Sheryl Crow says she had human poop flung at her while onstage at Woodstock ’99
“At one point, some [feces] landed on my hand while I was playing bass during ‘My Favorite Mistake,'" Crow recalls. "That’s when we stopped.”
Aux News Sheryl Crow
If the hazy, summer-of-love atmosphere of Woodstock ’69 is remembered through rose-colored glasses, Woodstock ’99 is remembered through shit-stained ones. At least, that’s the case for Sheryl Crow, who performed during the raucous, dirty, and downright disastrous festival, which has been the subject of two documentaries and a podcast in recent years.
During a recent episode of Dana Carvey and David Spade’s “Fly On The Wall” podcast, Crow reminisces on Woodstock ‘99 through a performer’s eyes. Immediate descriptive adjectives that came to mind for Crow: “disgusting,” “awful,” “so bad,” and “bananas.”
“It was debauched from the beginning, because we were on the first day. You could look out and see girls who were topless on guys’ shoulders, trying to get the MTV camera to sweep around in front of them and get on TV,” Crow recalls.
Unfortunately, topless frolicking would prove to be the least of the crowd’s (and Crow’s) worries at the New York festival. Even on day one, Crow laments, people were “already throwing shit from the outhouses” that, due to shoddy setup, began “leaking.” It wasn’t long before Crow, while performing onstage, came into direct contact with feces of unidentified origin.
“At one point, some landed on my hand while I was playing bass during ‘My Favorite Mistake.’ That’s when we stopped,” Crow says. “We played about four songs, and I remember saying, ‘Nah, not gonna do it.’”
However, for the woman who invented soaking up the sun, even the shittiest of experiences have a bright (and nostalgic) side. Later in the interview, Crow also describes Woodstock ’99 as a “highlight” of her career. It’s an odd sentiment for an undeniably unsavory experience, but hey— sometimes even the most literally shitty memories gain a rosy glow over time.
64 Comments
Well, don’t play shitty soft alternative rock and you won’t get shit thrown at your hand.
Limp Bizkit rules
That’s victim blaming!But it might also explain why Steely Dan stopped touring.
Sorry! All I wanna do is have some fun.
Well I don’t wanna do your dirty work.No mo’.
Too bad, you have to do it. Again.
The things that pass for comments I can’t understand.
Fling your big brown turdAnd get out of here
Now that’s what I call a “countdown to ecstasy”!
They call Alabama the Crimson TideCaaall me Deacon Poops
Peg
I can’t make fun of Peg I fuckin love that song.
I’m still pissed they pronounced the W in Muswellbrook. This is why Tommy Emmanuel never collaborated with them.
The Kinja Caffeine Spider prays like a Roman with his eyes on fire.
Are you comparing Steely Dan to Crow?Has your web come undone?
It does happen from time to time.
I keep telling you, Walter Becker is 72 and he’s dead!
Phoebe Bridgers, Molly Tuttle, and Madison Cunningham have been covering Sheryl Crow songs! She’s cool now!
Molly Tuttle covers Rancid too, so it’s not like she covers all soft rock or something.
15-20 years ago my friend and I went to a concert with John Mayer and Sheryl Crow co-headlining. After John Mayer finished, Crow came on, and we were both like you wanna go, yeah let’s go.I tell that story to say that even then, she was less cool than John fucking Mayer, and I’m actually kind of embarrassed to even say I bought tickets to and attended a John Mayer concert.But I am a bit bummed that we didn’t stay for Crow only because we heard later that Ben Folds popped up, and him I would pay money to see (and have!).
We were so excited when Mayer came to our town. Then, without any warning, he proceeded to do all new stuff that no one wanted to hear. He did “Your Body is a Wonderland.” That was it. He permanently lost a fan that night. Of course, there was all of the stuff he said about the women he had sex with. People were learning to cringe right about then:/
That should be a crime. Literally there should be a law that you get your money back when that happens.And yeah, when I saw him he hadn’t yet revealed himself to be a total douchebag (he was clearly kind of a douchebag, but not total yet). I recall that interview about his sex partners, and yep, that’s what did it. ‘Twas in that very interview that he made sure to let the world know that he found Black women sexually unattractive as well.
