Sheryl Crow recently looked back on a pivotal piece of career advice she received early in her musical journey. In an interview featured by Esquire, she recounted a conversation with Don Henley that reshaped how she approached her songwriting.
At the time, Crow was attracting major interest from established artists, which initially felt like confirmation of her growing reputation. But Henley urged her to protect her work rather than allow other performers to keep her songs tied up.
Crow explained the situation, saying, “I had a song covered by Celine Dion and a song covered by Tina Turner. I had a song that Eric Clapton had on hold. He was going to record it, so they put it on hold so nobody else can record it.”
It was this pattern that led Henley to step in. As Crow recalled, “That was when Don Henley said, ‘You need to quit giving your songs away. And if you’re serious about this, you need to hold on to your songs for yourself.’”
At the time, Crow was carving out a career as a songwriter-for-hire, and her early wins—having songs claimed or recorded by major stars—seemed like a promising start. But she soon realized that these opportunities came with a drawback: her strongest material was being tied up by other artists, preventing her from building her own identity.
According to Guitar World, Crow wrote a song for Eric Clapton that ultimately went unrecorded and unreleased. This, along with similar experiences involving high-profile performers, underscored how easily her creative momentum could stall. The song Clapton placed on hold became a clear example of how the industry’s “hold” system could lock away valuable work indefinitely.
Henley’s advice turned out to be a defining moment for Crow. American Songwriter reports that artists such as Phil Collins and Eric Clapton also placed her songs on hold, making Henley’s warning even more significant. He believed in her potential beyond writing for others and encouraged her to focus on establishing herself as an artist. His influence helped shift her mindset from being primarily a songwriter to embracing the role of a performer with her own musical voice.
Following that guidance proved essential to Crow’s rise. By choosing to reserve her best songs for her own projects, she paved the way for a career that would make her one of the most celebrated artists of the 1990s and beyond. The decision to prioritize her own artistry enabled her to create the introspective, emotionally rich songs that defined her work. Ultimately, the shift from writing for others to owning her own creative output became a cornerstone of her success, illustrating the power of artistic control in shaping a lasting career.
