Sheryl Crow Says She Wondered ‘What in the World’ James Safechuck’s Parents Were Doing Letting Him Tour With Michael Jackson

Before she was famous as a singer and then as the fiancee of the second-biggest cheater in all of professional sports (hi Giselle), Sheryl Crow was a back-up dancer for Michael Jackson. This was during his prime molesting years, when everyone was like “it’s probably fine to let Michael Jackson hang out with a bunch of like, 12-year-old boys, what’s he going to do, suck all their dicks?”

Sheryl gave an interview to The Guardian where she talks about what it was like touring with Michael Jackson while this was going on.

Crow pauses. “I happened to turn on CNN the morning after the first half [of the documentary] aired, and they showed clips of the young man who was on the Jackson tour with us and it made me … I mean, I still feel really … ”

Crow grasps for the right weight of words. “It’s like a death in the family, you know? It’s sad. [James Safechuck] was a great kid and the whole time he was with us – which was the better half of an 18-month tour – I always wondered: ‘What in the world are his parents doing?’, you know?”

We sit in an uncomfortable gloom. Did she guess? Did she wonder? “Honestly, I think … ” She takes a longer pause. “I think that there were a lot of exceptions made because of the damage that [Jackson] … I mean, he didn’t intentionally project it, but it was part of his aura – this almost being untouchable and almost alien-like [figure]. And, yeah, I mean, I’m sad, and I’m mad at a lot of people. I feel like there was just a huge network of people that allowed all that to go on. It’s just tragic.”

Yeah, if there’s one person you always want to leave your kids with it’s the weird, damaged guy in the surgical mask. Crow also mentioned that she thinks Jackson never knew who she was and he never talked to her after he was famous, probably because she wasn’t a preteen boy.