{"id":1914,"date":"2024-10-22T20:54:54","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T20:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?p=1914"},"modified":"2024-10-22T21:04:28","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T21:04:28","slug":"sheryl-crow-resurrecting-tupac-ai-hateful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?p=1914","title":{"rendered":"Sheryl Crow: ‘Resurrecting Tupac with AI is hateful’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sheryl Crow: “AI can do lots of things, but it can’t go out and play live”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Sheryl Crow has something to get off her chest.<\/b><\/p>\n

Over the years, the nine-time Grammy winner has never been scared to voice her opinion.<\/p>\n

Known for the classic roots rock of songs like My Favourite Mistake and All I Wanna Do, she has also used her voice to campaign on issues like gun control and climate change.<\/p>\n

Now, she has her sights set on Artificial Intelligence.<\/p>\n

The title track of her new album, Evolution, grapples with the impact of AI on people and the planet.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the BBC, she characterises the technology as a \u201cslippery slope\u201d and \u201ca betrayal\u201d that \u201cgoes against everything humanity is based on\u201d.<\/p>\n

Her attention was focused on the software last year, after meeting a young songwriter who\u2019d been employing it in her work.<\/p>\n

Frustrated that male artists wouldn\u2019t listen to her demos, Crow’s acquaintance paid to have an AI clone of singer-songwriter John Mayer replace her vocals.<\/p>\n

When Crow heard the song, she was so \u201cterrified\u201d that she was \u201cliterally hyperventilating\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know John and I know the nuances of his voice,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd there would be no way you\u2019d have been able to tell that he was not singing that song.”<\/p>\n

Her horror deepened when Drake used AI to resurrect the voice of late rapper Tupac Shakur on his song Taylor Made Freestyle earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The track was\u00a0subsequently removed\u00a0after lawyers from Tupac’s estate threatened to sue, but Crow says it should never have been released in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot bring people back from the dead and believe that they would stand for that,\u201d she protests.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure Drake thought, \u2018Yeah, I shouldn’t do it, but I’ll say sorry later\u2019. But it\u2019s already done, and people will find it even if he takes it down.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s hateful. It is antithetical to the life force that exists in all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The star is touring her new Evolution album around Europe this summer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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As the mother of two teenagers, she\u2019s worried about the implications of AI not just in music, but in politics and society.<\/p>\n

If voices and likenesses can be faked, how do we stop the spread of misinformation? And what happens to the workforce when AI takes over everyday tasks?<\/p>\n

\u201cI talk to my kids about it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m like, \u2018You’re growing up with this thing and it doesn’t seem dangerous to you because you’re a frog in a pot of water. But the water is only just starting to boil, and you won\u2019t realise it’s getting hotter until we’re all floating on the top\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The star has already called on politicians to enact tighter controls on AI – but although she\u2019s concerned about the rapidity of its progress, she also sees a sliver of hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI can do lots of things, but it can’t go out and play live,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo as long as we have live music, as long as we have hands holding a paintbrush, all is not lost.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Can AI popstars make it in the real world?<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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AI Tupac track vanishes from Drake’s Instagram<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Sting: AI-written songs don’t impress me at all<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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What is AI and how does it work?<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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‘I wanted swagger’<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Live music is on her mind because Crow has just wrapped up a week of UK concerts in historic venues like Blenheim Palace and Hampton Court.<\/p>\n

The setlists leaned heavily on her first four albums, including 1990s radio staples like Everyday Is A Winding Road, Soak Up The Sun, My Favourite Mistake and Leaving Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

The 62-year-old says she\u2019s content playing the hits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a gift, to be able to go out and play at my age. I literally look at my band and go, \u2018I can’t believe we’re still getting to do this!\u2019\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n

Relaxed and convivial despite her jetlag, Crow exudes just enough rock star energy to turn heads as she walks through the BBC in a plum velvet waistcoat and flared blue jeans.<\/p>\n

But despite 50 million record sales, she gives the impression that her career is one big happy accident.<\/p>\n

In a way, it is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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‘More swagger’<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Born in Missouri, Crow was a high-achiever at school becoming an all-state track athlete and a majorette – but she never quite fitted in, constantly finding herself \u201con the periphery of a lot of different groups\u201d.<\/p>\n

Music was her outlet. Rejecting \u201ccorporate\u201d bands like Boston and Foreigner, she gravitated towards the grit and glamour of blues and rock.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted more swagger, you know? Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, that kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her first group didn\u2019t offer much opportunity for swagger. A covers band playing weddings and events, their repertoire consisted of hits by Huey Lewis and Heart. \u201cAll the greats from 80s,\u201d she grimaces. \u201cNot my favourite period of music.\u201d<\/p>\n

After school, she studied classical piano, then moved to St Louis to become a music teacher, while moonlighting as a club singer.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne night, a producer came in and asked if I\u2019d come in and sing a couple of jingles for him, and those jingles paid me more money than all my years of teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

She made enough from Toyota and McDonald\u2019s to move to LA, armed with a demo tape of her commercials.<\/p>\n

That led to more work as a session singer and, eventually, a stint on Michael Jackson\u2019s Bad tour (he used to throw sweets at her over the dressing room wall).<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the Jackson tour, I\u2019d had all this exposure and I tried to get a record deal,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I wasn\u2019t a technical singer like Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey, and I wasn\u2019t interested in doing the dance music thing like Madonna and Paula Abdul.\u201d<\/p>\n

