The aptly-named Detours is the conclusion of a three-year journey that has taken in the singer being diagnosed with breast cancer, splitting from long-term love Lance Armstrong and adopting baby son Wyatt.

All these together with Crow's fight back to health and her strong political stance have come to the fore on the singer's highly-anticipated new album.

The 45-year-old star describes her latest offering as "the most honest record I have ever made". And Crow is being just as open today when it comes to talking about recent events.

Having fled LA for Nashville, she feels like she's very much at home both as a single mother and an artist.

Crow has used her cancer battle to her advantage and taken the opportunity to tell women across the world to "be proactive about your health".

"Life's great right now," Sheryl tells Sunday Life. "I'm healthy and things are good.

I had such a nice experience recording this album. I had my new son in the studio with me. There are songs on this album that are very personal to me like Lullaby to Wyatt.

"I'm loving every second of being a single mother. Wyatt has been such a blessing.

"He's the most joyful little child. He's already been on tour. He sleeps in his crib on the bus. He's passed around most of the time, but he's very social, he likes to be around people.

"We also take the dogs - two yellow Labradors - and it's just like taking the whole household. It's like one big family."

Crow's new album Detours was recorded in Nashville where she moved soon after her split with fiance, superstar cyclist Lance Armstrong, but she denies the two were connected.

"I was looking to move before the end of that relationship as I have a lot of family down there. I had lived in LA for 20 years but when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I decided it was important for me to be near my family.

"I was about to adopt, a child and I wanted to have my family around to help me raise Wyatt too. My family are all within a three-and-a-half-hour drive from me now. It would be very difficult for me to raise my son without them."

Despite their split, the high-profile pair remain close. Yes, we're still friends," says Crow. "It was a difficult time because it did all become very public for us both. But our relationship ran its course and we have both moved on.

"I was ready to have my life changed. Being diagnosed with cancer made me ask, 'What do I want out of life?' It gave me an incredible fearlessness about adopting a child.

"I've always felt like I was meant to be a mum, one way or another, and it didn't make sense to me to go to a sperm bank. It's a gift to be able to give a home to a child who needs one."

With no history of breast cancer in her family, it was a shock for Crow when she was diagnosed and she is determined to raise awareness of the disease.

"Be diligent about mammograms. I had a lumpectomy, and then six-and-a-half weeks of radiation but I'm in good shape now.

"The thing is when someone is diagnosed with cancer, the whole family gets that diagnosis. It made all of us feel that we don't want to take even the smallest things for granted.

"There was a lot of fear, sadness, grief, but ultimately a sense of powerful union.

"But it was an odd experience. When you're a person who thinks that they have a lot of control over things, to suddenly go from having everything mapped out to having your life threatened by a diagnosis of cancer, you have to do what your spirit tells you to do, which is to just hunker down and start investigating what you're made of.

"There were things about my life that were not right before. I was always taking care of everybody else and making sure everyone was happy with me.

"I don't do that any more and I practise saying the word 'No' even though it's really hard for me to say. This year really dictated that I stand up for myself, and I really put myself first."

However Crow was determined not to let down her fans and a short time after her radiotherapy course finished, she went ahead with a pre-planned tour.

"It was very emotional for me," she admits. "People told me that when you have radiotherapy, you're just kind of left wide open emotionally. I was really tired all the time, and emotional."

Crow grew up in a musical family but doesn't rule out a few forays into acting.

"I was in the film De-Lovely which was, for me, not a stretch because I got to play a singer. As a kid I grew up absorbed by song and dance films.

"I loved Gene Kelly so much when I was eight that I wrote him a letter because I really wanted to marry him and I thought, 'If you just wait¿' and he did write back, but," she laughs, "we never did get married."

› New album Detours is released Friday. Single Love is Free is out February 11.