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“American champion wants to make history by winning la Grande Boucle a seventh time. Next stage : have a child with his favourite chanteuse”.
Sheryl Crow's not going anywhere, she's staying close to her champion, sitting in the car next to his Directeur Sportif, following him on training routes and mountain stages. She does not feel the need to give him strategic cycling advice, he does not tell her how to write her songs. He pedals, she composes.
She'll continue to sing and compose, he's retiring in three weeks. They'll start a new life together. He'll finally get to go on tour with her. He's always the one behind the wheel driving the car. Sheryl will never be alone again at night. Lance already has 3 kids from an earlier union. According to Sheryl there'll be more.
Lance : “I've experienced that the person who's winning is always more exposed to lowly attacks and investigations about how he lives his life. Whether you're a politician, an actor, an athlete, you can't escape it. People go through your garbage, your friends and ex-wife get enquiring phonecalls…”
Out of the limelight, his companion SC helps him rise above these daily annoyances and repeated media attacks. She's used to them." ”Sheryl's way cooler about this. She's been in the spotlight for a long time. She's helped me stay calmer. But it's different in her job. What happens to me |
would be the equivalent of people telling her ‘you're not really singing, it's not your own voice, you're the new Milli Vanilli'. Very insulting. When she writes she gives it her all. She's a very true person. Very pure in life, in her words and in her songs”.
Promoting her new cd, the singer finds time to accompany Lance on his French travels. “I love her new songs, but I would not get involved in what she does. Sometimes when we're travelling together, when I get back from training she shows me what she's written, plays what she's composed. She loves coming to the Tour. She says it's a time of inspiration and writing. I would not dare tell her “try this or that”.
Even on political issues, they seem to get along perfectly. Sheryl supports Kerry.
“And I did not support George Bush during his last campaign. We've been friends since he was the Governor of Texas. He lived in Austin like I do, it was easy to talk to him then. But it's different since he became President of course. Even if I don't agree with his politics, I would not say so. I know John Kerry through Sheryl. We have a few things in common, he's a cancer survivor like me, and he's a keen cyclist. He's seen Eddy Merckx during the Tour. But I'm trying to stay neutral”.
The only thing he knows for sure is that he'll retire on 7/24. “I'm retiring for sure. I'm going to rest, try to stay behind the scenes. I hope to have plenty of time for my children. I don't want to miss more important moments in their lives, like when they learn to swim, play the piano, ride a bike. Sheryl and I need to manage two time tables. Her life, mine, the kids …She's going on tour soon, but she also plans to spend lots of time in Austin. I can't wait to get on the road with her, support her the way she supports me.” Then, in French : “I can't wait to be her “domestique”.
Sheryl's interview :
Q : You've become a Tour de France fan ?
A : I love it! I try to be here as much as I can, and when I'm not, I follow it on TV.
Q : A new life is starting for the two of you?
A : When we released my “Best Of”, I knew that it was the end of a period, that I could not go on in the music world in that way. Then I met Lance. We've been travelling for a year. I take my guitars, I compose and record here and there. I've written two cd's that way, one is very personal.
Q : you refuse to record the way you did before?
A : I was in another state of mind. Recently I've had to adapt to all the changes in my life. So I've written about those feelings. Our relationship was starting, and the start of a relationship is always a period when you're more vunerable. All that is on Wildflower, my new album, and it reflects that period in my life. It's a record that's completely dedicated to Lance.
Q : Love, in your songs, knows highs but also extreme lows?
A : I'v never written love songs, but now I have thanks to Lance. But I'm also influenced by what happens in the world, and that might accentuate my pessimism. In Europe, I can see how the media cover the news. It's often very different in the American media. You don't have Fox news. I feel that there's not enough love in the world, not enough passion … We're in the middle of a religious war where the whole world wants to know which God is the right God, or if there is a God. That does not exactly makes me feel optimistic.
My private life comes first, I don't want to make concessions. I'm very humble about my job. I know I live a privileged life. I do the job I dreamed about. Even if there were some rough moments because of the music, I could not live without music. Celebrity has become too important. People don't necessarily perceive me through my songs. People recognize the person but not the song.
Q : Are you still prepared to live an artist's life?
A : I don't want to be far away from my family anymore, or from Lance, and I don't want to find myself alone in a hotelroom anymore.
Q : How do you feel about the constant media attacks toward Lance?
A : We are dealing with them. But you know, Lance likes the French. We've spent two weeks in Nice, in the house where he used to live with his former wife. He loves it there, he's lived there for years. It's about time that Lance and the French have a good talk.
Q : When you supported J Kerry during the last elections, was it a subject of dispute between the two of you?
A : I share a good number of opinions with John Kerry, but I mainly feel that he was a better candidate than Bush. His re-election surprised me a great deal. I really asked myself who we are, us Americans. Especially because Bush led a very right-wing and religious campaign. We're beginning to see the disasters that causes. It's sad, and it's not gonna get better. A lot of Americans have really had enough of the war in Irak. We should have reacted earlier…
Q : Is Lance pro-Bush?
A : I don't even really know his political thoughts! He has a sense of democracy, like me, and we have the same view on the world. He's very conscious that we need a better world for his kids. And we completely agree on that.
Q : how are you able to organize both your lives?
A : We'll see how this year goes. We already do everything we can to be together as often as possible. I don't like that I don't have more contact with my audience, but I have suffered too much loneliness on tour. It's tough to never be home, you can't have anything lasting that way. Right now I divide my time between Los Angeles and Austin.
Q : How does your family feel about your career?
A : They are very proud of me. We're very close, we talk all the time. My parents have just celebrated their 50 years of marriage. We had a big party with my two sisters and brother.
Q : What do you feel is missing in your life?
A : I would love to have kids. I hope that will be the next stage … after the Tour!
Q : Could you have a kid and still make music?
A : Oh yes no problem. I'm home a lot of the time when I write, I could combine both.
Q : Have your realized your childhood dreams?
A : I wanted to be Stevie Nicks or Mick Jagger. So yes in a way. But even if I'm the musician, there are so many people who have helped me on my way. My parents, the guy who let me sign my first contract …
Q : Do you think Lance will win his 7th?
A : He's not a guy who likes to lose, in general. So he's gonna win.
Paris Match – July 7th, 2005 - Thanks to HATS - Hawkeye Ann Translation Services - Belgium :-) |
