Sheryl Crow reset her life following her breast cancer diagnosis, insisting the health scare made her re-evaluate how she wanted to live.
The All I Wanna Do star was diagnosed in 2006 and underwent a lumpectomy. The 55-year-old has been cancer free for over a decade, but after she beat the disease, she knew it was time to make major life changes.
"Being diagnosed with (breast) cancer was a showstopper, for sure," she tells People magazine. "I think it dictated that I re-evaluate my life and set up new guidelines for the way I want to live."
One life-changing event Sheryl went through after beating cancer was becoming a mother. She adopted son Wyatt in 2007 and another son, Levi James in 2010.
"Adopting my boys - that's just been the biggest everlasting event that has informed everything and really for the better," she says.
In 2013, Crow also started to think about how much time she wanted to spend away from her kids, and decided it was time to cut back on touring and studio time.
"I didn't want to spend any more nights away from home," she continues. "When you have kids, your priorities definitely change. I really felt consistency is the most important thing."
And so she traded her rocking lifestyle for that of a soccer mom, shuttling her children back and forth to school and being home for dinner.
But she couldn't completely give up making music and now she's promoting her new album Be Myself, which is due out later this month (Apr17).
"That luxury of being able to be creative or inspired at whatever hour of the night I decide to go hang out with friends and drink a beer and write a song, that does not exist anymore," she says. "I recorded an album, but only during their school hours. It was a good feeling to be home every night for dinner."
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