Back in 2017, Kyle Meredith With... was the place where Sheryl Crow declared Threads would be her final album. “I wonder how long it’ll take her to change her mind,” Kyle joked at the time. Turns out, the answer was about six years.
Crow is back with Evolution, and she sat down to talk about the unexpected creative spark that led to her first full-length album since she supposedly retired from album-making. “I want to say that it was AI that said I wasn’t going to make another record,” she laughs. “And yet there was no AI then.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer explains that during the lead-up to her induction, she found herself writing songs again—about AI, about Nashville, about everything that was on her mind. Calling on producer Mike Elizondo, Crow says she stepped back from her usual hands-on approach and let him build the sonic world around her demos. “I needed my mind to be blown,” she admits. “And I can’t do that for myself.”
The result is a sweeping, cinematic album that feels both grand and intimate. “The first time I heard Evolution, I started crying,” she says. “There’s fear in that song, and overwhelmingness, and then there’s that moment where it strips down to just the voice and ticking. That’s our vulnerability in the cosmos.”
From there, she covers a lot of ground—songs about learning to let go (Where to Be Free), the nature of love (Don’t Walk Away), and even a bratty “F-you” song (Broken Record), which her band didn’t know what to do with. “I played it for my band, I played it for Jeff, and everyone was like, ‘Ehh.’ But I sent it to Mike and he was like, ‘Let me at this.’”
At this point in her career, Crow doesn’t worry about chasing hits. “I’m not gonna write songs for 20-year-olds, and I’m not gonna write songs about sex,” she jokes. Instead, she focuses on making music that means something to her—whether it’s heard by millions or not.
And yes, she’s bringing the new songs on the road—including dates with P!nk. Will we see her joining P!nk in mid-air acrobatics? “I can do a cartwheel,” she laughs. “That’s where I’m at.”
Kyle, for one, is just happy she changed her mind.
Watch the interview above and then check out the video below.
