and she told her the only way to go through grief was to grieve.
"And so. … That's just kind of what I did. I mean, I just sat with it and just worked my way through it."
She meditated and changed her diet.
"I kind of went into a full-on Eskimo diet, where I ate a lot of salmon. In fact, I'm salmoned out of my brains, but just really eating a lot of omega-six, instead of omega-three, and really green vegetables, just eating really clean, organic food. … Listen, I haven't had a doughnut in I can't remember when."
Crow surrounded herself with her parents; a group of women, including Courtney Cox, Laura Dern and Jennifer Aniston; and others.
"I had this incredible tribe of women just descend upon me and carry me through the whole experience on their backs," she said. "And also my family took shifts coming out." For the first time in a long time, she sat around and watched TV, including "American Idol."
"You know, I was rooting for Elliott [Yamin] the whole way," she said, with a laugh. "I'm still mad as a hornet he didn't win."
Wants Kids Soon
Her first concert back a few weeks ago was not just a performance for her old fans.
"I have so many people walk up to me who are just so much younger than me that say, 'I survived breast cancer' or 'I'm battling breast cancer, and it's all around us,'" Crow said.
She tells other women to be vigilant about getting mammograms and self-examinations.
"It's all about early detection, to find out what your family history is, because if you are 26 and you have it in your family, it will matter, so get a base-line mammogram and just follow it every year," she said.
What might this rock star, celebrity and survivor say to the Sheryl Crow just starting out, before the hit records and high-profile relationship?
"Try to at least address my fears and not be overcome by that," she said. "[The] fear of things not always working out. You come to a point in your life where you realize it's not my job to prove to my parents or to my record label or to the world or to my lover that I matter. The fact is is that you matter."
"It's not a good place to be concerned with always being right with everybody, always pleasing people, because ultimately you wind up betraying yourself a lot."
As for the future, Crow said she was looking forward to having kids at some point, finding a strong relationship, and continuing to make music.
"I do think I'll have kids. [Whether] … I adopt or whether it's my own, I really have a strong feeling that I will. And I think it will [be] sooner than later," she said. "And the idea of marriage, I love that idea. But I think what I love more is just being with somebody who really creates space for you and gets you."
Crow said she wanted to hang on to her newfound wisdom.
"I think I'm like all new cancer survivors," she said. "You fear that this heightened awareness is going to go away and that you're going to forget everything and you're just going to go back to the loser you were before or whatever, you know."
"And what I've realized is that all these experiences are deepening experiences. And they are -- they are the moments where obstacles are removed and opportunities come in."
Rocker Sheryl Crow says joke was meant to draw attention to global warming.
It all started with a joke.
Wrapping up a nationwide global warming tour, singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow posted a quirky "solution" online about a new way to save the environment. She wrote: "I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting."
She told the joke to get people's attention, and it worked. Talk show hosts had a field day with Crow's comments.
"Have you seen my [backside]?" Rosie O'Donnell joked on "The View."
"It seemed like Sheryl was trying to be a little bit cheeky, no pun intended," said Michelle Lee, executive editor of In Touch weekly.
Maybe Crow was inspired by her ecoactivist partner Laurie David. After all, David's husband, Larry David, of "Seinfeld" fame, wrote the famous episode where Elaine says to a neighbor in the next bathroom stall:
"Three squares? You can't spare three squares?"
"No, I don't have a square to spare. I can't spare a square," the woman responds.
Meeting Karl Rove
Crow wanted to clear the air about her comments.
"We're just so happy that people are talking about global warming, even if it's brought on by a joke," Crow told ABC News.
And for Crow and Laurie David, their message is everything.
They just wrapped up a successful cross-country ecotour of 12 college campuses to raise awareness about global warming.
The two started the trip in an environmentally friendly biodiesel bus at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and ended the tour on Earth Day at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
At George Washington, they joined musicians Faith Hill, Tim McGraw and Carole King and environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who performed and spoke before a crowd of about 2,000 people.
Crow and David also talked with top White House adviser Karl Rove at the White House Correspondents Dinner Saturday night.
"How excited were we to have our first opportunity ever to talk directly to the Bush administration about global warming," Crow and David wrote on the Huffington Post blog.
"Much to our dismay, he immediately got combative," they said, "and it went downhill from there."
"We're definitely gonna be back," David said. "We haven't finished. This is something that's gonna be around for a long time."
