What if everybody adopted Sheryl Crow’s lead? It’s no shock that the singer—lengthy an advocate for environmental causes—drives an electrical car. Or maybe I ought to say “drove,” as she introduced Friday evening that she’s dumped her Tesla as a symbolic protest towards firm founder/alleged wannabe world-emperor Elon Musk, and donated the proceeds from its sale to Nationwide Public Radio.
In a video posted to Instagram, the Nineteen Nineties radio celebrity shared a quick video of a black Tesla loaded onto the again of a flatbed car, with Andrea Bocelli’s rendition of “Time To Say Goodbye” as a soundtrack. Sheryl Crow, wearing an informal jacket and fatigue pants, waves from the road because the truck pulls away with the car.
“My dad and mom all the time mentioned… you’re who you hang around with,” the caption of the publish reads. “There comes a time when you must determine who you’re keen to align with. So lengthy Tesla.”
“Cash donated to [NPR], which is below risk by President Musk, in hopes that the reality will proceed to seek out its approach to these keen to know the reality,” the caption concluded, with a hashtag imploring followers to “Call1-202-224-3141,” the cellphone quantity for the US Senate switchboard.
This isn’t the primary time Crow has offered a car as a fundraiser for a trigger she helps. Talking with Vainness Truthful in 2011, the “All I Wanna Do” singer mentioned her determination to public sale off her then experience, a 1959 Mercedes two-seater, to assist faculties in Joplin, Missouri, that had been decimated throughout a deadly tornado that yr. “My first intuition was to say, ‘Who can I get collectively to do a profit live performance?’ she mentioned of the 14-year-old catastrophe.” However actually, by the point you pay individuals’s bills and taxes, you don’t wind up elevating that a lot.”
The one-time HSN salesperson apparently switched to a Tesla someday after that, apparently unswayed by then-arguments from extra conservative sectors that driving an electrical car is an indication of weak point. Bear in mind these days, just some years in the past, when buying an electrical car was a sign of the place one stood on the political spectrum, together with a yard compost bin and an N95 masks inside arm’s attain?
However now we reside in 2025, the place the EV market’s greatest groundbreaker is unimaginable to separate from founder Elon Musk, a person identified for alleged alignment with Nazis, a vocal need to destroy democracy, and a definite agenda towards people who are transgender, amongst many different troubling acts and opinions.
(The latter view may be of particular curiosity to Crow, who dated disgraced and famously anti-trans athlete Lance Armstrong from 2003 to 2006, throughout which the couple had been briefly engaged. “It’s part of my previous, but it surely’s laborious for me to narrate to it,” Crow mentioned in reference to the connection in a 2021 interview with Vainness Truthful. “I simply want him nicely.”)
Musk has additionally been a vocal opponent of NPR information for years, claiming in 2023 that the outlet was “state-controlled” and threatening to reassign the outlet’s Twitter deal with to “one other firm” when contacted by a reporter. In a tweet earlier this month, the tech magnate, who can be partnered with (or is controlling, relying on who you ask) President Donald Trump as the pinnacle of the brand new Division of Authorities Effectivity, mentioned “Defund NPR. It ought to survive by itself.”
The majority of Nationwide Public Radio’s funding doesn’t come from federal sources, although these grants are a notable portion of its assist. In 2023, for instance, about $32 million of NPR’s $318 million funds got here from public sources. (Audited monetary statements for 2022, 2023, and 2024 are available on NPR’s web site.)
In the meantime, donations like Crow’s make up about 13 % of NPR’s income, whereas company donations account for round 36 %. Simply factor: if each Tesla driver who was aghast at Musk’s conduct swapped their automotive for a extra reasonably priced EV, and devoted the money distinction to a trigger they assist…nicely, maybe that’s something.
