Whew, 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 fieryness 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.