“Shine Over Babylon” is a brilliant song. Sheryl Crow is reunited with producer Bill Bottrell (‘Tuesday Night Music Club’) and the mix and the instrumentation on the track is great and it’s very well produced. The chorus is infectious, the verses are welcoming and the song as a whole gives me that feeling of wanting to “do something exciting” when I hear it. I like the way Sheryl is singing on the track - her slightly delayed or syncopated style phrasing along with the vocal effects are cool.
In a short video clip of Sheryl in the studio recording “Shine Over Babylon”, she says that the song was “inspired by what’s going on politically and what’s going on socially around all of us…an end of the world song, but with hope”.
Lyrics Shine Over Babylon I walked the heat of seven hills Endless talk of losing wills Great highways in a constant melt Men and women and children all have overbuilt
Buying bread and paying for none Creatures of a waning sun Teacher's hands are overrun Clowns and gypsies have all but gone
You make me wanna Shine over Babylon You make me wanna Shine over Babylon
Freedoms etched on Sacred pillars Hollow stones of mindless filler Can lead to madman oil drillers Won't be long before we all are killers
Little boy lost way up the mountains Cities drowning under boiling fountains I dreamed of chilly, sunlit days I was trembling in a golden haze
You make me wanna Shine over Babylon You make me wanna Shine over Babylon
Celebrate the golden cow Praise the bloated bank account If there's a god where is he now The precipice is slipping further out
Sanskrit message from the mounts Leave your possession, hope abounds There's nothing here for you to cry about We're all just followers from here on out
I take the stage, I walk the planks I sing these songs with little thanks I wait for shouts from crazy cranks I stand amidst the brown shirt ranks
I found my way to alexandria Where gurus bubble up on gangea Scavengers, they run up and hand ya All the junk that should have damned ya
You make me wanna Shine over Babylon You make me wanna Shine over Babylon
If everything in life was free You'd float in your own reverie The things that you could never see seal the gap between you and me
You make me wanna Shine over Babylon You make me wanna Shine over Babylon
Way back in the year of 2017 The sun was growing hotter And oil was way beyond its peak When crazy Hector Johnson broke into a refinery And the black gold started flowing Just like Boston tea
It was the summer of the riots And London sat in sweltering heat And the gangs of Mini Coopers Took the battle to the streets But when the creed was handed down For no more trucks and no more cars They threw cans of petrol through the windows at Scotland Yard
Gasoline Will be free, will be free Gasoline Will be free, will be free
When the Mounties stormed the palace of the Saudi family They held them up for ransom Without disturbing their high tea But their getaway was shaky They stalled in the Riyadh streets Cause you can't make it very far When your tank is on empty
The final can of gasoline was loaded on a truck And driven through the streets of Agra to the palace aquaduct You see, all the majesty of worship that once adorned these fatal halls Was just a target to the angry As they blew up the Taj Mahal
Gasoline Will be free, will be free Gasoline will be free, will be free
Gary ran a market way down in Tennessee Where all the farmers got together and talked about this great country But when the government turned its back on farming Man, what I hear They dragged the pumps out of the ground With a big vintage John Deere
I've got soldiers on my payroll Standing guard on my front drive Snipers on the roof poised at those Who don't want me alive Cause they audited my taxes My family under threat Cause I've got a message and a megaphone And I'll scream it to the death
Gasoline Will be free, will be free Gasoline Will be free, will be free
You got the farms in Argentina Making fuel from sugar cane You got the bastards in Washington Afraid of popping the greed vain Cause the money's in the pipeline And pipeline's running dry And we'll be the last to recognize Where there’s shit there’s always flies
"Most Honest Record"
Sheryl Crow has successfully navigated around some serious detours over the past two years, and she has the record to prove it.
Interscope has announced that the nine-time Grammy winner's new album, Detours, is due out Feb. 5
"This is the most honest record I've ever made. It's about being forced to wake up," Crow, 45, said in a statement.
Crow says the album is "very inspired by the last three years of events in my life," a period that, among other things, saw her engaged to and broken up from Lance Armstrong, wage a successful battle against breast cancer and adopt a child.
This will be her first collection of new material since 2005's Wildflower and it reteams her with Bill Bottrell, who produced her breakthrough album, Tuesday Night Music Club.
"When Bill and I got together again to work on this record," Crow wrote on her blog, "it was such a cathartic and comforting moment."
In March 2006, just a month after Crow and Armstrong split, the singer was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent successful surgery and made a full recovery.
