UPDATE: Sheryl Crow wants to set the record straight. In a video posted to her Twitter on Thursday evening, Crow responded to those under the impression she was “downplaying” the drama surrounding Taylor Swift‘s master recordings.
“To be honest,” she said to the camera, “I don’t generally weigh in about other celebrities because I don’t keep up with celebrity news. So when I said I didn’t know what the stink was about, I meant I didn’t know what the situation was about.”
Crow continued, “I totally support Taylor. I think she does great humanitarian work, she’s outspoken politically and she’s an awesome songwriter. So all of the stuff about the masters, I don’t know what her situation was. I know my masters have changed hands quite a few times, but I wouldn’t weigh in on what her situation is, because I really didn’t know. So for all of you guys out there that think that stink was a negative word, it was totally wrong word choice. So, moving on…”
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Sheryl Crow doesn’t understand what all this fuss is about.
During an appearance on Wednesday’s Watch What Happens Live, the singer was asked about her reaction to the drama surrounding Taylor Swift, Scooter Braun and the ownership of her masters.
“Well, I’m going be honest with you, I live with my head a big hole and I stay out of that world,” the Grammy winner explained to host Andy Cohen. “But I will say one thing about masters. I signed with a record label 30 years ago and within 5 years it became owned by Interscope and then Interscope got bought by Universal and so these things…that’s just the way the business goes.”
“It’s totally not unusual for your masters to change hands like, 9,000, times,” Crow continued. “So I don’t know what the big stink was. I’m kind of out of the loop so I don’t really know.”
Well then, allow us to explain this “big stink.”
Earlier this summer, had acquired the Big Machine Label group and, with it, Swift’s music, a notion that made her “sad and grossed out.” Coincidentally, Crow recently signed to that very record label, founded by Scott Borchetta.
“For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work,” Swift wrote on Tumblr. “I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past. Music I wrote on my bedroom floor and videos I dreamed up and paid for from the money I earned playing in bars, then clubs, then arenas, then stadiums.”
“Some fun facts about today’s news: I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world,” she continued. “All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years.”
But thankfully, with a little advice from Kelly Clarkson, she’s about to get back her work.
“My contract says that starting November 2020, so next year, I can record albums one through five all over again, so I’m very excited about it,” she said on Good Morning America while promoting her seventh album Lover. “I just think that artists deserve to own their work. I just feel very passionately about that.”
And now, in the words of Crow herself, if it makes you happy!
(This story was originally published Thursday, September 12, 2019 at 5:06 a.m. PST)