ALL SHERYL CROW WANTS TO DO

Sheryl Crow's song "Home" is an aching ballad written about a woman who married at 17 and at 32 wonders what has become of her dreams. "I woke this morning," she sings, "to the sound of breaking hearts."

The Kennett, Mo., native made a dreamer's choices herself, left home to become a rock musician and made most everything she wished for come true. Now, the stage is the place she feels most at home.

Crow spent Thanksgiving at the home of her parents, Bernice and Wendell Crow, in Kennett but is back in Los Angeles now. Saturday night, she will return to Southeast Missouri to perform in a concert at the Show Me Center. Proceeds from the concert will endow scholarships for the Southeast School of Visual and Performing Arts and provide funding for the Kennett Area Higher Education Center.

The concert will begin at 7 p.m. with a performance by the Cape Girardeau band Papa Aborigine.

In a phone interview, the former drum majorette, National Honor Society member and Paperdoll Queen said Kennett had the advantages and disadvantages of any small town.

"It was a small enough community that people certainly know what you're up to and they make sure your parents know what you're up to."

But her hometown was also a haven. "I was surrounded by a lot of people who were very encouraging," she said.

She was surrounded by the music of her parents, both amateur musicians. By 16 she was performing in rock bands and listening to the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Twenty years later, she would tour with the Rolling Stones.

Bold move to L.A.

While studying music at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Crow played keyboard and sang in a Top 40 cover band called Cashmere, a favorite of sororities and fraternities. After graduation, she needed a job and took one teaching music at Kellison Elementary School in Fenton, Mo. But in 1986 at age 24, she decided the time had come to give performing a serious try before she started making ties.

Four days after telling her parents of her decision, she left for Los Angeles.

"They were very, very worried," she said. The memory makes her laugh.

In Los Angeles, Crow's first break came when she crashed an audition for Michael Jackson's "Bad" tour and won a job as a backup singer. The National Enquirer quickly had her pregnant with Jackson's child. Crow has no children -- Jackson's or otherwise.

Other backup stints followed with Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, George Harrison and Don Henley before her exhilaratingly tipsy single "All I Wanna Do" shot to No. 2 on the charts in 1994.

Her first album, "Tuesday Night Music Club," caused a sensation. The two that have followed, "Sheryl Crow" and "The Globe Sessions," and seven Grammy Awards have earned her a position as a top-echelon performer and writer.

But the music business is transforming quickly, she says. Now that people can download music off the Internet, hits have become all-important. "It definitely changes the approach to making records as a whole statement," she says.

"... I can't ignore the Internet. But I can only do what I can do ... Hopefully there will be people who buy my music."

No exceptions for star

One of Crow's sisters, Karen Bowles, lives in Cape Girardeau and gives piano lessons. Another sister, Kathy Crow, works for the music performing rights organization BMI in Nashville, Tenn. No one in her family treats her any differently when she visits Kennett now that she's a star, the singer says.

"Good Lord, no. I am still loading and unloading the dishwasher like everybody else."

Ticket sales for the concert have been lagging behind expectations, though they are starting to pick up. About 2,100 tickets had been sold by the end of the day Tuesday. The Show Me Center will be set up to accommodate an audience of 4,400-4,900 and needs to sell about 2,500 tickets to break even.

The audience usually decides what will happen in each night's performance, Crow said.

"Every night is ruled by the energy of any particular audience ... You can kind of even detect when you walk out on stage what the mood of the masses are."

It's difficult to describe how singing to thousands of people feels, she says.

"Most of the time, when you think about it, it would evoke such a nervous feeling. But it's the place I most love to be. It's amazing when you're comfortable and you're interpreting songs you have written from an important time in your life."

"... It's very satisfying."

WANT TO GO?

WHAT: Sheryl Crow in concert

WHERE: Show Me Center

WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday

HOW MUCH: $30 lower level and floor seats, $25 upper level seats.

MORE INFO: 651-5000 or www4.semo.edu/showmecenter