Make It Go Away (Radiation Song)

Album: Detours (2008)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This portrait of a woman having radiation therapy touches on Sheryl Crow's own experiences with her treatment for breast cancer. Crow was diagnosed in February 2006, soon after her breakup with high-profile cancer survivor Lance Armstrong. She underwent surgery and 33 sessions of radiation therapy over two months. The treatment was a complete success; the cancer was caught before it spread.
  • With this song, Crow was confronting her challenges head-on. "I made an oath that I wouldn't bury the experience," she told People in 2023. "I'd sit with it and really work my way through it. I hold myself up to the standard of being a really good person, so to find myself lying on a radiation table facing my mortality, there are a lot of questions that go along with that: What did I do wrong? Why do I deserve this? This song felt like a moment of closing the book on that chapter."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New Words

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New WordsSong Writing

Where words like "email," "thirsty," "Twitter" and "gangsta" first showed up in songs, and which songs popularized them.

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie Combination

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie CombinationSong Writing

In 1986, a Stephen King novella was made into a movie, with a classic song serving as title, soundtrack and tone.

Adele

AdeleFact or Fiction

Despite her reticent personality, Adele's life and music are filled with intrigue. See if you can spot the true tales.

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"Songwriter Interviews

Ian talks about his 3 or 4 blatant attempts to write a pop song, and also the ones he most connected with, including "Locomotive Breath."

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.

Al Jourgensen of Ministry

Al Jourgensen of MinistrySongwriter Interviews

In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.