Sheryl Crow Previews New Album With ‘Freedom Bus,’ A Song Inspired By Veterans, Free Speech & ‘Thoughtful Dialogue’

Sheryl Crow is launching her next album with a song that wasn’t initially intended to be part of it.

The politically minded “Freedom Bus,” which features a guest vocal by Jesse Welles, was among a batch of songs the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and her “musical husband,” guitarist Jeff Trott, wrote during weekly sessions at Crow’s home in Nashville.

“We’d get together, eat lunch and bang out a song in two hours,” she says, “fully finished, and do a little demo of it, and then go about our way.” Eventually, Crow adds, “We started reflecting on all the songs we’d written and were like, ‘It feels like some of this stuff should come out” on Pick You Up , due Oct.

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But apparently not “Freedom Bus.” “Initially we were going to do an EP, six songs,” Crow explains.

“But I just kept feeling (‘Freedom Bus’) was how I feel right now.

I couldn’t shake it.

I couldn’t let go of it.

I felt like it had to be on there.” “Freedom Bus” was inspired by an 8th grade class field trip with her son that Crow chaperoned, and the first stop, at Arlington National Cemetery, provided an epiphany.

“We had a tour guide who was inspired…and the stories were not only inspiring but humbling,” recalls Crow, a veteran of USO performances overseas.

“Everybody is trying to figure out what’s happening now.

I don’t know that there’s anybody my age who doesn’t look at it and go, ‘It’s never been like this.

It’s never been one side against another like it is now.’ “I do not take freedom lightly, because our freedom has been paid for in the lives of others throughout history, and that is something I wish we could all remember when we are interacting with each other.” The song particularly zeros in on the notion of free speech, which Crow says “has become a weapon” in a highly polarized America.

“My whole feeling is just because you have the freedom of speech, it doesn’t give you permission to be an assh-le,” explains Crow, who sings that sentiment explicitly during the song’s chorus.