This past May, Crow announced that she had become a single mom, adopting a baby boy she named Wyatt, after her father.
Meanwhile, Crow endured a professional setback when she was forced to scrap the inaugural GirlFrenzy festival. The one-day event, masterminded by Crow, Avril Lavigne and Fiona Apple, was to include an all-female lineup and take place in Irvine, California. No reason was given for the postponement, but organizers said they hoped to reschedule for 2008.
Recorded at Crow's Nashville farm, Detours will feature "14 or 15" tracks, including the lead single, Shine Over Babylon (currently available on iTunes) and "Lullaby for Wyatt," dedicated to her son and also showcased in the John Cusack film Grace Is Gone.
Other cuts include "Love Is Free," "Peace Be Upon Us" and "God Bless This Mess."
Crow will debut some of her new material during upcoming TV appearances. She is slated to perform Dec. 6 on CNN's Heroes and Dec. 21 on CBS' A Home for the Holidays.
To start at the beginning, what was your childhood like in Missouri?
Sheryl Crow: I grew up in a really small town that is typical of towns in the South. Kennett, which is where I grew up, sits right on the Arkansas, Tennessee, and Missouri border in "the Bootheel." So typically, we are considered to be South, because we are south of the Mason-Dixon line. A very quiet town, kind of revolved around a town square with a courthouse. Very old-fashioned, right in the Bible Belt, mostly farmers, predominantly farm land, cotton, soybeans. God-fearing people, and it's remained pretty much intact, with the exception of Wal-Mart coming in and the downtown kind of falling apart. It's pretty much the same as it was when I was growing up. Everyone knew everyone. My parents knew all my friends. All my friends' parents kept an eye on me. It just was a very strong community and still pretty much is that way.
How did your folks happen to be there? What did they do?
Sheryl Crow: My parents grew up about 28 miles from there, on the Mississippi, in a town called Caruthersville. They both went away to school and came back. My father got a law degree and got a job in Kennett, which was very close. They still live there, after 51 years of marriage.
Was there a lot of music in your house?
Sheryl Crow: A lot of music.
My parents both studied music, and my dad, actually, I think his great, great love was really for music first, but it was just not a career that his parents wanted to see him go into. So he studied it for a year. I think he's kind of a savant, because he played concert pieces and had only ever taken one year. So he and my mother both really, still, have an incredible love and appreciation for all different kinds of music. They played everything from Ella Fitzgerald to James Taylor on the Magnavox, and they also played in a swing band when I was a kid.
What instruments did they play?
Sheryl Crow: My father played trumpet, and my mother played piano and sang. They played standards. On weekends, they would bring all their friends home after their gigs and stay up smoking and playing records, drinking. It was just what I thought every kid grew up with.
Were you a serious student in school?
Sheryl Crow: I was one of those kids that was able to do the minimum for the maximum. Grades came easily to me. Studying came easily to me, and I enjoyed school, but my forte really was the arts. Loved music, always found my identity in music. I realized about at age four, I could play by ear. So while I was studying music, I was also getting away with playing stuff off the radio, and I kind of knew what direction I was going in.
Did you find it hard to learn classical pieces from printed music when you could play by ear so well?
Sheryl Crow: Yeah. We joked about it in my family all the time. All four of us kids took piano lessons, and three of us actually went on to major in classical piano. I was one of them. I could listen to my mother or my piano teacher play the piece and then play it back. I really wasn't the best classical pianist in my family. I was definitely the least serious about it.
Isn't it hard to really work at something when it comes that easily?
Sheryl Crow: It is, especially if you can just hear it. So I came away from college having retained very little of my classical training. I made it all the way through school and made good grades and loved classical piano, I could figure it out and play it, but then it would go away.
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.
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?
Is it true that you crashed that audition for Michael Jackson?
Sheryl Crow: I did. Yeah.
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.
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.
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. "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.
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." What does the American Dream mean to you?
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?
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.
Compaing against cancer
Sheryl Crow: Cancer changed my music
January 12, 2007
(CNN) -- In 2006, rock singer Sheryl Crow underwent minimally invasive surgery for breast cancer.
Sheryl received an excellent prognosis from doctors and is now trying to raise awareness about the disease and the need for early detection, which she thinks made a big difference in her case.
In October, CNN.com invited readers to send their questions to Sheryl Crow about her battle with breast cancer.
Sheryl answers your questions below.
