Singer Sheryl Crow is known for memorable pop songs and and for occasionally talking smack. She was widely quoted as recommending that we all do our part to save the environment by limiting our toilet paper usage to a single square, a quote she says was taken out of context from a campus comedy routine on global warming and wasn’t meant to be taken seriously.

Now she’s joking around about going to rehab and saying that it might revive her career. She supposedly said this during a performance, and while it’s also taken out of context and seems to be meant as a joke, it’s something that she maybe should have kept to herself:

The singer/songwriter, who has battled depression for years, joked about recording a duet with troubled British singer Amy Winehouse during a show at London’s Scala venue on 19 February (08) - before poking fun at stars in rehab.

Crow told fans, “I want to collaborate with Amy because she’s really hot and cool right now. I know one song, Rehab, was very popular, particularly because a lot of young people are in rehab. “In fact, I’m thinking about going. It looks like loads of fun and I know my career will benefit from it.”

[WENN via Hollywood.tv]

Maybe I’m being overly sensitive, but if she said it that way, that’s rude! At least Sheryl is one of those celebrities who says what she feels and doesn’t tiptoe around things she is passionate about, but calling rehab “fun” and talking about how it will help your career is asinine.

It sounds like someone is pissed because they’re sober with a little kid at home and aren’t as successful or famous as another musician who was taped smoking crack. She has a point in that we keep giving chances to drugged-out singers and celebrities, but it’s not like rehab is fun or people enter into the decision to go lightly.

Sheryl Crow’s album, Detours, has been well received critically, but is not a huge commercial success. The CD sold about 92,000 copies in its first week of release. According to Billboard, it is her “lowest sales debut since her 1996 self-titled sophomore album bowed with 80,000.”