“There was a moment where I actually really felt very afraid…,” Crow said of the scary incident. “It doesn’t feel safe when you’re dealing with people who are so committed.”
Sheryl Crow is getting real about being a progressive in Tennessee.
In a new cover story for Variety, the “All I Wanna Do” singer opened up about a scary incident that happened after she sold her Tesla in protest of Elon Musk using DOGE to slash what she considers essential government services.
“This feels different, because when I came out against Walmart carrying guns [in a 1996 song], not everybody was armed — and certainly I didn’t live in Tennessee, where everybody is armed,” Crow explained. “So yeah, there was a moment where I actually really felt very afraid: A man got on my property, in my barn, who was armed. It doesn’t feel safe when you’re dealing with people who are so committed.”
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Living in Tennessee brings with it its fair share of challenges for Crow, who has lived in the southern state for nearly 20 years after re-locating from Los Angeles following her breast cancer diagnosis and split from Lance Armstrong.
“Tennessee is a hard place for me. I mean, I struggle. I call my representatives [in Congress] every single morning — Andy Ogles and Marsha Blackburn hear from me every day — because we have to stand up and be vocal and fight for the future for our kids … I do think, ‘Are they laughing?,” she admitted. “But it’s like what Jimmy Carter said: As long as there’s legal bribery, we won’t ever have fair elections. So we have to keep raising our voices and showing up to these organized rallies.”
As for what prompted her move to Tennessee in the first place, Crow said having family there helped, but her battle with breast cancer was really the thing that influenced her decision to move down south.
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“We all have those moments in our life where we have to pivot. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, and I moved here in 2007. I think having come out of a relationship [with former professional cyclist Lance Armstrong] where I thought I was gonna be married and was close to the kids that were gonna be my step kids, then got diagnosed—all three of those things made me reassess,” Crow shared, “I just looked at it and thought,’ I want to put down roots; I want to have a family.’ My sisters live here, and my family all lived within three hours, and I just decided to start phase two.”
And it’s where she truly started her life, continuing to make music while adopting two boys, Wyatt as a newborn in 2007, followed by his little brother, Levi, in 2010.
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While Crow has continued to make music over the years, she’s cut back on her time on the road to spend it with her kids — though she has plans to return when their both out of the house.
“I’m too selfish to want to miss any time with them; I feel like my 18-year-old was just born, and he’s gonna be leaving for college in a year,” Crow told the outlet. “But once they’re both out of the house, I’ll go back to work full time, because I have an acute connection to joy when I’m playing.”
As for how she feels she fits into the music industry today, while the landscape has changed, Crow said she feels at peace with her part in it.
“I feel happy. I feel at peace. There isn’t that ‘Oh my God, I gotta write a hit song,” She said. “Even if I wrote a hit song, it wouldn’t get played! So now I just wanna write music that feels like I’m glad I wrote it.”