That was like when I saw Metallica at BDO.Fucking wankers just played shit from St. Anger – nu-metal crap.
How does she know it was human?
Funny you ask that.
Out of all the things they skimped on at Woodstock ‘99, the one thing they went all in on was a state-of-the-art poop analyzer.
True story.
“How does she know it was human?”
How could she not?
She was actually a pioneer in microbiome research and did a 16S rRNA analysis of the microbes it contained.
I’m gonna guess that members of other species skipped the festival given that awful lineup.
Corn, the answer is always corn aka a tracer food LOL.
I think you mean Korn.
Take your star.
It wasn’t until a few years later – when she dated Lance Armstrong – that she came to know what human shit was.
Something in your analysis is wrong, since she had already dated (avowed racist and admitted spousal rapist) Eric Clapton prior to Armstrong.
It makes me happy to throw poop; so it can’t be that bad.
orange jesus pulls some from his depends and puts the orange gravy on his fat face
Is that you, James Joyce?
lol
It’s how you express appreciation for the band. Like punks spitting.
Friday 23 JuneEast StageJames BrownG Love and Special SauceJamiroquaiLiveSheryl CrowDMXThe OffspringKornBushI mean, who the fuck gave her that slot? She shouldn’t have been on that stage at all.
How can you say that? She’s the Korn of the adult contemporary set, surely.
I believe the term is now “Mom Rock” according to all the Gen Z kids I work with.
Object. I am a mom, and NO.
It’s called yacht rock or soft rock you damn kids! Get off my lawn!
That lineup is…eclectic, to say the least.
I can’t figure out if JB opened or headlined. It could go either way.
In 1999 I’m gonna say he probably opened because basically everyone from Live on down to Bush were fucking HUGE in the late ‘90s. JB, G Love and Jamiroquai make the talent real top heavy if I’m right though, best 3 groups on that list imho.
They were trying to calm down the crowd. Watch the documentary.
That, and they were like “Oh shit, we forgot women exist asides from being objects for us to abuse” and it was Sheryl’s day to be the token.
Seriously, look at the lineup. I think there might have been 10 total women on stage (at least not as backup singers) throughout the entire four day festival across three different stages, probably half of that relegated to the “Emerging Artists” stage. That’s about the same that was at the original Woodstock, which had about a quarter the amount of performers.
That’s what the Lillith Festival is for.
That list is so 90s it actually hurts.
“Later in the interview, Crow also describes Woodstock ’99 as a “highlight” of her career. It’s an odd sentiment”
Are you not human? For fuck’s sake. Of COURSE it was a highlight. It’s one of the most notorious concerts ever, why do you think A-N-Y-O-N-E who was there doesn’t count it as a highlight?
Do you think there won’t be people two decades from now describing the Fyre Festival as a highlight of their lives?
Christ…are you a fucking human being???? Have you ever interacted with one?
Unbelievable.
“for the woman who invented soaking up the sun”There was a time in my patronage of AVClub that I would have assumed this was a light-hearted joke. These days, though, I’m truly concerned that the writers actually think Crow invented the phrase “soak up the sun.”
My taint & I thank her for that well-timed advice.
Trying to get melanoma of the taint, are you?
Yeah, I’ve heard that song at CVS. I’m pretty sure they invented it.
Later in the interview, Crow also describes Woodstock ’99 as a
“highlight” of her career. It’s an odd sentiment for an undeniably
unsavory experience, but hey— sometimes even the most literally shitty
memories gain a rosy glow over time.
Because she has lots of interesting experiences, and this was one of the most interesting.
It was Fred Durst. He did it all for the dookie.
For more of this ilk, but much, much worse, google “Tila Tequila Gathering of the Juggalos.”
No, I don’t think I will
I’m eating lunch, you prick.
“They throw poo, you throw your septic tank. They send one of yours to the table with the Purex bottle, you send one of theirs to the Decontamination Showers.”
-Dave Matthews Band
“[U]nidentified origin.”That’s what we’re concerned about here?
I saw her performance at WS94. She was just breaking at the time. Great show. I hate how 94 is overshadowed & forgotten because of the dumpster fire 99 was. 94 was wonderful.
Am I too late to deliver an apology?