She has more than 40 years as a professional musician and singer–songwriter under her belt.
But Sheryl Crow’s veteran status in the music industry — resulting in 50 million albums sold and nine Grammy Awards — didn’t stop her from appreciating how Taylor Swift has attempted to take control of her recordings from early in her career.
‘I look at what Taylor Swift has done and think, “She’s a powerhouse,”‘ the 62-year-old Missouri native gushed in an Esquire article she penned titled, What I’ve Learned.
‘You and you alone are responsible for your art,’ she opined in the piece, which was published online on Thursday.
The Strong Enough star was enthused about ‘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.’
She was referring to Swift’s courageous decision to re-record her first six studio albums in a move to completely own her own music, which also doubled as a form of protest.
Sheryl Crow, 62, heaped praise on Taylor Swift, 34, calling her ‘a powerhouse’ for taking action to take back ownership of her own music by re-recording her first six studio albums. The pop superstar is re-recording her early catalog after Scooter Braun and colleagues bought her old label Big Machine Label Group for $300M
The seeds of the huge endeavor where planted in 2019, when Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings company bought Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine Label Group, which was Swift’s former label, for $300 million.
Though the purchase came with the help of a private equity firm — which Swift publicly opposed — it essentially made Braun the owner of all her original studio albums: Taylor Swift (2006), Fearless (2008), Speak Now (2010), Red (2012), 1989 (2014) and Reputation (2017).
After learning of the sale, Swift stated she had tried to buy her masters, but Big Machine had allegedly only offered her unfavorable conditions, presumably to keep her from jumping to a bigger label.
Swift knew Big Machine would sell her albums to another entity, but she apparently did not expect Braun, whom she described as an ‘incessant, manipulative bully,’ to be the buyer.
Borchetta maintained that Swift declined an opportunity to purchase the masters, though she never denied that and said his alleged offer came with too many strings attached.
‘The reason I’m re-recording my music next year is because I do want my music to live on. I do want it to be in movies, I do want it to be in commercials. But I only want that if I own it,’ the pop superstar explained in an interview with Billboard in 2019.
She went on to say the decision felt like she was ‘regaining a freedom and taking back what’s mine.’
‘When I created [these songs], I didn’t know what they would grow up to be. Going back in and knowing that it meant something to people is actually a really beautiful way to celebrate what the fans have done for my music.’
Swift says the decision to re-record her first six albums felt like she was ‘regaining a freedom and taking back what’s mine’
In November, Crow was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame during the 38th annual ceremony at the Barclay’s Center in the Brooklyn; pictured November 3
To date, Swift has finished re-recording four of the six albums, which have included expanded deluxe edition tracks, unreleased From the Vault tracks and rarities.
Swift marked four out of four rereleases to date topping the Billboard 200 albums chart with the October 2023 release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version).
Dubbed Taylor’s Version, the project kicked off with the rerelease of Taylor’s second album, Fearless, in April 2021, that was followed up by a new version of her mega-selling Red in November of that year.
Two years later, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) dropped in July 2023, followed by 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in October 2023.
The run of re-releases was particularly impressive, as Swift also released four new studio albums during that time period: Lover (2019), Folklore (2020), Evermore (2020) and Midnights (2022), with a fifth, The Tortured Poets Department, set to be released on April 19.
Now that four re-recordings are in the can, Swift only has her debut and Reputation left to complete her promise to do her first six albums.
By re-recording, Swift is technically covering her own songs as new recordings, resulting in new masters she now fully owns, giving her licensing control.
The Pennsylvania native now has the distinction of having 13 studio albums reach number one on the charts.
Swift’s net worth is estimated by Forbes and Bloomberg News to be a whopping $1.1 billion as of October 2023, making her the first musician to achieve billionaire status ‘solely based on her songs and performances.’
In November, Sheryl Crow was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame during the 38th annual ceremony at Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn.
Making the special moment even more impactful, the songstress got to share the experience with her two adopted sons: Wyatt, 16, and Levi, 12.
In a surprise announcement around the time of her induction, Crow revealed she was releasing her twelfth studio album, Evolution, on Friday, March 29, which is her first since 2019’s Threads.
Following the release of Threads, Crow had planned for it to be her last, which could be a reaction to the fact that modern artists tend to sell significantly fewer albums compared to decades past due to file sharing, while streaming is far less lucrative for performers.
Over the course of her career, which began in 1987, the songstress has released 11 studio albums, that translates to more than 50 million albums sold
Crow became a bonafide rock star with the release of her debut studio album, Tuesday Night Music Club (1993), which included six hit singles like Leaving Las Vegas and All I Wanna Do
Crow has new studio album, Evolutions, out on March 29, after previously announcing that she ‘was done with it’
Crow explained why she went forward and wrote and recorded her twelfth studio album, Evolutions, after saying Threads (2019) would be her last; she revealed she couldn’t deny the music and lyrics that came from ‘a deep soul place’
In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), she wrote, ‘This music and these lyrics came from sitting in the quiet and writing from a deep soul place. I said I’d never make another record, thought there was no point to it. But this music comes from my soul. And I hope whoever hears this record can feel that.’
Ahead of the Evolution, Crow released the four singles Alarm Clock, Evolution, Do It Again and Digging In The Dirt.
Her many hit songs include, All I Wanna Do, If It Makes You Happy, Soak Up The Sun, My Favorite Mistake, Every Day Is A Winding Road, There Goes The Neighborhood, The Difficult Kind, I Shall Believe, Light In Your Eyes, A Change Would Do You Good, Home, Steve McQueen, Leaving Las Vegas and Strong Enough, among others.
Over the course of her career, which began in 1987, she has released 11 studio albums, that translates to more than 50 million albums sold.