QUESTION: Hope you are feeling OK. I am just beginning my chemo. How did you feel after your first chemo? And then on a day-to-day basis? Katie Smith, Upper Marlboro, Maryland
CROW: Dear Katie, I was so lucky. My cancer was caught early enough that I did not have to undergo chemo. I had a lumpectomy and seven weeks of radiation. I have met many cancer patients who have or are going through chemo and it seems to vary with each patient and what their individual treatment is. Hang in there.
Q: I would like to know if you used a holistic approach in addition to your medical treatment. Reason I ask is because I hear so much of holistic modalities being part of recoveries, but I am not yet convinced that they work. I wish you the best and my prayers are with you and all women battling the cancer nightmare. Pauline Elvidge, Georgetown, Massachusetts
CROW: Dear Pauline, I remember when I was first diagnosed and I was deep into doing research on what it meant to have cancer and what I could expect from my treatment. I called a great friend who is one of the top guys at the Lance Armstrong Foundation and asked what he thought about seeking holistic treatment in conjunction with my radiation. His response was, "If your doctor isn't open to that, then you have the wrong doc." In fact, it was my surgical oncologist who recommended I check out the Tao of Wellness, where I supported my treatment with acupuncture as well as herbal teas. The idea is to fortify the immune system. I say why not?
Q: Hello Sheryl. I was also diagnosed with breast cancer at age 47 but I had the "works" -- surgery (mastectomy), chemo, then radiation. I was wondering what type of treatment you had and what stage was the cancer? I had stage III-A. I see you still have all of your hair! Hope you are doing well. From one of your "sisters" in Louisiana. Judy, Denham, Louisiana
CROW: Hi Judy, I hope you are doing well. You sound like you have the best attitude! Yes, I was so blessed that my cancer was caught in the earliest of stages by way of my yearly mammogram. I underwent a lumpectomy and 7 weeks of radiation. I am a walking advertisement for early detection.
Hope you are somewhere out of the flooding of Louisiana! I love it there!
Q: I am wondering if there was any history of breast cancer in the women in your family or did this totally come at you out of the blue? I am faithful to get mammograms every year, but I am always so nervous about the results. My mom has had breast cancer so it makes me even more afraid of being diagnosed myself. Stay strong and positive. Leslie Eberwein, Rolling Meadows, Illinois
CROW: Well, Leslie, the only cancer in my family was colon cancer in 3 of my maternal great uncles and my mother's half-sister died young of breast cancer. Although my oncologist didn't think that was a strong tie, my message to all is to get your yearly mammograms and know your family history.
Q: Hi Sheryl. What can I say to a friend who has just learned that her breast cancer has returned? I know she must be terrified.... Corinne, Jackson, New Jersey
CROW: Hi Corinne, I think encouragement always goes a long way. I found that when I was going through my treatment that I only wanted those around me who were positive and uplifting. There are so many incredible stories of recovery out there and the treatments are getting better and better. Its is so scary, especially for someone who has already been through it once, but having the positive support of loved ones is invaluable.
Q: Can you comment on how the United States or individual states can do more to provide early detection services to people who cannot afford mammograms or other preventive services? Thank you and I hope you are feeling well. Keep making music! Maureen Grady, Williamsburg, Virginia
CROW: Hi Maureen, That is a great question. My treatment was upwards of $150,000 and that was with no chemo. I became so focused on what women who are low-income or uninsured do for treatment that I have been doing research on all of the places where a woman can get a free mammogram. Those places exist and soon I hope to have a list on my Web site.
Q: I'm also a breast cancer survivor. I know that you know all too well that's a diagnosis no one wants to receive. I'm just wondering about your treatment. Was it surgery and chemo or surgery and radiation? For me, in addition to the traditional methods, I also sought much needed strength from my religious faith, which I believe makes all the difference. What do you think? Michele Campbell, Washington, D.C.
CROW: Hi Michele, I'm so glad to hear you are doing well. I have stage one ductal carcinoma in situ cancer. I had a lumpectomy and radiation. I think faith is so important. Being diagnosed with a possibly life-threatening disease is so jarring and for me to know that God had me in his hands, I never felt alone.
