Sheryl Crow is defending herself after she was perceived to have taken a dig at Taylor Swift, calling out critics for pitting women against each other rather than supporting them both. The controversy began after Crow shared her thoughts on Swift’s current drama surrounding her master recordings during an appearance on Bravo’s Watch what Happens Live, where she was asked about the situation.
“I’m gonna be honest with you,” she told host Andy Cohen. “I live with my head in a big hole. I stay out of that world. … I will say one thing about masters. I signed with a record label 30 years ago and within five years it became owned by Interscope, and then Interscope got bought by Universal… 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. So I don’t know what the big stink was. I’m out of the loop. I don’t really know.”
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On Thursday, Sept. 12, Crow, who recently signed with Big Machine, posted a video responding to the negativity she had received after making her comments.
To those who thought I was downplaying @taylorswift13’s masters changing hands, I chose the wrong word. I should have said I don’t know what the situation is instead of the word stink which sounds extremely negative. I have total respect for Taylor & always wish the best for her. pic.twitter.com/2uJ6ow7qDC
— Sheryl Crow (@SherylCrow) September 12, 2019
“Hi. I’m kind of under the weather today,” she said in the clip. “But it’s been brought to my attention that some people think I was negative about Taylor Swift on the Andy Cohen show, and that was taken totally out of context. To be honest I don’t usually 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.”
“You know, I totally support Taylor,” Crow continued. “I think she does great humanitarian work, she’s outspoken politcally, and she’s an awesome songwriter. So all the stuff about the masters, I don’t know what her situation was. I know my masters have changed quite a few times. But I wouldn’t weigh in on what her situation is, because I really didn’t know. So for all you guys out there that think that ‘stink’ was a negative word, it was totally a wrong word choice. So, moving on.”
Swift’s issues with her master recordings began after Scott Borchetta, sold Big Machine Label Group to talent manager Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings for a reported $300 million in June. After the sale was reported, Swift published an open letter on Tumblr in which she wrote that the situation was her “worst case scenario” and that she had “pleaded” for a chance to own her masters. Big Machine has said there were negotiations for a deal of the sort and Swift has denied that any took place.
The 29-year-old signed with Big Machine when she was 15 and released her first six studio albums with the label, meaning that Big Machine controls all of her master recordings prior to her most recent album, Lover, which was released under Swift’s new deal with Republic Records.
In a recent interview with Good Morning America, the “You Need to Calm Down” singer confirmed that she will be re-recording her masters beginning next year.
Photo Credit: Getty / Gary Gershoff
