1987-1989 Sheryl Crow

Sheryl, 26 June, 2009


Sheryl Crow toured with Jackson for two years in the late ’80s, and she was one of the people lucky enough to get to know the personal side of Jackson. “I did a couple of duets with him. He reached out to me on a couple of occasions and invited me to come up to his hotel room to watch movies,” she recalled. “A big room with a couple of bodyguards and us throwing popcorn across the room at each other. He was just very childlike and loved to practical joke … very childlike and innocent and then he’d walk out onstage and you’d see this magnetic, very strong artistic talent up there.”

Sheryl, Time Magazine, 2009


I have so many memories of him pranking me onstage. Our quick-change tents shared a side, and as we were rushing to change our wardrobe in between songs, invariably, a grape or a carrot would come rocketing over the top at me. I could always hear him giggling through the wall. He rented out amusement parks a lot. I remember riding a swinging-pirate-ship ride with him somewhere in Germany, and because we were the only ones on the ride, he wouldn’t let the operator stop the ride, as I got sicker and sicker. He thought it was hilarious! When we were in Tokyo, I got a call from him at night inviting me to come to his hotel, where we watched Amos ‘n’ Andy shows. He laughed and threw popcorn the whole time. My most beloved memory, however, was watching him perform “Human Nature” every night from the side of the stage. There was something so genuinely vulnerable in his voice on that song, and watching the freedom with which he danced, doing the moves he invented only made me more keenly aware of the greatness I was blessed to be witnessing.

Sheryl, her website, July 7 2009
http://www.sherylcrow.com/blog/


I’ve been thinking about my time with Michael Jackson a lot lately. It is hard for me to put into words how important that time was. How life-changing. How very defining a time it was for me and what a turning point it would become. I will never be able to look back on the career I have had and not be grateful to Michael Jackson for giving me my first shot.

From the BAD Tour came my most important relationship in my career and certainly the best friend I could ever have. Scooter, my manager for nearly 2 decades, worked as the liaison between Michael and the sponsor, Pepsi. He was the one person who expressed his belief in my talent and invested in me from that time forward.

But, the most major impact working with Michael, or Mike, as we all called him, was Michael himself. I cannot begin to express the magnitude of the talent embodied in this individual. When Mike would come into the room, the molecules would change. He was seemingly not of this world and in one of the few conversations I had with him, I believe he felt he was not of this world. Or, if he was of this world, he could not quite figure out how to fit into it without having the impact that he had.

My fondest memories are not of the faux passion we shared during the duet, “I just Can’t Stop Loving You” or the flirting during “The Way You Make Me Feel,” but the moments I stole watching him perform “Human Nature” from offstage, doubling him on the high notes. His delivery of that song, his gravity-defying moves, were beyond regular. His talent were truly art. And, surreal, in the truest sense of the word. I can call up the amazement as if it was yesterday.

Other moments, like singing harmonies of “Rock With You,” “You Are My Lovely One,” “Startin’ Something,” almost gave him the appearance of being normal. But, he was anything but normal. And, while I got to stand close enough to get a glimpse into what was not so normal about this singing/dancing/iconic sensation, nothing any of us ever think we knew about this person should ever overshadow what made him special and what drew us all in from the moment he came on the scene as a small boy.

I will not be at the memorial today for a number of reasons. I am in the middle of doing some tour dates that have me in the Midwest but more than that, the spectacle of it all has nothing to do with the gratitude that I feel this magnificently, unique talent graced this world for a moment in time. The hoopla cannot begin to compete with the memories I got to experience on an intimate level. Although Mike might love what is going on today in his honor, I, like so many other people who loved him, will continue to quietly rejoice in the knowingness that his soul is at peace.

God Bless Michael.
July 13, 2009

Sheryl, CBS News, July 7 2009
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/13/earlyshow/leisure/celebspot/main5155031.shtml


Crow recently shared some of her fondest memories of performing with the “King of Pop” in her blog.

“I like to call it magic. It’s really overused where he is concerned, but I like to call it magic and I got to watch that magic every night,” Crow said.

Crow pointed out that Jackson was an innovator whose work can not be replicated.

“Originality is something that we just — we can’t define it because it’s something we’ve never seen before,” she said. “In my line of work now, where you try to find the next Alicia Keys or the next Britney Spears, or the next or the next or the next, something that’s already familiar that we know is going to sell.

“He was different than that. He was the original. He was the first guy. He was the guy that created those moves. He was the guy that created that sound.”

Although it’s still hard to accept that the “King of Pop” has died, Crow admitted that she didn’t foresee Jackson becoming old.

“I’m sad to see that he’s gone, but I could never figure out how he was going to survive becoming old. I just never could see how it was going to play out,” Crow admitted.

“You had that thought already?” Smith asked.

“Always, I could never figure out. Is this person going to be able to stand this world for that long you know? He was so fragile and really otherworldly,” she said. “I had a great working relationship with him and got to see him in more intimate moments and got to spend some quiet intimate times with him, but did I get to know him? I don’t think anybody ever really got to know him.”

Jennifer Batten, Sawf News, 5th March, 2010
http://www.sawfnews.com/Entertainment/62954.aspx


The Bad Tour wound up in January 1989 and the group disbanded. In later years Sheryl Crow, a backing singer on the tour, would make several disparaging remarks about Jackson during interviews publicizing her own material. She said he was a diva, never bothering to learn people’s names.

Batten refutes this. “I think singers in general are just nuts and ultra-sensitive. One night Michael called Sheryl ‘Jennifer’,” she giggles, “and I know that pissed her off. But it’s like, so what? I mean, you got the biggest gig in the world and it’s not like Michael was unaware of who was onstage with him. We were with him for a friggin’ year and a half.”