Q: I was diagnosed with breast cancer about one year ago. I went through aggressive chemo and radiation. So far so good. However, I seem to have daily thoughts about getting cancer back. How can I overcome these thoughts and try to live a happy life? Nancy Lyon, Whitehall, Wisconsin
CROW: Dear Nancy, I so hear you! It crosses my mind every day that perhaps I got off too easy and that somewhere in my body is a radical cancer cell. I think the important thing is to understand that having those thoughts is going to be a part of living for a while. But, the objective is to go for it in life....move forward with normal life and try to stop and recognize that happiness exists inside of you every day...to really recognize it and celebrate it.
Q: Looking back, do you feel that you had any symptoms that you could attribute to the cancer, but at the time either ignored or overlooked? Chase, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
CROW: Hi Chase, I have very dense breasts. I have never been able to find anything in my self-examinations so I have always relied on my yearly mammograms to tell me what's going on. I had calcifications turn up in both breasts and in both breasts, the calcifications looked to be forming what looked like to be suspicious patterns. When the radiologist suggested I come back in six months to look at the calcifications, it was my ob-gyn who suggested I not wait but go ahead and be biopsied.
Because I had no signs or symptoms, I feel compelled to encourage women to know your family history and to make sure and get yearly mammograms, particularly if you have dense breasts.
Q: After undergoing all of your treatments and thru the initial diagnosis, what would you say is the biggest change you've found within yourself and how has it affected your outlook on life? Barb Brennan, Victoria, British Columbia
CROW: A lot of breast cancer survivors I've spoken to attest to having a similar experience. The idea that metaphysically the breasts represent nourishment and that there is a connection with breast disease and a lack of nourishment, whether it be allowing others to nourish or lack of self-nourishment, is one that strikes me. For me, it was a time of awakening to the idea that perhaps I had not allowed other people to take care of me but instead had always put everyone else and their needs before me and my needs. It is a trap a lot of women fall into because by nature we are nurturing beings. Now, I am conscious of checking in with myself to make sure I am doing only things I want to be doing and not worrying about everyone else. A big change for me!
Q: What is the best thing that you can say or do to help someone go through his or her ordeal with cancer? My mom has breast cancer. Sometimes I feel like if I try too hard to be there for her I would be smothering her or making it seem like I think we don't have that much time together. In the back of my mind I want to make the best of whatever we have left together, be it 5 or 40 years. I just don't want to make it uncomfortable. Steven Sampson, Douglasville, Georgia
CROW: Hi Steven, That is such a good question. I think for me it was just comforting having people who love me nearby. It is difficult to understand the experience unless you are going through it yourself, but to be there, available to listen, to talk, to just sit, to be in the next room, to cook, to do little things, etc., is invaluable. I think what most people going through illness want is to feel that life is as normal as possible, at least that was my experience, and to know that when you want your loved ones there, that they are there, and when you need space that they understand but will be nearby.
I think it is as hard for those in the support position as it is for those going through the treatment. You feel helpless and scared. Hang in there....
Q: My friend was diagnosed with breast cancer in April. Since then, she's undergone two surgeries and is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment. She's a very independent woman and I believe it is challenging for her to be in a situation where we all want to help her. How do you suggest we support her without overdoing it or "babying" her too much? Rebecca, Sparks, Nevada
CROW: Hi Rebecca, Steven just asked a similar question. Hopefully, it will be helpful to you.
Q: I can only imagine what a diagnosis of breast cancer does to one's emotional state and I hope that your recovery will be complete and that you will have no recurrences. I wanted to ask you how having cancer has impacted your choices for your future, personally and professionally. Have you reached that stage of enlightenment that we should do the most with the time we've been given? Please accept my best wishes for continued good health. Diane Sambor, Antwerp, Belgium
CROW: Hi Diane, I do feel there was a colossal shift in my life when I was diagnosed. My situation was interesting in that I was also going through a lot of personal upheaval and the experience really dictated that I show up for myself in ways I had never done before. I am a person who typically tries to take care of everyone, needs to be right with the world, etc. It is my nature and it is not a particularly healthy way to live because at the end of the day, you wind up at the bottom of your list of those you take care of.
I am very conscious now of only doing the things I want to be doing. I am aware of the fact that sometimes no is the answer, no matter how hard it is to say. And, I guess the biggie for me is knowing that it will never be my goal to prove to anyone that I matter.
These are big concepts for me but I am compelled to let these new ideas inform the way I live from here on.
