Unfortunately, because I've been working on my record, I haven't really gotten to see many movies. So the last 3 movies I've been to see were . . . first, The Others, which was a scary film and I loved it. Even though the ending was similar to another movie that we all know about - which I won't blow for you - I still loved it. I thought it was really fun and really scary and kind of a throwback to the old movies that I used to love like The Omen and The Exorcist. The movie before that that I went to see was the movie with Reese Witherspoon - and I can't remember the name of it. It wasn't Election, but it was the movie where she goes off to Harvard. It was a really cute movie and had my good friend Luke Wilson in it and I had a lot of laughs. [Sheryl Crow News Note: The movie is called Legally Blonde.] And the third movie that I went to see - oh my goodness, I can't even think. Ok, those are the 2 most current films I have seen and unfortunately it's been a long time.

What were the last 3 records that you bought?

I recently went and bought the soundtrack from the Wonder Boys so I could buy the Bob Dylan song "Things Have Changed" which is an awesome song. Trina Shoemaker, my engineer is helping me to remember what records I've bought lately. I bought Doyle Bramhall II, his last record which is called Welcome, which if you don't have, I would recommend that you go get. It's a great album. I also bought the Aerosmith record, Train, Dr. Dre 2001, and Nikka Costa. And I think that covers it for right now.

What are the last 3 books that you read?

Sarah [by J.T. Leroy] which is about this guy who - I'm not sure that he actually was - but he writes about being a cross-dresser at a truck stop. Entertaining book. I read a book called About a Boy [by Nick Hornby]. I also read Tuesdays With Morrie [by Mitch Albom] which is an excellent book. If you haven't read it, you should read it!

Fans would like to know if you're going to play accordion on your next album or tour and if you've written more piano-based songs for your next album?

I'm not going to be playing accordion on this record. Mainly, I just didn't get around to it. I started playing the accordion because I was asked to do MTV Unplugged and at the time they weren't really letting me plug in, so that fulfilled the keyboard category for our Unplugged. And there are more piano-based songs on this record. I've never really written songs on the piano because I wanted to rock a little harder, and this album has more piano songs on it.

What about that alto sax you played in high school? Never again?

Yes, I am an alto saxophonist from high school and no, I'm not playing that at this point.

If you could pick one song of yours that describes you the most, what would it be?

I would have to say that "I Shall Believe" at this point in my life describes me the best because I think underneath all of the confidence, there is a person that is really always trying to reaffirm, recommit to the things that I believe in. I'm always investigating how I feel about my life and what turns it's taking. And I think that song always speaks to that.

Do you have a favorite song to perform live? What is the best song you've written?

I really enjoy performing "My Favorite Mistake." There are lots of songs I enjoy performing but I always enjoy performing that song because it's a lot of fun to sing and I always feel the way I felt when I wrote it - which is a tinge of melancholy with great memories and a tinge of sadness. And I think sometimes those feelings when performing a song really help you to connect with the audience because they're very universal feelings. I think that's maybe one of the best songs I've written. I think "Riverwide" is one of the best lyrics I've written. It's hard to say.

What do you think about people downloading rare and bootleg songs of yours?

I don't really care if people download rare and bootleg songs because those performances were given to a group of people that were there on that night and if they had any spirit about them and if it's right in the cosmos for those songs to go out and have more life, then I'm okay with that.

Everyone on the forum was amazed by your wonderful performance of "La Ci Darem La Mano" from the Mozart opera Don Giovanni that you sang with Pavarotti in Modena in 1996. You really sing opera well!

Well gee, thanks!

But the question which caused the most frequent, the most animated, and longest running discussion on your fan forum was about the dress you wore. What color was it? Between various photos and videotapes, no one knows! A name was even invented for that color, "golimellowgreen"(gold, lime, yellow, green) - the four popular colors of opinion.

[Laughs] Alright, well I think that that color might be called chartreuse. Is that the green? Okay, anyway, it was a Versace dress and it was a dress I had seen in a magazine that they had quit making like 2 years before. And I went to Versace and said "I really love this dress, will you make it for me?" And they said, "well let us do it in red," and I said, "no, no, do it in the color that was in the magazine," and it wound up being a terrible color for me. But anyway, live and learn. I can't tell you, I think it was golimellowgreen! I think that's an excellent word for it.

Any comments on the team you've assembled for the next album?

