As Fender celebrates the Telecaster's 75th anniversary, Tele player Sheryl Crow has looked back on her long-standing affair with the model and explained why it has been a loyal “sidekick” throughout her multi-decade career – not to mention countless miles on the road.
“I was two years out of college, bought a Telecaster and just felt like, ‘Oh, I can play, and this is what it's supposed to sound like,’” she tells Fender.
“And this sounds like all the records that I've loved – all the Steve Cropper, the James Burton... all that stuff that just sounded thick and raw.”
As Crow tells it, the Telecaster took her from emulating her heroes to writing her own destiny – she even says the “Tele makes me sound better than I am. I know that sounds self-deprecating, but I do know what I'm good at.”
“I can play the heck out of my piano, but I don't want to write those songs,” she adds matter-of-factly. “I want to rock. I think my greatest successes have come from, or been born of, really a great guitar riff, and then you bring the raw story to it.
“And for me, the Tele has always given that – I've tried a lot of different guitars, and I come back to the Tele because I feel like it fits my personality [and] the way I want the stories to feel, and so it's just been my sidekick.”
Back in 2012, Fender teamed up with Crow on a Limited Edition Sheryl Crow 1959 Custom Telecaster, of which only 60 guitars were made. One was signed by Crow and donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation in observance of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and in honor of the artist’s own journey as a breast cancer survivor.
The guitar held special meaning for the celebrated singer-songwriter. In 1994, when Crow was about to embark on her first solo tour, the majority of her band's equipment, including her Custom Tele, was stolen.
Shortly after, Crow performed at the Backyard in Austin, Texas, and a fan approached her with a 1959 Fender Custom Telecaster, which belonged to their mother, who had passed away after battling breast cancer. Crow has played and cherished this guitar ever since.
“I have a very strong affinity for this guitar,” Crow said when recounting the story in 2012. “This has just been a guitar I’ve loved forever. It feels good, it feels right, and has had lots of loving fingers on it.”
She's also a keen bass player, and says the four-string is a key element of her songwriting.
In more recent news, Crow revealed Don Henley told her to stop giving her songs away after she wrote a song for Eric Clapton that never got released.
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