Something to Crow about

Sheryl Crow has gone from tomboy to sex kitten. She talks to KATHERINE TULICH.

What better way to celebrate your 40th birthday than with a few of your closest friends. Especially when they happen to be Gwyneth Paltrow, Meg Ryan, Don Henley, Bonnie Raitt, Dwight Yoakam, Laura Dern and Ben Harper.

Sheryl Crow spent her milestone birthday playing to a select group of high-profile mates at Los Angeles' El Rey Theatre. Henley and Raitt lent a musical hand on stage while Paltrow sang back-up.

"I hadn't been playing for a while and I missed it," says Crow. "I did these little club gigs in New York about a year ago playing covers, and there was no pressure. It makes me realise that even if I don't do anything else, I can always get up somewhere and play and really enjoy it."

Looking fit and fabulous as she munches on sushi in the suite of a plush West Hollywood hotel, Crow laughs when shown a recent issue of a men's magazine which has her on the cover with her breast partially revealed and tight, tight hot pants. Not to mention her recent Grammy appearance where she was voted "the least dressed" of the evening.

The formerly tomboyish rock star seems to be getting sexier as she gets older.

"I'm not sure I'd know how to be sexy if I tried," she laughs. "It's fun and I guess it's facing some of my fears.

"Not that I'm particularly shy about my body, but I've never utilised my looks or my body for any reason. I've always hidden behind guitars."

A musician since she was 6 (her parents were big-band musicians), Crow admits that she quickly learned to be one of the boys.

"I've grown up in music, and musicians when I was growing up were mainly guys. There weren't that many females who were playing guitars or other instruments. I definitely don't think I've betrayed my femininity, but I've been able to speak that language."

Although much has been written about the explosion of female acts on the charts, Crow quickly dismisses it.

"Not much has changed really. Women are still only 5 per cent of the playlist. I think the hype is a bit of a myth really."

As a back-up singer in the 80s to artists such as Don Henley, George Harrison, Joe Cocker and Michael Jackson, Crow broke through with her own brand of fem-rock in her 1994 hit, All I Wanna Do, from her multimillion-selling first album, Tuesday Night Music Club.

While the albums have continued to spin over the years, she says her latest, C'mon C'mon, was her most difficult.

"I really came to a point when I felt I just didn't want to do it any more. I didn't know what I wanted to write about. I was totally prepared to walk away from it all."

She admits her disillusion with the state of music (filled with what she calls "market-driven pop stars" such as Britney Spears ) made her question where her music fits.

"I was dealing with competing with what's out there now," she says. "I don't know how to relate to the music out there, so how do I make my music current and valid?"

After walking away from the record several times, and even considering making an album of covers instead, Crow completed the project this year.

She found encouragement by bringing in a group of musical friends to help out on tracks, including rocker Liz Phair - who joins her on the album's first single, Soak Up the Sun - Henley, Stevie Nicks, Lenny Kravitz, Emmylou Harris and Dixie Chick Natalie Maines.

"It's almost like a duets album," Crow says. "People who are on the record are like family to me. Most of the time I can't believe I'm singing with these people."

The result is an album she's proud of.

"I wanted to make a rock record that I could play in the summer, in the heat, that just rocked like the old classic rock records."

Crow's songs have often led to speculation about her personal life. Her 1998 song My Favourite Mistake was reportedly about Eric Clapton, while the new album has a song called It's So Easy, about a clandestine adulterous affair.

"The mystery will always remain in the songs," she says. "I feel a certain amount of betrayal not talking about it. I feel people would really like to know. It would also up my value if I talked about it. Besides, didn't we love that we were never quite sure who [Carly Simon's] You're So Vain was all about?"

Crow is acclimatising to the new pre-fab musical landscape.

"One of the first things we did to promote the album was a football game which was watched by millions on TV, and I had to lip-synch.

"I was laughing because I'd been gone a year and the first thing I do when I come back is lip-synch, and I was thinking I guess I've made it ... I'm in with the youth now."

* C'mon C'mon is released on Thursday