Sheryl Crow on What the Word ‘Freedom’ Means to Her

“Freedom means the ability to let everyone be authentic," she says. "I look at Dolly and think, what a beautiful example of somebody who just wanted to make people’s lives better"

From touring with Bob Dylan and spending quality time with Dolly Parton to being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, even Sheryl Crow can’t believe the arc of her career. In a new episode of Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast, Crow talks about how her life experiences, and her mix of apprehension and hope for the future, informed her new album Pick You Up, which includes a collab with Jesse Welles titled “Freedom Bus.”

So, how does Crow define “freedom”?

“Freedom means the ability to let everyone be authentic and celebrate that, and want what’s best for them,” she tells Rolling Stone. “I look at Dolly and think, what a beautiful example of somebody who just wanted to make people’s lives better.”

Crow acknowledges that freedom and other words have been co-opted for divisive purposes. They’re trigger words, she says, and they’ve even infiltrated country music.

“There are words we use against each other to create sides: ‘fake,’ and ‘woke,’ and ‘patriot.’ The word ‘patriotic’ and ‘patriot’ really is offensive to me. Because I feel very patriotic about my country, but I’m not a conservative. I’m a middle-of-the-road pragmatist. But [patriotic] is used for one category of people and it’s used against others and I take offense with that.

“I am hoping that we will evenutally become politically savvy enough — all of us — to know that when a word is used against somebody, it needs to be investigated as to whether that word is a dual meaning word.”

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Pick You Up drops Friday, Oct. 9. Crow will support the album, and play selections from her catalog of hits, during a summer 2027 stadium tour opening for Kenny Chesney and Eric Church. She talks about how she’ll approach a mainstream country crowd on Nashville Now, and also opens up about her friendship with Olivia Rodrigo, who sang for Crow at a recent awards banquet in Nashville. Watch the full episode below.

Download and subscribe to Rolling Stone’s country-music podcast, Nashville Now, hosted by Deputy Editor, Head of Country Joseph Hudak, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). New episodes drop every Wednesday and feature interviews with artists and personalities like Shania Twain, Shaboozey, Vince Gill, Lainey Wilson, Ashley McBryde, Brothers Osborne, Maggie Rose, Hardy, Charley Crockett, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Kings of Leon, Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, the Black Crowes, Braxton Keith, Carly Pearce, Amy Grant, Luke Grimes, Brandon Lake, Breland, Bryan Andrews, Noeline Hofmann, Adam Mac, Aaron Raitiere, Devon Gilfillian, Gavin Adcock, Amanda Shires, Shooter Jennings, Margo Price, Michaela Anne, Ink, Ne-Yo, Rival Sons’ Jay Buchanan, Halestorm, Dusty Slay, Lukas Nelson, Ashley Monroe, Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, Clever, Love on the Spectrum’s Tyler White, Willie Nelson scholar John Spong, and authors Marissa R. Moss, Josh Crutchmer, Mark Gray, and Jonathan Bernstein.