Sheryl Crow Says She Dug Deep To Make Authentic Documentary About Her Life

From the stage, while on the road, and in those quite moments of life, Sheryl Crow has seen a lot.

The musician, who has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide and has won nine Grammy Awards, says of her career, “I’ve seen a lot of things change. I’ve also seen a lot of things not change very much at all. And to navigate running your career, running a business, and being a woman in what ostensibly is a business run by men, there is no handbook for that, and there is no handbook for becoming famous when you’re a really private, small‑town person.”

While she’s been in the industry for over three decades, Crow admits she’s been reluctant to tell her personal story, saying, “I’ve been asked over the years about doing a documentary. I’ve always felt like documentaries were told after someone has already gone. I just didn’t feel like it was time for me or for my story to be told.”

But, at the urging of others, she’s relinquished, “It was my manager, who’s been with me from the very, very beginning, which is 30 years now, [who] said, ‘Look, you have a powerful story. You have grown most of your life in the world of music and in the world of being well known for that and you have a story to tell and it’s time for you to tell that story.’”

So, Crow agreed to sit for what she describes as hours and hours of interviews, and open up about her life, for the 90-minute film entitled simply Sheryl.

The experience was, according to Crow, ‘emotional, exhausting, and ultimately, really gratifying.’

“There’s also a certain amount of letting go,” she says about the process. “I was handing off a whole lifetime of experiences to somebody who I pretty much could count on to handle it with not only taste but also a vision for what was important.”

She’s speaking about working with Sheryl director Amy Scott.

While collaborating with Crow, Scott reveals, “I was never nervous because I felt like Sheryl and I had a really, very intense line of communication and understanding without constantly having to communicate. So, I felt free to create what I wanted to make.”

It was during those intense interviews that Crow says Scott was able to, “really dig deep. She would listen and pull more and pull more. And I do think that if you’re going to make a documentary, you have to be able to listen and to make someone feel like what they’re saying matters to them.”

Ruminating on some of the difficulties of being performer, Crow says, “I mean, I think I can speak for a lot of artists that feel like they’re impostors all the way. Every time I walk into the studio, I wonder if I’m ever going to write a great song. I wonder if I’m ever going to write a song.”

She adds, “But, I think, in some ways, one of the things that’s really helped me through that is that music has been a lifeline for me. Just being able to go sit at the piano and find the intervals and the chords that helped me express how sad I felt or how kind of discombobulated I felt — that’s still where I go. I go to that place where I feel like it’s that thing that changes the molecules that gives me a way out.”

She says that she tries to explain this feeling to young artists. “I tell [them] all the time, ‘Those songs are the gifts that give you the opportunity to write the stories about who you really are.’ For me, there’s pieces of me in every song that’s ever made it.”

With the documentary, Crow says this is, “the first time that people will get an opportunity to have a better picture of who I am.”

Overall, Crow admits that she feels great about how Sheryl came out. “I feel like the story is authentic and unique and honest. It’s painful at times. It’s uplifting. It’s hopeful. And, hopefully some young person [is] going to watch this and go, ‘wait, I’m in a small town. I don’t feel like I’ll ever get out of this place, and yet I have this gift that is pulling me towards putting myself out there.’ Hopefully they’ll watch this and go, ‘it’s possible.’

‘Sheryl’ premieres Friday, May 6^th at 9e/p on Showtime and is available for streaming on Showtime.com.