Biographie

Sheryl Suzanne Crow was born on February 11th, 1962 in Kenneth, Missouri. Her parents, Bernice and Wendell Crow, played piano and trumpet in a jazz band. Sheryl has a brother (Steve) and two sisters (Kathy, Karen). Kathy sang in "The Difficult Kind" the back ground vocals and her father the trumpet in "We Do What We Can".

At the age of 5, Sheryl started playing piano (the Crows had 3 pianos at home), and at 6 she could play songs only listening to them. At 13, she directed the school choir at the Kenneth High School and wrote her first songs. At this time she played in a high school band called "Cashmere", like a Led Zepplin Song.

As a teenager, she spent a lot of time with the music of Bob Dylan, but he wasn't her only idol: "I was one of those kids who danced in my own bedroom and spun my own 45s and imagined I was someone else." - "Who?", asked the Q Magazine. "Christine McVie! I was a big fan of hers. And Elton John...".

Sheryl graduate from University of Missouri with a music degree (music composition, performance, teaching). She then teached for two years in Saint Louis autistic children music . 1986 she moved to LA, hoping to put her foot into the music business. She performed in bars and smaller clubs. By accident she learnt of a casting for Michael Jackson's BAD tour. "It was supposed to be on recommendation only, but I just showed up. They were videoing everyone, so I just said, Hi, Mike! I'm Sheryl from Missouri. I'd sure like to go on the road with you. And that was it. They sent the video to him and he saw it, called me back the next day, I sang, and I got it. He must have looked at me and thought, Ah, she looks completely harmless; she looks like she just got in off a truck out of the country or something...". During this 18 months, singers like Sting and Stevie Wonder for whom she later wrote several songs, discovered her singer talent. After the BAD tour she worked with people like Sinead O'Connor and Celine Dion.

The following two years she hoped to sign a contract and suffered of deep depressions. A therapy set her up again and she was invited to join the Tuesday Night Music Club. The song writing for Eric Clapton, Wynnona Judd, and Lisa Lisa & Cult finally motivated her to start her solo career. The was singing for records of Don Henley, Foreigner, Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart, Sting and toured with some bands and musicians. She was for example with Bob Dylan on stage at the "30th Anniversary Celebration at Madison Square Garden". At Tuesday Night Music Club played as well David Baerwald and David Ricketts (as well known as "David + David" with the hit "Welcome to the Boomtown", 1986), Kevin Gilbert, and Brian McLeod (who played with "Wire Train" and "Tears for Fears"). After one year she had recorded enough songs for an album. The CD was recorded (see discography/album). During an interview on TV she made a big mistake that split the band. Being asked if "All I Wanna Do" was autobiographic she answered yes despite the fact the all members had been written the song. Sheryl actually just wanted to express that the song expressed the best what she had experienced in her life in the past.

During the war in Bosnia, Sheryl visited US troops and sang for them. The stay at the front line inspired her for the song "Redemption day". She is never afraid of expressing clearly her opinion like the song "Love is a good thing". The lyrics "Watch our children, while they kill each other with a gun they bought at Wal-Mart discount stores" caused Sheryl a law suit. Wal-Mart suit her for unloyal defame and remove her CDs from their stores. The court declared her not guilty!

"'All I Wanna Do' was actually the throw away track of my album. It was one that wasn't going to go on my album. I've actually felt that way about a lot of my hits, they were all throw away tracks and well... here I am."

Sheryl-fan.de
Philipp Seela