Five questions with Sheryl Crow

Sheryl Crow thought that by the time she reached 40 she'd be married and have children. She isn't and she doesn't.

But the Kennett, Mo., native and eight-time Grammy winner has accomplished many of her professional goals -- and she's still looking for the right balance between her career and personal life.

"It's important to have love, give love, receive love. I mean that is definitely the fish food, and I've had great relationships, and part of the reason the relationships didn't work out is my career," Crow said while sipping tea at a Milwaukee hotel restaurant.

She's been promoting the platinum "C'mon C'mon," her first studio album in four years. The Missouri native has released four albums since she burst onto the music scene with 1994's "Tuesday Night Music Club."

Crow, who has a bachelor's degree in voice and piano, has worked with some of the industry's biggest names. "C'mon C'mon" features guest vocals by Don Henley, Lenny Kravitz, Emmylou Harris and Dixie Chick Natalie Maines. She will be opening on select dates for the Rolling Stones.1. How does it feel to work with stars of the '60s and '70s?

It feels kind of otherworldly, you know what I mean, because I can totally register in my body how it felt to go to the Blakemore drugstore and pick up Cream Magazine and Rolling Stone and just pore over pictures of Stevie Nicks and Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles and Bob Dylan and scrutinize pictures of Led Zeppelin, you know, right down to the tight jeans. It's pretty unbelievable.2. How has success changed you?

It has become a part of my life I have had to manage. And because of that, my personal life has also become something I have had to manage, which sounds simple, but it's weird when you have to start managing having a life around what you do. ... Like on this last record, I think I just thought I really didn't want to do it anymore because it seemed to me the only thing I had anymore was my career, and it made me not want to do it. But I think that all the growing that you do eventually you are going to do anyway, and the circumstances in your life are put into your life to teach you what it is you are meant to learn in this life.3. Are you dating anybody?

I am dating somebody. Nobody would even know him though. He's not in the business. He's a lovely person, but you know it's totally new and it's just sort of still out there. I always like to keep my private life private. I just thought I would divulge that information just in case there's anybody out there who is worried about me, that I'm lonely or something.4. In 10 years, will you still be making records?

And making videos? (Laughs.) I don't know about the video part of it but I do see that. ... I think looking at Emmy (Emmylou Harris)'s career, she is sort of the template for me. I feel like I haven't written my best work yet, and you know that's encouraging for me and that's why I do it. I do at this point in my life feel like I'm at a place where if I didn't do it anymore, I could be OK with that too.5. Is it true you knocked out your two front teeth?

I knocked them out twice. When I was 8, I ran into some steel scaffolding and knocked them right to the back of my mouth, but they saved them and they were root-canaled and capped. And then I was singing in a top 40 band in St. Louis and a waitress knocked my teeth out with a beer mug, kind of by accident.