Maren Morris on Sheryl Crow’s Nineties Inspiration

As part of Rolling Stone‘s Icons & Influences series, Maren Morris discussed what Sheryl Crow meant to her as a budding musician in the late Nineties.

“I would just gush over her album inserts, and see who played on what song, did she write these songs with the same people from the last album,” the country singer recalled. “I remember kind of obsessing over her early on.”

Morris emphasized Crow’s particular songwriting style, pinpointing “Strong Enough” as “one of her greatest songwriting achievements.”

“Even though I’m happily married, it takes a real man to be with a woman like me, and I still cry when I hear ‘Strong Enough,’” she said.

Crow’s records served as an inspiration for Morris and her late producer Busbee as they were writing her hit single “My Church,” and not just in their songwriting — the “dirty drum” sounds from that era, in particular, played into Morris’ own production. “We’re all in Nashville still chasing down those sounds that they came up with in the studio in the Nineties.”

“The funniest thing is,” she added, “when we were making the Highwomen record, we were at RCA and we were running through some song, and while Sheryl was in the room, Dave Cobb said, ‘Yeah, that kind of Sheryl Crow-sounding bass.’ And then he realized that Sheryl was sitting right next to him. But she’s so humble that she just laughs it off.”