Sheryl Crow in St. Louis June 22, announcing the MLB All-Star Charity Concert/Christian Gooden

Sheryl Crow says she has a special tribute planned at the MLB All-Star Charity Concert Saturday night at the Gateway Arch (benefiting Stand Up to Cancer), though it’s not for who you might think.

Crow, a former Michael Jackson back-up singer, met with St. Louis press — again — on Friday to hype up Saturday’s big show with Elvis Costello. She started off talking about Thursday’s big announcement.

We learned Thursday Kennett, Mo., native Crow, in addition to headlining the concert, will perform the U.S. National Anthem as part of the special pre-game ceremony to the 2009 MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday at Busch Stadium.

“Only this week did Mary J. (Blige) drop out of doing the National Anthem, so I’m becoming the All-Star house band singer for the National Anthem,” she said.

Here are excerpts from the interview, conducted with myself, Alive magazine, and KMOX radio (Costello was said to not be available for interview, or even in town yet, though a reporter spotted him in the hotel elevator).

Q. Do you ever get nervous singing the National Anthem?

A. Yes. It’s the hardest song to sing, absolutely. Thank God in the last few years we’ve been using the ear bud monitors. I sang at the World Series five or ten years ago, Yankee Stadium, Mets and Yankees, and you would hear your voice come back to you in the stadium, and it’s really distracting. As you’re singing, the phase you just sang comes back to you. And of course me I’m already judging, ‘Oh my God I didn’t sing that very well,’ and it’s on to the next line.

Q. Why is the National Anthem one of the hardest songs to sing?

A. Really confusing lyrics. It’s a beautiful song but it’s a very difficult song because the words can be interchanging and confusing. As your nerves build up your mind plays tricks on you. Almost everyone I’ve spoken with who has sung it says it’s a really hard song to get through. You feel like you just sang the wrong line as you’re singing the next line.

Q. Can you give us a preview of your playlist for the concert?

A. We’re going to do a lot of songs people know. We haven’t played St. Louis in a while so it’s going to be a little bit of a homecoming. And as everyone knows Elvis Costello is going to come sit in with us and we’re going to do some songs of his that everyone will know and I of course love.

And we’re going to do one surprise song that I think everyone will get a kick out of because it’s by a St. Louis native, an East St. Louis native, if that gives it away.

Q. How have rehearsals with Costello been going, or have you even started rehearsing yet?

A. We haven’t rehearsed yet (laughs). But I can guarantee you they’re going to be great. I’m a huge fan and we’ve been emailing a lot back and forth and we do cross paths a lot and I know his wife and I think it’s going to be a blast. My band, we’re all like little kids. We’re so excited that we get to share the stage with one of the architects of power pop music and those incredible melodies and intellectual lyrics. We feel like we’re going to get an old-fashioned schooling.

Q. Who’s idea was it that Elvis Costello should be your special guest?

A. A lot of brains went into this and it just worked out beautifully.

Q. Who is your all-time favorite Cardinal, past or present?

A. (Bob) Gibson probably? But lemme tell you I was never a cheerleader but I wanted to know how to do a backflip because Ozzie Smith every time there was a major play or a homerun you’d see him run across the field and do a backflip. That may not be a big deal to people, but for a kid watching your home state play baseball that was good. I love Ozzie.

Q. What do you think about MLB dedicating all these events to raise funds and awareness for charity?

A. It’s really amazing. I don’t know of a national sport that’s ever embraced a cause like this and made it such a high profile issue. Of course I don’t have to reiterate the fact that everyone has a relationship with cancer…It’s an incredible blessing to see, at least for me because I have such a personal relationship, a sport embrace Stand Up to Cancer and make it an impressively wide issue.

And to advertise it during the game which everyone watches is a great way to get people involved.

Q. Do you think there are a lot of women who are still thinking it couldn’t happen to them?

A. Absolutely. Two or three years ago I had the dubious honor of becoming a spokesperson for breast cancer. While the experience wouldn’t be one I would’ve chosen I do feel like it’s a grand opportunity for me since I have a wide female base. I get the opportunity to talk to women in their late 20s all the way up to my age and older about being diligent about knowing your family history, doing self-examinations and being diligent about getting mammograms.

Q. Where were you when you found out about Michael Jackson?

A. I was actually in the studio in Los Angeles. When I first heard it it wasn’t confirmed. There were a lot of Internet rumors. I had this funny feeling he was staging it, that he didn’t really want to do those concerts. That’s a lot of pressure for somebody to come back as frail as I think he was at the time.

When they said he passed I had this really sick feeling in my stomach. A thought occurred to me. He was so special. I always wondered would he be someone we’d get to watch grow into an old man. And I could never calculate what that would be like, and I always had a feeling we wouldn’t see that.