At 57 years old, Sheryl Crow is a household name in music. I mean seriously, find me one person who doesn’t know the words to “Soak Up The Sun” because that song is everything.
But back in 1987, Sheryl was a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed twenty-something on tour with the biggest musician in the world, Michael Jackson.
Sheryl Crow sat down with Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper to discuss Michael’s allegations, saying she doesn’t plan on seeing the documentary Finding Neverland .
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“I haven’t seen the documentary and I don’t want to see it,” she said.
The controversial documentary Leaving Neverland takes an in-depth look into Michael’s alleged sexual molestation of Wade Robson and James Safechuck in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
“I was around for some things that I thought were really strange and I had a lot of questions about.”
Crow didn’t go into further details but had previously stated in an interview with The Gaurdian that she was surprised Safechuck’s parents decided to let him go on tour with Jackson.
When speaking with The Guardian, Crow recalls seeing coverage of the documentary.
“I happened to turn on CNN the morning after the first half [of the documentary] aired, and they showed clips of the young man who was on the Jackson tour with us and it made me … I mean, I still feel really … ” she confessed .
“It’s like a death in the family, you know? It’s sad.”
“[James Safechuck] was a great kid and the whole time he was with us – which was the better half of an 18-month tour – I always wondered: ‘What in the world are his parents doing?’, you know?”
Crow continued, “I think that there were a lot of exceptions made because of the damage that [Jackson] … I mean, he didn’t intentionally project it, but it was part of his aura – this almost being untouchable and almost alien-like [figure].”
“And, yeah, I mean, I’m sad, and I’m mad at a lot of people.”
“I feel like there was just a huge network of people that allowed all that to go on. It’s just tragic.”
She described the atmosphere on the tour, saying Michael was the center of the universe— an untouchable figure. So much so that he didn’t even know Crow’s name.
“I think he actually did not know my name for quite a long while,” she recalls.
She also recalled Michael not recognizing her at the Grammy’s years later.
“I saw him at the Grammys and I don’t think he ever put together [who I was].”
The singer then remembered what it was like to preform alongside the pop superstar.
“It was a crazy experience,” she recalled .
“I mean, he was the biggest star of a generation and I got to sing a duet (I Just Can’t Stop Loving You) with him every night for 18 months.”
“He was very exacting and the shows were very rote – the polar opposite of the kind of spontaneous gigs I do now.”
Crow recalled the fun she had on tour with Jackson in her early twenties, “I had never been out of the US before and suddenly I was on stage in Japan.”
“Then we were all running around Disneyland Tokyo in the middle of the night like a bunch of 12-year-olds.”
“Leaving Neverland” has been nominated for five Emmy awards including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special.
“Leaving Neverland” directed by British filmmaker Dan Reed, has since inspired a counter-documentary by the Jackson family.
Michael Jackson: Chase the Truth was released earlier this month.
