Cheryl Crow returns to the winding road to fame in a new documentary Music

Earlier, Cheryl Crow believed that documentaries were intended for celebrities who died in plane crashes, not for singers who are active.

She hesitated when outsiders expressed the idea, and then realized that “there is no textbook on how to become famous if you are really a private person from a small town.”

Sitting behind “Cheryl,” the Showtime documentary that airs May 6, was emotional, exhausting and, “ultimately, very enjoyable”.

In addition to talking about music, Crow talks about the first redheads of success, reaction and, ultimately, the struggle to stay on the hunt.

“In my business, I’ve experienced all the sexism that could be experienced, but that’s probably just because of how destructive ageism is,” Blood says in an interview with Zoom. “Art has always been associated with commerce, but not like it is now. The fact is that a few people are extremely rich, and this is on the backs of artists, especially women who sell this image of perfection and sexuality.

Crow says she felt the pressure of time when she turned 40. “It really affects you.”

The best now

Now, at 60, “I’m writing my best work. Knowing that because of my age it just won’t play … demoralizes. Now I have something to write about. I feel free in my work because I don’t think about how to compete with young people. I have accepted aging, and in a sense it is liberating. But at the same time, I want women to know that you should not be thrown to the sidelines or forced out of the swing just because your face is imperfect and you do not have edible implants.

While Blood, by her own admission, was a “good girl” and received a degree in music education from the University of Missouri, she had a desire to make her way into business. Armed with tapes, she moved to Los Angeles and bought her music. “I thought if I saturate the city, someone would hire me.”

She got a job, but didn’t get that golden ticket – until she heard other singers talking about auditions.

“I broke off the audition because I thought the worst thing they could do? They may say, “Go home.” And they didn’t do it, and I got it. “

A concert? Michael Jackson’s backing vocalist on his “Bad” tour.

“He was a wonderful man, but also … very damaged. This is someone who has been famous since childhood. He wasn’t going to be a normal person like me.

“I came out of this tour, feeling that I felt that few people would have the opportunity to experience – to witness such greatness, to witness such a flow and get an education, how it all works in one fell swoop. It was fantastic and extremely scary for everything that went with it. “

Succeed

When her own success came, Blood wasn’t sure how to handle it.

After winning an entire Grammy Award in 1995, we boarded a bus and drove to San Francisco, and the next night played like never before. I don’t know if this combination of Puritan work ethic or denial has allowed me to point this out. And that’s how I’ve been navigating most of my career. In fact, it was only after I had breast cancer that I had to meet myself, sit and hold in my hands everything that I thought made me who I was. ”

Today, Blood says she is calm about the idea of ​​becoming an “heritage” artist.

“I really felt like one of those performers who ended up in classic rock,” she says. “I think I play a lot at Whole Foods or Home Depot. I, for example, have great music for shopping. ”

Blood’s two sons (ages 11 and 14) actually say little about her work and probably wouldn’t have said, “if I hadn’t done a duet with Post Malone or Ariana Grande”.

Instead, she focuses on the people who come to her.

“When‘ All I Wanna Do ’came out, we hadn’t been out for a year before this song won a Grammy and really put us on the line,” she says. “And then I had to tour for another year and a half. We started reworking this song and making it fun and cool, but people didn’t want to hear it that way. And it was a very big lesson for me. People want to hear it the way they hear it on the radio. ”

Now that she’s playing hits, Blood says she’s playing them with “complete gratitude. I look into their eyes when I play them because I know it’s not commonplace when a song is played on the radio and becomes a soundtrack in people’s lives. For me, it was the reason I did what I still do in 60 years. ”

“Cheryl” begins May 6 on Showtime.