Well, there is not really a team in existence on this album. This album is full of different appearances by a lot of people. Doyle Bramhall II came onboard in the end and did a lot of guitar work for me. Of course my band - Tim Smith, Peter Stroud, Lorenza the violinist, Matt Brubeck cellist - played a lot on the record as well as Jeremy Stacey, a really great drummer who also did some programming for me. Steve Jordan played quite a lot of the drums on the record. Jeff Trott I co-wrote with some on this record, who is who I've co-written with in the past on songs like "If It Makes You Happy" and "Everyday Is A Winding Road." Mike Elizondo, bass player who works with Dr. Dre, worked with me on this record quite a lot. It was really an enjoyable record to make.

What is your favorite color?

Okay, my favorite color is - today I would have to say it's brown. Like chocolatey brown. Well, I don't know. Maybe blue. I would say blue.

How many musical instruments do you play and do you have a favorite?

I play the piano, which is my first instrument. I got my college degree in classical piano. So I play a number of keyboards. I play acoustic and electric guitars as well as bass. I play harmonica and other crazy instruments like accordion and I can actually play the autoharp. I think that's it . . . for right now.

Besides music, which form of artistic expression do you admire the most or would consider pursuing as a career?

I think besides music, I'm a huge fan of writers. I love great movies. I love movies that have a lot of content and are well written and that really explore the human character - movies like Badlands and Tender Mercies and State of Grace. I like that form of writing. I also like books that are beautifully written and are inspiring. I would love to pursue that as a career although I don't think that I have, not only the tenacity, but the kind of discipline that that requires.

How do you feel your involvement and support of various charities (Scleroderma, land mine free world, breast cancer, music education) has affected your music, you personally, your fans, and the general public? Is there anyway where fans can get information on these charities and get involved?

I think that my involvement and support for charities actually just helps my spirit. More than anything else, I don't know how much good my involvement does for different charities, except for it just makes me feel better about my life and how much has been given to me, and it's just a way of evening things out a little bit. I guess it's my karmic distribution - or my karmic offering basically. I guess in some ways who I am has helped shed some light on unknown causes like Scleroderma. It's a strange disease that attacks the production of collagen in your body. It's basically the sister disease to perhaps Lupus or Rheumatoid Arthritis. But it is fatal and I have 2 very good friends who have it and who will probably not live very long. There is no cure and actually really no treatment for it. If you're interested in knowing more about that, you can log on to my website [http://www.sherylcrow.com], which hopefully by the time you get this, will have a link up to the Scleroderma foundation website. The land mine cause really has a lot of notables who are attached to that, such as Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle and Nanci Griffith. There are just a lot of great people who are attached to it - Angelina Jolie now has kind of hopped onboard as well as Paul McCartney. I've been doing work for them for a lot of years and have actually gotten to travel to Vietnam and Cambodia. I think that has affected my music intensely because of the experiences that I have had there and because of what I've been exposed to.

In previous interviews, you've said that there were 3 or 4 pianos in your home when you were a kid, and that your mom managed all the piano lessons, usually all at the same time. Which of your siblings was the best pianist when you were kids? And who is best now?

Well it is true, we had 4 - actually we had 5 pianos in my house because at the time, my mom was teaching a pretty trendy style of piano lessons - this would've been in the '70s I guess - where you had group lessons and then you also had individual lessons. And although she was not our piano teacher, she definitely oversaw our practice time which was generally right before dinner, right around 5 or 5:30. She could always hear who was playing what from the kitchen, which was sort of the nucleus of the house. And she had an uncanny ability for pointing out wrong notes or people who were slacking - which was usually me. My older sister Karen, who is two years older than me, was by far the most equipped and accomplished classical pianist. And she was the most disciplined and could just totally shred on composers like Bach and Rachmaninoff and people who were extremely mathematical. I, on the other hand, could sort of fake my way through Debussy which is much more about finesse. I don't know who is the best pianist now. I would say that Karen was probably the best at that type of piano, but she doesn't play by ear and I do, so we have different gifts I guess. My older sister Kathy can do both, she's great. I think that I have more luck than everybody else.

Many of the young fans who post on your fan forum are very inspired by you and are pursuing their own musical careers because of you. Are there any "pearls of wisdom" you could impart to your fans about the music business?