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During the 1988 Bad tour, Crow often duetted with Michael Jackson on the ballad I Just Can’t Stop Loving You<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Eventually, A&M Records took a punt \u2013 impressed by a self-produced demo that was heavily influenced by Sting and Peter Gabriel’s solo albums.<\/p>\n

They paired her with Sting’s producer, Hugh Padgham, but once the album was finished, Crow lost confidence in the material.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn’t find myself in it. The songs were sort of innocuous and it didn\u2019t really represent who I wanted to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she told the label, they weren\u2019t impressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat record cost a lot of money. I\u2019m talking $450,000 in 1990s money, and they needed to make that money back.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it was really, really hard. They weren’t in a hurry to put me back in the studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Scrapped album<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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In the end, she fell in with a songwriting collective, the Tuesday Music Club, through her then-boyfriend Kevin Gilbert. Each week, they\u2019d gather in Pasadena and try to write a complete song before dawn broke.<\/p>\n

The sessions were recorded by Michael Jackson\u2019s producer Bill Bottrell for \u201cabout two cents\u201d and released as Crow\u2019s debut album in 1993.<\/p>\n

Blending roots, Americana, emotional confessions, melody and intelligence, the album was slow to catch fire. It didn\u2019t even chart for the first seven months of release.<\/p>\n

In the UK, Danny Baker was an early champion, playing the singles Run, Baby Run and Leaving Las Vegas on BBC Radio 1 – but it was the slice-of-life bar room anthem All I Wanna Do that turned the album’s fortunes around, much to Crow\u2019s surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not convinced by All I Wanna Do,\u201d she says. \u201cI felt it was a throwaway from a drunken night of jamming .<\/p>\n

\u201cBut on reflection, there was something very authentic to the spirit of that song. There was a lot of burnout and apathy at the time, with this old guy [George Bush Sr] in office, but also the great hope of Bill Clinton appealing to the MTV audience. So I think the song captured a moment.”<\/p>\n

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Tuesday Night Music Club was one of the best-selling albums of the 1990s in the US<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A top five hit on both sides of the Atlantic, it helped Tuesday Night Music Club sell more than11 million copies worldwide\u2026 but Crow still felt like an outsider.<\/p>\n

Grunge and alternative rock were in the ascendance, and no-one knew quite what to do with this country-coded throwback rock singer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn’t cool to Pearl Jam,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI certainly wasn’t cool to Smashing Pumpkins.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what wound up happening was I got embraced by people I loved. The Rolling Stones took me on the road with them and Bob Dylan invited me to open for him. What an incredible gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Flirting with Fleetwood<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Dylan donated an unreleased song, Mississippi, to Crow\u2019s third album, The Globe Sessions. She went on to record a Bond theme, Tomorrow Never Dies, and duets with Prince and Johnny Cash.<\/p>\n

She was even considered to replace Christine McVie on Fleetwood Mac’s 2003 world tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were talks, yeah, but I kind of blew it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked about it in the press. And I think Lindsay [Buckingham] got really\u2026\u201d She stops herself before she says the wrong thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I love everyone in that band. And I feel honoured to be able to say that. Just knowing them has been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Stevie Nicks duetted with Crow on the songs Strong Enough and Every Day Is A Winding Road as she was inducted to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame last November<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Olivia Rodrigo also attended the ceremony, playing a spirited version of If It Makes You Happy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Stevie Nicks has been a huge presence in her life before and since.<\/p>\n

Last November, she turned up to support Crow upon her induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so proud of you,” Nicks told the singer. “It’s a very elite club for us women. I found out at four o’clock in the morning and had to dance around my room for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also joining the celebration was Olivia Rodrigo, who has spoken glowingly of Crow’s influence on her songwriting.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s not the only one.<\/p>\n

Indie supergroup Boygenius wrote their breakout hit Not Strong Enough as a response to Crow\u2019s song Strong Enough; Kacey Musgraves recorded her Golden Hour at Crow\u2019s home studio in Nashville; and St Vincent recently phoned up for advice on producing her new album.<\/p>\n

Crow is blown away by all the love coming her way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing,\u201d she says. \u201cThe young women right now that are playing and singing and writing authentically is blowing my mind because, 15 or 20 years ago, I really worried that everything was just dance routines and lip syncing and boobs and lips.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just like, \u2018When are we going to have young female songwriters who pick up guitars and gut wrenchingly tell us about where they’re at?<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I’m seeing that now from Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor and Boygenius and Courtney Barnett. It\u2019s so fun. I feel so optimistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Crow says she still loves being on tour: “It\u2019s such an honour. I feel euphoric”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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And what if her sons decide to follow her onto the stage?<\/p>\n

They’ve already made a brief (but cute) appearance during her Glastonbury set in 2019 and the singer says she\u2019ll be supportive, no matter where life takes them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to help my kids navigate life, as opposed to trying to orchestrate their lives,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s nothing off limits. I even tell my kids, \u2018If you drink, my phone is on, you call me to come get you, you will not get grounded\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t that because they could easily look up her youthful misdemeanours on Google?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about that!\u201d she laughs. \u201cI talked about the fact that I cannot believe I’m alive, you know?<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember late nights of recording out in Pasadena and driving my own car home, and not remembering how I got there. I’m very lucky, some people aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell my kids, \u2018Don’t count on the angels\u2019\u2026 But there are angels.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sheryl Crow: “AI can do lots of things, but it can’t go out and play live” Sheryl Crow has something to get off her chest. Over the years, the nine-time Grammy winner has never been scared to voice her opinion. Known for the classic roots rock of songs like My Favourite Mistake and All I 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