Q: Your life being in the spotlight, as it is, how do you deal with such a personal thing? Do you have an inner circle of friends and family that you fall back on for support? Finally do you think your experiences you've had with your illness will influence your songs? Steve Morris, Florence, South Carolina
CROW: Hi Steve, Man, I had the most wonderful support around me at all times. My mom and dad were with me as well as my brother and two sisters and their families. Everyone took shifts coming out to LA to be with me. I also had my longtime college girlfriend, my manager, and a wonderful flock of women here in LA around me. I was very comforted. My mom made 12 different kinds of soup and my girlfriends took me to radiation. It was, overall, a very heartwarming experience.
I think everything about what I went through physically and emotionally will definitely, for better or worse, wind up on my next record. Yikes!! May not be a light pop album!
Q: I recently read your interview in Vanity Fair and was so impressed by your integrity and stamina. I just read a report yesterday that stress has been linked to ovarian cancer but there have been no causal links demonstrated between breast cancer and stress to date. Do you feel that stress may have contributed to your development of stage one breast cancer? I would also like to ask, do you think there is enough being done regarding awareness of cancer, breast cancer in particular, and what more would you like to see done (i.e. programs, educational efforts)? Catherine, New York, New York
CROW: Hi Catherine, I have to believe that stress is not good, period. There is a pretty goofy movie called, "What the Bleep Do We Know," and it talks about the fact that the cells operate at their fullest capability when we are relaxed and positive...that the cells actually change shape when we are stressed. It is my belief that disease is a breakdown in physiology and what has to be determined is, if we all walk around with cancer cells, it is at which point that the cells begin to change shapes or start to form patterns that really matters. What is causing our immune system to stop working at its highest potential? What is causing the cells to mutate, to multiply, etc.?
I think there are amazingly great advances being made in cancer research. I've met so many amazing doctors who are impassioned and convicted about finding a cure. Just the advances that have been made in the last few years regarding gene research as well as effective treatment are encouraging. We are past the time when the mastectomy is the only solution. It has only been in the last 20 years that lumpectomy and radiation/chemo became a viable option to having the entire breast removed.
Q: What are your thoughts about treating cancer holistically? Organic foods/diet? Did you use any of these alternative means to improve your health and rid your body of the cancer? Nick Giammusso, Williamsville, New York
CROW: Hi Nick, I believe anything that can be used to support the immune system is valuable. I went to a wonderful Chinese doctor at the Tao of Wellness in Santa Monica and received acupuncture as well as herbs. I also met with a nutritionist who specializes in wellness. I completely changed the way I eat. I am very conscious about what I put into my body. I eat all organic, clean food, a lot of fish, colorful vegetables, etc.
Sheryl Crow Biography Award-Winning Singer and Songwriter
Sheryl Crow Date of birth: February 11, 1962
Sheryl Suzanne Crow was born in Kennett, Missouri, a small town in the southeast corner of the state. Although her father was a practicing attorney, both he and her mother were enthusiastic musicians who played in a swing band on weekends. Her mother also taught piano and insisted that Sheryl and her siblings study piano from an early age.
Sheryl, too, was drawn to a musical career from an early age. While she earned a music degree, studying classical piano at the University of Missouri, Columbia, she played keyboards with a local cover band and was already planning a career as a professional songwriter. After graduation, she settled in St. Louis, where she taught music to autistic children, and sang with a local band. She also recorded advertising jingles for local businesses and learned her way around the recording studio.
At 24, Sheryl Crow was ready to make the move to Los Angeles and break into the big time. Her thorough musicianship and St. Louis experience won her more work recording jingles, but she was a long way from the goal of recording her own songs. Her first break came when she was hired as one of Michael Jackson's back-up singers for a world tour supporting his album Bad. She received extra attention when she was featured in an onstage duet with Jackson, then at the height of his popularity. Touring the world with the era's biggest star was a heady experience for the girl from Kennett, but the two years' experience with the King of Pop gave her the credibility to pursue a recording contract of her own.
To her frustration, record companies could only envision her as a big-haired singer in the 1980s dance-pop mold, not at all the career she was looking for. She was in steady demand as a session vocalist, recording backup vocals with Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart, Foreigner, Joe Cocker, Sinead O'Connor and Sting. After recording with former Eagle Don Henley, she joined Henley's touring band for a year. Her contacts as a singer also helped promote her career as a songwriter. As more producers heard her demo tapes, her songs were recorded by established artists including Wynonna, Celine Dion and Eric Clapton, who became a personal friend.
