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