Musician Sheryl Crow says she turned to meditation to confront fears of Donald Trump’s “apocalyptic” presidency.
In an interview with Rolling Stone published Monday, the 55-year-old singer-songwriter said a song from her latest album titled “Heartbeat Away” — in which a president launches nuclear weapons — was written before Trump received the Republican nomination.
“My sleep has been disturbed. My insides are ridden with unease,” Crow told the outlet. “I wrote that song before Trump got the nomination – it already felt apocalyptic that people were entertaining the idea of making a man like that the most powerful person in the world.”
“Heartbeat Away” is a track on Crow’s latest studio album, Be Myself, which was released April 21. The lyrics of the song include references to the unnamed president’s possible connections to Russia, including a reference to Russia “blowing up the phone.”
“I had to go into deep meditation and find a way to have compassion for the people of this country that are hurting and believe [Trump] cares about them,” the nine-time Grammy-winner told Rolling Stone. “I’m worried, but my meditation teacher said something fascinating. Her phrase was, ‘This is the way forward.'”
In her interview, Crow also opened up about her battle with brain cancer and how it felt to have been embraced by some of her musical idols through her decades-long career in the music industry.
“My idea for music was that I didn’t want to be great. I wanted to be important,” she explained. “I wanted to write important music, and so, when you start having a music career and you’re certainly not one of the cool kids, but you’re embraced by the older class – I was just like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe these people know me.’ As hokey as it might sound, I still feel really humbled by that.”
Crow has previously spoken out about her dislike of Trump.
In an October appearance on The View, the singer said she doesn’t let her children watch television when Trump is on screen.
“I want to be able to say to my kids, being the president of the United States is the most honorable position and it needs to go back to that and we need to change the dialogue,” she said at the time.
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