Olivia Rodrigo couldn’t be any “happier” to share the stage with Sheryl Crow.
Rodrigo, 21, had a special surprise for her fans who joined on Saturday, March 9, at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. “I’m very excited because tonight we have a very special guest,” Rodrigo said, according to a fan’s footage of the event. “I think she’s one of the most talented, most wonderful, kindest human beings I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. I’ve been lucky enough to sing with her a few times. And I’m even luckier to call her a friend.”
Crow, 62, came out with an electric guitar, embracing Rodrigo tenderly. Rodrigo was then handed a Guts-purple acoustic guitar?, and together, the two played Crow’s 1996 hit, “If It Makes You Happy.”
This isn’t the first time that the musicians have played this song together. Rolling Stone noted that Rodrigo and Crow performed this song at Nashville’s Bluebird Café in September 2023 and again that November when Crow was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Crow also presented Rodrigo with the Woman of the Year award at the 2022 Billboard Women in Music event
Crow spoke with Entertainment Tonight last year about her friendship with Rodrigo, saying it’s “really cool” that she’s been able to connect with the young superstar, especially following the release of Guts. “I got to sort of lift her up a little bit, because she’s got a new record [out]… I know how hard the second record is, the sophomore,” she said in November 2023. “You’re competing with the success of your first record, and she nailed it.”
Crow also shared the advice she gave Rodrigo. “I said, you know, ‘If you can, just write down one sentence every day, of what happened during that day, because you will someday look back [at] this, and try to remember all the things,’” she said. “The other thing [I told her] is to just stay in the work and stay out of the chatter. That’s a major thing.”
Rodrigo is in the middle of her Guts World Tour, which has helped her launch two major projects: Fund 4 Good, “a global initiative committed to building an equitable and just future for all women, girls and people seeking reproductive health freedom” that will see a portion of her ticket sales go to local abortion access funds; and a Guts-inspired Crumbl cookie, which includes two purple vanilla-flavored cookies around a layer of vanilla buttercream and triple-berry jam.
The former High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star also turned 21 during the opening of her world tour, and she celebrated like any American high school girl: by buying a six-pack of beer and cigarettes. “I promise I didn’t consume it,” she told the fans at the kickoff show in Palm Desert, California, “but I bought it because I f—king could.”
