Sheryl Crow opened her performance at the espnW Women + Sports Summit last night with a tribute to Tom Petty, saying “If It Makes You Happy” was inspired by the way he played. Link to video: http://www.espn.com/espnw/video/20900853/ 

Highlights from Sheryl's interview with Cari Champion are below as well. 

On a digital detox:

Now that I have kids and think about what they’ll remember about me, I don’t want them to remember me with my face in my phone. I made an agreement with myself that I would deter the feeling of needing to be somewhere else. I put my phone on silent and only check it once an hour. It has been really liberating for me.

My newest album Be Myself is about how it must be hard to grow up with a gadget that tells you what you need to look like and what you need to do to have followers. I don’t want people to be a follower. I want them to be able to say, 'I love being who I am and I love that you are being who you are.'

On Michael Jackson:

You don’t know how hard it is to invent something that doesn’t exist. To watch Michael Jackson defying gravity, I could see the divinity in him. When he stepped out on stage, there was something that changed the molecules in the room. When you see Mia Hamm or Serena Williams and you see the odds of that and what goes into it, it propels all of us to be the best that we can be.

On redefining her life:

After I found out I had breast cancer, it made me redefine and refine my life. I want to encourage everybody to quiet your brain, even if it is just for five minutes a day, so that you are able to tap into the divine and what is for you. As women, we are so good at taking care of everybody that we put ourselves at the bottom. I learned how to say ‘no.’ I started listening to myself and prioritizing.

How she feels at age 55:

I don’t like watching myself, and part of it is because I don’t love aging. I still feel super young and as excited and on fire about music and life as I ever have. I feel more connected to who I am than I ever have in life. If compassion isn’t the basis of everything you do in your life, then you’re short-changing yourself and others.

Her advice to women: 

Don’t base your life on what you think it is supposed to be. Maybe the adventure or challenge is not to tell the story at all. Maybe there is infinite possibility and something bigger than what your brain can picture.