Sheryl Crow Has Strong Feelings About Taylor Swift
In 2019, Taylor Swift took to Tumblr to explain that she would re-release her own version of past albums. The lengthy post detailed that her former record label, Big Machine Records, had sold the master recordings for her first six albums to Scooter Braun without her knowledge or consent. Several people who share close friendships with Swift, like Selena Gomez, Halsey, and Gigi Hadid, publicly supported her. Meanwhile, some of Braun's big-name clients, like Demi Lovato and Justin Bieber, stepped up to his defense.
Amidst all the drama there was Sheryl Crow, who had signed on to Swift's ex-record label in February 2019. When the "Soak Up The Sun" singer weighed on the issue on "Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen," she seemed to have taken her new employer's side. Crow explained that the sale of masters was a common practice in the music industry, and she had witnessed it firsthand with her work and wasn't too bothered by it.
"I don't know what the big stink was," she said of Swift's case. However, the Grammy winner also noted that she wasn't too active online so she wasn't familiar with the nitty-gritty of the "Blank Space" hitmaker's situation. As backlash started pouring in, she took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to clarify her statements. "I totally support Taylor. I think she does great humanitarian work, she's outspoken politically, and she's an awesome songwriter," she said. The tweet explained that hindsight helped her understand that "stink" wasn't the most appropriate word for the situation.
Sheryl Crow believes that Taylor Swift's decision to re-record is a stroke of genius
In Sheryl Crow's X post addressing her comments about Taylor Swift, she explained that when she used "stink," she meant to equate it to "situation" instead of something shady. The "All I Wanna Do" singer also noted that her statements about the masters were indicative of her experiences and not a reflection of what she felt about Swift's situation, because she wasn't aware of her perspective.
Just a month before the misunderstanding, Crow had called out Kid Rock on X when he made a disgusting and sexist comment about the "Shake It Off" singer and shamed her for being a Democrat. She urged her past collaborator to use his platform to bring more good to this world instead of filling it with negativity. The mother of two went on to praise Swift's decision to re-record her masters in her March 2024 Esquire interview. "I look at what Taylor Swift has done and think, She's a powerhouse," she gushed. "The fact that she came up with solutions for how to not allow her music to be a moneymaker for other people when she should be owning it."
It seems like Crow isn't the only fan of Swift in her home. Speaking to USA Today in 2024, she shared that one of her two young sons asked her if she had been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame because she had reached Swift's level of success in her heyday. Crow explained, "There was nothing — no machine or anything — that could make anyone that big."
Sheryl Crow and Taylor Swift have expressed similar thoughts about the music industry
During a March 2024 chat with Stellar, Sheryl Crow discussed Taylor Swift's unparalleled success. The "Real Gone" songstress explained that as a newcomer to the music industry, she found it difficult to find a woman in a position of power. So, she was impressed by how female artists like Beyoncé and Swift had managed to garner record-breaking success despite being in an industry that was jam-packed with male executives.
When Crow sat down with MSNBC a few years earlier, the interviewer played a clip from Swift's "Miss Americana" documentary where she explained how record executives had conditioned her to be timid so she wouldn't dare to be outspoken about her political views, but she eventually broke out of it. She agreed with Swift's statements and felt happy that she was using her influence to strive for a positive change in the world.
The two singer-songwriters have also been on the same page about growing older in the music industry. In Crow's 2020 Glamour interview, she admitted that people could only catch her on the classic rock channel on the radio, explaining, "By the time you're 40, you're not getting played on pop radio anymore because you're too old." Likewise, in Swift's "Miss Americana," she noted that society's interest in female artists steeply declined when they started going through their 30s, which left them out of a job. "As I'm reaching 30, [...] I want to work really hard while society is still tolerating me being successful," she said, per PopSugar.