Ahead of all-star tribute concert, Sheryl Crow remembers Jimmy Buffett as a “great man”

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Sheryl Crow is just one of the big names performing at Keep The Party Going: A Tribute to Jimmy Buffett, a concert in honor of the late singer taking place April 11 at the Hollywood Bowl. Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, the Eagles and Jackson Browne are also on the bill. Sheryl says she and Buffett met even before she was famous: He hired her to sing backup vocals on a project after her two-year stint on the road singing backing vocals for the King of Pop.

“I was blessed enough to get to spend some really good quality time with him,” she tells ABC Audio. “Actually, it’s interesting — he was my first recording session after I came home from the Michael Jackson tour, and I flew down because the band I used to sing with in St. Louis became [Buffett’s] Coral Reefer [Band] — and that was in 1989.”

Sheryl says she loved Buffett because of the way he approached his career.

“He emulates exactly how I wish I could be, which is just so in the joyful moment of making music,” she says. “Y’know, sometimes we get so in our analytical head and decide if something is good or bad, or if we’ve delivered … and he was not that.”

“He was somebody who was there for the fans, and loved what he did and was just a great man.” 

Other artists on the bill include Jack Johnson, country stars Kenny Chesney, Eric Church and Zac Brown, and Pitbull.

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