Sheryl Crow, Haim Discuss Misogyny in the Music Industry

Following the release of their new album Women in Music Pt. III, Haim have kicked off the second season of their Apple Music show Haim Time, in which they discuss the record, chat with special guests and review delivery food in their home of Los Angeles.

For the show’s third episode, out on Friday, the sister trio invited Sheryl Crow to join in conversation. The band has cited the singer-songwriter as a major influence, even covering her 1993 song “Strong Enough.” Throughout the episode, the four musicians discuss growing up in a musical family, maintaining relationships on the road and misogyny in the music industry.

“We have come a ways, but it’s incredible, when I think about stuff that I’ve had to watch happen or have had happen to me,” Crow tells the band. “And you know, one of them was that my first album came out [1993’s Tuesday Night Music Club] and it sold six million copies. I never saw a dime. That may be just the record label way of doing things, but I wasn’t allowed to produce my own stuff. I wound up producing my second record [1996’s Sheryl Crow] because my producer left and I mean, women back there then weren’t allowed to even produce themselves. You couldn’t have more than one woman on a bill until Sarah McLaughlin was like, ‘Screw that. I’m going to put together not only two women on bill, I’m going to put together a whole tour.’ And before that, I can remember saying, ‘Look, I want to tour with Aimee Mann.’ And they were just like, ‘Two women don’t sell tickets.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, that’s ridiculous. She’s awesome. And I’m coming up.’ And they’re like, ‘Nope, not going to do it.’”

“Especially now in this day and age, it’s the kind of thing where you just feel beholden to go out and raise your voice,” she continued. “Although it’s a crap shoot, because you feel like if I say anything, I won’t get invited to this festival or that festival. We’re still cracking the little eggshells as we tiptoe across them. And I don’t know if we’ll ever get there. I mean, it’s ridiculous. But yeah, a lot of glass ceilings have had to be broken by women who have gone before. I do feel like at least with the success of my second record, hopefully some women got the opportunity. At least got to have the conversation about producing themselves.”

Elsewhere in the episode, the sister trio also spoke to Crow about being a woman on the road. “For the better part of 25 years, I’ve been solidly on the road and been the head of the company, but obviously, I’ve never been a man in a band,” Crow said. “I’ve never been a front lead guy. It is definitely different being a woman. There’s no two ways about it. You can’t really be Tom Petty, I don’t think, because as a woman, you get older, and your audiences aren’t like the audiences that follow around the IndieLands, or Petty, or whoever else. Those women can be young women adoring this hot older guy, but there aren’t going to be very many young people adoring a 58-year-old woman. Do you know what I’m saying?”

The singer-songwriter also discussed the mentors that have guided her along the way: “I’ve always told Emmylou Harris, ‘When I grow up, I want to be you.’ I keep saying it, because she’s still, her later work is incredible — if not more incredible in some ways — than her early work. I mean, her early work is obviously the platform for which so many artists rely on. She continued to make great records and continued to be creative, and her songwriting just got better and better. When you see her, the same with Chrissie Hynde, who I saw a couple of years ago, they’re chicks. They’re cool chicks. You forget the age thing, and they’re still rocking. I always told Emmy, man, ‘You really set the bar, and you illustrated to me that it’s not impossible.’”