It's very difficult to talk about the music business because it is so nebulous and ever-changing. In fact, I think it is the one area in the arts that is changing so rapidly that it's difficult to keep up with what is current and the opportunities that are there because of what's happening in technology. I think, such as in the art world, where you can get on a computer and get into graphic design which has kind of replaced the kind of substantial painting that we've known in the past, the same is true with music where you can get on a computer and actually compose and not necessarily have to be accomplished at playing an instrument, so it's definitely a new ballgame out there. You can also, if you are savvy, get your music out to people without the help or hindrance of a record label, which is new in the last 10 years. I guess for me, the only advice that I can give to anybody in the music business per se - if you are trying to be an artist or a songwriter or a musician or a producer or an engineer - is to work at your craft and to try to become the best at what you do. Try to be the best, not necessarily the best, but try to hone in on your instrument and learn how to play. I don't think it ever hurts to know how to play an instrument or to know what you want to do. I think you have to stick with it and practice, and get yourself out performing and try to recruit your own audiences without necessarily having the help of large promotion. I think from there you can really springboard into doing a lot of great things.

What is your opinion of the recording industry as a whole? From the time you were unknown and struggling to now, what are some of the big differences in what you thought it would be like and what it is really like?

I think the recording industry is, like I said, it's always changing, it's changing really rapidly. I think the way that records used to be made is becoming not the norm anymore. I don't think it is necessarily the norm to go into a recording studio and pay huge fees and work on analog gear. I think now, records are made in people's home with Pro Tools and everything's fixed or made to sound perfect. I guess for me, my opinion is that I'm having to dig harder and harder to find music that appeals to me because I'm not really inspired by music that's perfect, that's been clipped and trimmed and moved around and made to sound like math. I'm not really into singers who are perfect singers that do all the crazy turns and all the crazy adlibs that nobody listening to the radio can sing with. I miss the old fashion songwriting, and I do think that it's coming back around to that. Hopefully by the time my record comes out, it will really be back around to that.

Did you enjoy your college days? Were there times when you thought about packing it in and pursuing a musical career before graduation day?

I did enjoy college. I felt a little bit like a fish out of water which is what I've felt like in almost every stage of my life. I felt like I wasn't sure what I was doing there and basically that is the feeling that has become very familiar to me. I wake up with that feeling a lot or I walk through the day with that feeling a lot of, I'm not sure what I'm doing here or if I'm supposed to be here. But I enjoyed it and looking back on experiences like college, like high school, like having been a background singer, like what I'm doing now, I always look back on experiences and think how great and how worthy and how important they were. I think one of the most important things about college for me was keeping me from coming out here too soon because I was ripe when I came out here. I was ripe for the experience. I was in a place where I really wanted and was very convicted about what I wanted to be doing. I had at that time, and still do somewhat, the drive and the tenacity. At that time, I felt like I had the tenacity and the perseverance to be okay with staying home and really working on my craft. The thing that I thought about most was becoming a better songwriter and becoming a better performer. I think if I had come out here when I was 19, I would not have perhaps stuck with it. I also feel like the two years I spent teaching school were invaluable to me as a person, just in building my character.

Since many of your fans are in college now or will be soon, any advice to them about "sticking it out"?

I cannot really say to anybody that staying in one place or going on to the next is the right thing to do because it's such an individual decision. For me, staying in college was good because I was young for my age, I was not savvy, I was from a small town, I wasn't ready to face the world. I went on and taught school for two years which really I think caused me to grow up. And I know a lot of people that didn't graduate college who are wonderful and successful and have a wonderful insight into the world and to who they are. So it's a very individual decision.

You've testified before the US Congress about musicians rights to their music. What was that like, and do you think they listened?

I think the battle with record companies is ongoing because of what's happening in the digital world. Everything is up for grabs and the recording industry is a business and we as musicians are not necessarily by nature business people. So it's very easy for us to watch our work, watch our rights, kind of go out and become owned by someone else because corporations are into ownership. I do feel like they listened, but more than that, I feel like they were forced to listen because of the amount of publicity - bad publicity - they were receiving. I feel like the Recording Industry of America (the RIAA) - which is funded basically by the recording industry - does not necessarily have the best interests of artists at hand. It is now up to us to unionize or to really come together in a concrete fashion or an organized fashion to make a public presence on Capitol Hill, which is, like I said not the nature of most artists.

In several past interviews, you've commented that your videos don't represent the songs the way that you would like. For the new album, are you being more introspective in what you'll settle for?

I don't necessarily feel like I settled on all of my videos. I feel like the video-making process is very subjective and when you get an artist who is a songwriter to have to share a vision with a director, it tends to wind up being a bit of a crapshoot. It's not necessarily been my greatest concern to want to spend two days in front of a camera simulating something that really winds up being a commercial for a song. I've been more actively involved in my video making definitely over the last album and I'll continue to do that as much as it feels necessary.

