Redemption Day - Commentary

Cheryl Crow has put together what some might consider the album of a lifetime
There are 17 tracks on this album with some of the most incredible collaborators
And it's called "Threads"
It is available now and so we've been talking to Cheryl about all the songs on this album

Because, obviously, she can tell the stories better than anybody
And we are up to Redemption Day, and talk about a special song
She is singing with the late Johnny Cash
So, Cheryl, tell me, how did this version of this song come to be?

So Redemption Day has a long story, and it goes back to a trip I made to Bosnia with Hillary Clinton
I played for the troops, I'd never seen anything like a war-torn area in my life
I'd only seen it on the evening news during early days
Or late days of Vietnam when people were coming home
On the evening news, wrapped in flags and caskets, and

That was my relationship to war
And it was very ominous, but it wasn't everywhere
It wasn't 24-hour news back then, so it was a deep, disturbing relationship to me
To see what war looked like in person
So I came home and I wrote this song called "Redemption Day"
Put it out on, I guess, my second record
Which luckily had some hits on it, and
So people probably heard it because back then you bought an album
And you heard the album cuts

Well, cut to many years later, in 2003
Johnny Cash recorded it right before he passed away
And we had many conversations about the song
And he loved the song and felt like it was really important
For that moment, and he wanted it to come out then
And then he passed away
And the song didn't actually come out for many years
And, so, this song now has sort of reappeared

And has a whole new message for what's happening
So I guess in the best case scenario when you write a song
You hope it's gonna outlive everything
It's gonna be timeless, it's gonna have meaning for all the ages
But I feel like it's really presented itself now as having found its moment
And having Johnny Cash on it, having his vocal on it
His original vocal that he did in his cabin

It just brings so much weight to the song
And brings a seriousness and a depth to it
That I think kind of announces the song's moment
And brings a lot of meaning to what we're going through
And who we are at this moment in our evolution

And if you haven't seen the video, it also is incredibly powerful
It's available on YouTube now, and this is Cheryl Crow and the late Johnny Cash
Redemption Day, of her new album, Threads