Sheryl Crow is a meditator and environmentalist by morning, musician by night and a full-time mother all day.

Never was it more evident than shortly after she answered my phone call. Almost before we could start, she politely interrupted the interview to tend to her 2-year-old son, Wyatt, whom she adopted when he was 2 weeks old. Her love is such that she dedicated the single "Lullaby for Wyatt" to him on her latest album, "Detours."

"He is everything to me," Crow said from her home in Nashville. "He helps me speak the truth, and I am definitely more aware of what happens to me after I leave this Earth."

These are good times for Crow, and to be a Crow fan in Hawai'i. The nine-time Grammy winner will be soaking up the sun at the Waikiki Shell Saturday before performing Tuesday at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center.

Crow knows Hawai'i well. She first visited the Islands in the 1970s because her father was previously based here with the military. It's also the birthplace of her older sister.

"I went to Hawai'i when I was 14, because my father wanted us to see where he used to live," Crow said. "At that time, Hawai'i had been hoteled up, and there was a lot of development. My father and mother were very surprised to see their old duplex still standing."

The Missouri native later in life found herself shooting the video for her hit tune "Soak up the Sun" on O'ahu's North Shore.

Crow had everybody humming the dreamy chorus during the summer of 2002.

But her career had already long been successful since her 1993 debut release of the album, "Tuesday Night Music Club."

That album also spawned the tracks "All I Wanna Do," "Strong Enough" and "Leaving Las Vegas."

It was one of the most popular rock albums of the '90s and helped her win three Grammys — record of the year, best new artist and best female pop vocal performance.

The 47-year-old mother released "Detours" in February 2008, which spawned the hits "Love is Free" and "Out of Our Heads."

The album mainly focuses on emotional topics, such as her breakup with cyclist Lance Armstrong, beating breast cancer and her son.

Crow's smile can clearly be heard over the phone today, and she has reason to be happy.

She recently performed with the two remaining members of The Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, at New York's Radio Music City Hall.

The performance was a benefit concert for the David Lynch Foundation, an organization that promotes meditation for young people.

She joined them on stage along with others such as Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Ben Harper, Moby, and Mike Love (of the Beach Boys) for a performance of The Beatles' hit "Cosmically Conscious."

"It was amazing," Crow said. "I can't tell you how surreal it was to be on the same stage as Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. It was really cool to perform a song with them."

Crow was invited to the concert by Lynch because she has been outspoken about the benefits of meditation.

She insists that she gets through her day by meditating for 20 minutes in the morning and night, a ritual she's been doing for about 12 years.

"I am a very busy person and meditation is a great way to create space from within," Crow said. "It's also the best way to manifest peace from within."

She's cut down on live performances lately so she can use the time volunteering to help young people.

She spent this past March, Women's History Month, giving motivational speeches at various schools in the Washington, D.C. area. She was invited by first lady Michelle Obama, who initiated the talks.

At the motivational speeches, she was often paired with Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman to enter space. Other women on the high school speaking tour were singer Alicia Keys, dancer Debbie Allen, gymnast Dominique Dawes and Marissa Ann Mayer, a vice president at Google.

"It was great just hearing other women tell how they wound up what they were doing and get the chance to talk to girls about how I wound up doing what I'm doing," Crow said. "You're never too young or old to be inspired by other people's stories."

She has also been working to save the environment. Recently, she joined the Music Saves Mountains campaign, which is trying to stop coal mining in the Appalachian Mountains.

"The topography is changing," she said. "It's just morally incorrect. These were the first mountains to form after the glacial movement. But most of all, the United States needs to depend less on coal. We don't make it easy for people to purchase solar panels."

Next month, Crow will return to the recording studio to start working on her next album. She is in no hurry, though. She just wants to make the best album she can.

"It's less about being successful and more about being honest," she said. "It wouldn't be awful if it wasn't successful, but nowadays, that isn't as easy to do. I just want to be true to myself."