Big Machine Label GroupSheryl Crow‘s been making music long enough that she actually became eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year. But Sheryl is surprised that anyone believes she’s actually a rock musician at all.
“It never occurs to me that I would even be considered a rock artist. Most people think I’m lightweight,” she tells Billboard. “Eighty percent of my catalog is not the pop stuff — but the big hits are.”
“I have a pretty low image of myself, mainly because when I first came out I was totally shunned by my peers…because what I was doing was much more rootsy,” she explains. “You either liked me or you didn’t, and it wasn’t cool to like me.”
“The people who wrote me off way back then have never liked me,” she adds. “As a result, they don’t know that I have anything other than pop hits.”
Speaking of rock, Billboard also asks Sheryl how it feels to be associated with Kid Rock, with whom she recorded one of her biggest hits, “Picture.” Sheryl’s a die-hard liberal, while Kid Rock’s a Republican who’s palled around with President Trump.
“All I can say is that it is an incredible journey being a human being,” she says, dodging the question.
But Sheryl does have a message for people who take issue with the fact that she’s outspoken politically.
“All the people who say ‘Shut up and sing,’ on my social media, they’re not going to make me stop or change my mind,” she declares.
Sheryl’s new album Threads, featuring guests like Stevie Nicks, Eric Clapton, Sting, Keith Richards, Joe Walsh and James Taylor — all of whom are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, by the way — will be out August 30.
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