Story Of Everything - Commentary

Their voices together, they just give me the chills. Cheryl Crow and Chris Stapleton from her album Threads, which is out now. And we have so many incredible stories that we're getting to hear from Cheryl Crow as we celebrate the release of her album

And this next song is so relevant for the times that we're living in. And I know that you've got some strong thoughts on it. So Cheryl, tell me about the story of everything. I know you co-wrote it and you actually brought in a few people on this one. Chuck D, Andra Day and Gary Clark Jr

The story of everything actually began at the piano
And I just was playing and singing
And Steve Jordan came over and started playing a little acoustic guitar
And we got this jam going
And I had these sort of Stevie Wonder chords
And he threw in this line, you can live, you can die, but you know we got to try to get along
And that was really the summation of what was going on

And it's still going on in this country
I mean, just the vitriol between parties and how divided we all are
And so it's a song that speaks to that
It's a song that speaks to what's happening all across America with the division between real poverty and abject wealth like we've never seen

And so really our question was, who do we bring in to sing and play on this?
And Chuck D, I've known since the early 90s
We were both on the Rock the Vote board
And he's been a friend
He came through for me on a CNN thing
And he's just an amazingly intelligent person who can really speak to what's happening in this country
And Andra Day had just come out with this song, Rise Up, which I felt like was just such an anthem

And so we reached out to her and said, would you come in and be a part of this song?
And of course, we called Gary Clark Jr., who has been on several things on this record and on my last record
And the guy, I think, really just emulates the fire and the fire, the fiery this of what's happening right now, especially with young people
Seeing what's happening with the future that's being laid out for them
And so I think with all those people in the soup, it just really made the song have a lot of meaning and a lot of conviction
You know, when I first listened to this song, it sort of felt like an indictment on the times that we're living in right now
It's called The Story of Everything on Big Machine Radio