Over the years, many of us have gotten the impression through articles and interviews, that you have a huge collection of recorded, but unreleased, material. Do you have any idea how many songs exist, and will we ever get to hear them - on a B side album, or another album?

Well, I do have quite a lot of material and most of it is junk. I imagine that someday a lot of it will be released if something horrible happens to me. Okay bye!

What was your first kiss like?

It was horrible! I was playing Spin the Bottle when I was in eighth grade and I got kissed - well I won't say his name - by a boy who practically sucked my whole head into his mouth!

Any last words for your fans?

I hope you guys are doing great! I will see you out on the road! Bye!

Who is the most inspirational person that you know?

I have to say, just on personal terms, my mother, because I can't believe how even keeled she is. Nothing seems to ruffle her and yet she enjoys life to the full while the rest of my family is . . . (laughs) . . . manic.

And then on a professional level, right now, I guess just from what I know about George Harrison, I am pretty inspired by the way he lived his life, always keeping death in mind as a part of life, and trying to be awake and enlightened.

Where do you write most of your songs...only when you're in the studio, a lyric written down immediately and finish the song later? Also, what normally comes first - lyrics or music?

I think the best songs are always inspired by a lyric, and I think for me, the songs that get finished quicker are the songs that come from a completed lyric or at least a nearly complete lyric idea.

I write all over the place but I would say that most of the songs that get finished are written in the studio with a mic and an instrument that's plugged in. I think it's because I am inspired by sound also.

How did you like Rio de Janeiro?

I liked it. I always enjoy Rio. I like the Latin people down there, I think they are really expressive and really open. I think the night we played there were 250,000 and they were so orderly and having such a good time. There did not appear to be any problems with people getting in and out. And (laughs) I think the lines to the bathroom really say a lot about a crowd. There were so orderly and respectful to each other!

I also love the mixture in Rio of different kinds of music and atmosphere. Unfortunately, as you know, they have a really diverse economical situation in Brazil with extreme poor and extreme rich but that is also what makes Rio so unique. Lorenza [Ponce] and I stayed an extra day and we went round and saw some places that were more typical of the actual city, rather than the more tourist like places.

Are you still writing songs with Jeff Trott?

Yes, I am still writing with Jeff. I love writing with Jeff because he and I have a really similar vocabulary as far as music goes. We kind of draw from the same influences and he knows where I like to go and he knows what's too far out for me . . . what's too jazzy and I . . . I just enjoy his personality. I think he's a really fun person to be with and we seem to get a lot done when we're grooving.

How does it make you feel when your fans call you their hero?

Well that word "hero" is suspect anyway, only because it positions you to be . . . not a failure, but a disappointment in some ways. I think it's good to have heroes as long as you keep things in perspective and I like to think that people who listen to me find something in it that they can relate to. Hopefully, on a personal level, I am just living my life as a good person. I am always conscious of the fact that people might see me as their hero and do my best to treat everyone with respect.

What was the hardest part about high school for you?

Well, not to be cynical, but I always had trouble with math if you can imagine that, because music basically IS math. I could have cared less about it. That was my problem area.

Then, overall as far as high school went, I was a girl who loved my parents. I didn't want them to be disappointed. So when I reached those rebellious ages, I was always in a quandary as to how far I wanted to go with it. How much I wanted to try, as far as drinking and smoking pot, and all the stuff that the other kids were doing.

Which one of your guitars is your favorite?

My favorite guitar is a 1964 Country and Western. I've had it for a long time and most of the songs I have written have either been on that or on a bass of some sort.

I know there are different types of fans, some truly inspired by you and some a little more on the obsessive side. What's it been like for you meeting your fans?

I have really nice fans. Almost all the fans I have met have all been really respectful and excited. I forget how exciting it is to meet someone you have grown up listening to . . . I'm surprised that people want to meet me and I forget how that is. I have always had great fans. I love my fans; they're into music, they like the same kind of stuff I like.

Do you like the Power Puff girls?

I'm embarrassed! I don't know who that is! (and then when informed) Sadly I've never seen them.

What's your favorite TV show?

Gosh, I don't really watch much TV. I like Seinfeld and I like Friends. I watch a lot of news, and that's about it.

Who do you think are the top 5 female rockers of all time?

Well of course, Janis Joplin, the Heart sisters, Stevie Nicks and Chrissie Hynde, Tina Turner. In no particular order of course!

At what age did you know that you wanted to be a performer?

When I was 17.