BURSTAmid former President Trump's reelection, Sheryl Crow says the political environment right now "doesn't feel uplifting," but she's hitting an optimistic note about the country's future.
Asked what she would name a song about the current political climate, the "If It Makes You Happy" singer said, "I guess I would say 'Better Days Ahead.'"
"I think that we have to go through some really rugged times to really enter some introspection and decide who we are in our humanity," Crow said Sunday when ITK caught up with her at the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington.
"Art has been one of those things that throughout all of history — all the way back to the hieroglyphics — art was used to tell the story of who we are," Crow, 62, said.
"Right now, the story doesn't feel uplifting, but I do look at it and think that you have to go through really, really hard times to come out the other side and define what the next chapter looks like."
"I have kids, teenagers, and I'm hoping and praying that we get there sooner than later, so that I can see it. But they're going to have to go through a period where they don't understand what this country stands for, and then there will be some turnaround — because there always is — and they will live through it," the mom of two said.
Crow has been critical of Trump, saying in 2018 of the then-commander in chief, "I think most of the things he stands for are completely antithetical to what the U.S. is based on and founded on."
The Grammy Award-winning musician and songwriter this week offered some advice ahead of Trump's return to the Oval Office next month: "The one thing that I say to [my children] and to everyone — Christians or non-Christians: The objective of life is to look around and ask yourself, 'Where can I help? Who can I help? Who can I lift up? How can I make my little, tiny stamp on the planet for the minute that I'm here? How can I contribute to lifting somebody up?'"
"That's it," Crow said.
"That's all you need to know, and life will serve."