Country rock legend Sheryl Crow discussed her lifelong love for the Fender Telecaster in a new interview to commemorate the instrument’s 75th anniversary, revealing the unlikely origin story of her ‘59 Custom model, which turned a devastating loss into a “life-changing” moment.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer needs no introduction, considering how many bangers she’s written, many of which were born from her prized Telecaster. But that guitar wasn’t her first love.
The electric – a heartfelt gift – proved to be more than a workhorse tool; it was a cure for heartbreak.
Shortly after releasing her debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club, in 1993, the Missouri-born guitarist was booked to open up for the BoDeans, which she calls “a big effing deal.” But the highs of what should have been a breakthrough moment in her then formative career turned sour on the eve of the tour.
“We were in St. Louis, and we had finished rehearsing. We were leaving the next day. I go to unlock the door of the van, and it’s open,” she tells Fender. “All of our guitars were gone.”
Among the stolen gear was a reissue model of a ‘59 Tele. It was Crow’s number one.
“I was really, really devastated,” she says. “We drove to the music store, bought guitars off the racks, and started the tour.”
The move speaks of Crow’s hardened spirit, and though the guitar has never returned to her, the story does have an arguably even happier ending.
“About a year later, we were in the Backyard [venue] in Austin, Texas, and some kid begged to get backstage,” Crow continues. “Finally, they brought him back, and he had a guitar. It was an original 1959 version of the one that had been stolen.
“He said that it was his grandmother's and that she'd kept it under the bed. And when she passed away from breast cancer, which I later on had [in 2006], he brought it for me. And so that's this guitar.”
It’s been with her through thick and thin since, with one of its earliest shows a pivotal moment in Crow’s blossoming career.
“I played this guitar at the Grammys [in 1995] – the year that my life totally changed,” she adds. “It was always this guitar that I took with me everywhere; I beat the shit out of it. This has my documented life on it.”
Fender has celebrated the Tele’s 75th birthday with special drops featuring Fender-firsts and cult-classic specs – and it could nod to the instrument’s future.
The guitar also received a radical makeover in the hands of John Osborne, who used his signature collaboration to bring back the B-Bender for the first time in 20 years.
