Sheryl Crow doesn't want to be "great".
Sheryl Crow
The 'All I Wanna Do' hitmaker insisted she has always wanted her music to be viewed as "important" and respected than be embraced by the "cool kids".
She said: "My idea for music was that I didn't want to be great. I wanted to be important. I wanted to write important music, and so, when you start having a music career and you're certainly not one of the cool kids, but you're embraced by the older class - I was just like, 'Wow, I can't believe these people know me.'
"As hokey as it might sound, I still feel really humbled by that."
The 55-year-old singer released her debut album, 'Tuesday Night Music Club', in 1993 but had recorded an entirely different record the previous year, only to scrap it because she felt it was too "soft rock" and didn't portray her in a way she felt truly represented her work.
She told Rolling Stone magazine: "It just wound up being a really soft-rock-sounding record. And I am never soft rock.
"And I just felt like, if I turn this in and this is my introduction, I did not stand a chance. You always have one introduction. You get one first impression."
Sheryl began her career performing covers in bar bands and she thinks it is a great education for any aspiring singer/songwriter.
She explained: "I tell every kid, get in a cover band. It teaches you chops, it literally teaches you why some songs are classics, and it teaches you how to navigate a working band.
"With songwriting, there's something to that idea of stealing from the best. You're only as good as your references. And I pride myself on my references.
"I have tried to emulate the greatest rock stars and songwriters in the world. I try not to steal verbatim, but if they've influenced my work at all, I take a sense of pride in that."
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