After she worked with producer Hugh Padgham as a session vocalist, Padgham was impressed enough with Crow and her songs to help her secure a record contract with A&M Records. Unfortunately, the resulting record was not at all to Crow's taste. The production emphasized heavily arranged ballads, steering Crow away from the earthier sounds of classic rock and country that were nearer to her heart. Rather than make her solo debut with an album that misrepresented her authentic musical personality, Crow asked A&M to shelve the record altogether.
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At the end of her 20s, near the cutoff age for a career breakthrough in the youth-oriented music industry, Crow found herself with a contract, but no record, fearful that she had burned her bridges irreparably. At the invitation of friends, she joined an informal collective of musicians who met at a Pasadena recording studio on Tuesday nights to try out songs and hone their chops. Crow felt artistically renewed in this collaborative atmosphere and approached A&M Records with some of the material she'd recorded with her new friends.
The resulting album, Tuesday Night Music Club, hit the stores in 1993. Although Crow was pleased with the record, it was slow to attract attention. The industry gave it a second listen after the song "Leaving Las Vegas" was featured in a popular film of the same name. A&M decided to release one more single from the album, "All I Wanna Do," in the summer of 1994, nearly a year after the record was initially released. This song, with its irresistible chorus, "All I wanna do is have some fun, and I've got a feeling I'm not the only one," became the inescapable hit single of the summer.
At the 1995 Grammy Awards, Sheryl Crow received one trophy as Best New Artist and another for Best Female Rock Vocal for "All I Wanna Do." The song itself was named Record of the Year. Now the whole country was paying attention. Tuesday Night Music Club sold more than 7 million copies, and Crow and her band were playing all over the country.
After concluding her first tour as a headliner, Crow set about putting together a second album. Some of her previous collaborators had become alienated by the attention heaped on Crow as lead vocalist, and she took on the task of serving as her own producer on her second album. Knowing that she alone would be responsible for the success or failure of this record, she titled it Sheryl Crow. Overcoming the traditional "sophomore jinx" that plagues so many artists' second records, Crow came up with an even more compelling collection of songs than her first. The singles "If It Makes You Happy," Every Day is a Winding Road," and "A Change Would Do You Good," became major radio hits in 1996, and brought Crow a second Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal, along with another for Best Rock Album.
The following year, Crow wrote and performed the title song for a James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies, joining the long line of artists, like Paul McCartney, who had enjoyed singular success with songs for the perennial movie franchise. Crow's third album, The Globe Sessions, was named Best Rock Album at that year's Grammy Awards, and like its predecessors, sold millions of copies. Crow was an enthusiastic supporter of other women musicians, producing records with older artists like Stevie Nicks, and supporting younger ones like Sarah McLachlan and Michelle Branch. In 1999, Crow put on a free concert in New York's Central Park, with many of her new friends and some of her oldest musical heroes. Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Chrissie Hyde, The Dixie Chicks, Nicks and McLachlan all joined Crow onstage. The show was broadcast as a television special and brought Crow another Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal for the song "There Goes the Neighborhood." She won yet another Best Female Rock Vocal Grammy for her version of the Guns and Roses song "Sweet Child of Mine," heard on the soundtrack of the film, Big Daddy.
Her 2002 record, C'mon, C'mon, was another platinum smash, and the hit single "Soak Up the Sun," like several of her hits before it, became a fixture on rock radio. By this time Crow's every move, from her hairstyles to her fashions to her personal life, was subject to intense scrutiny by the news media. She used her celebrity to draw attention to causes she believed in, supporting the Senate candidacy of Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan, and speaking out against U.S. military involvement in Iraq. Crow released a collection of past material in The Very Best of Sheryl Crow, an enormous success that also included a new hit single, her version of the Cat Stevens song, "The First Cut is the Deepest."
In 2005, she released a new collection of songs, Wildflower. Something of a departure from the good-time rock anthems that had made her famous, the songs, many crafted with string arrangements, were more introspective than her previous work, reflecting her new-found interest in meditation. Early in 2006, shortly after the end of a highly-publicized engagement to champion cyclist Lance Armstrong, Crow was diagnosed with breast cancer. The cancer was detected early, and after minimally invasive surgery and a short, precautionary round of radiation therapy, she appeared to have recovered completely. By the following spring, she had resumed public performing and was on tour supporting her album. Surviving this health ordeal appeared to have brought her new peace of mind, and she took to the stage with undiminished energy. Sheryl Crow's millions of fans can expect her to continue composing and performing for many years to come.
