Rock chicks with guitars are irrefutably sexy. But Grammy-winning rocker Melissa Etheridge has all that plus some. She’s carved her name out, not only on her inevitable path to rock and roll history, but as a fearlessly out lesbian and politically prescient activist.
When songs from Etheridge’s self-titled debut hit the airwaves in 1988, she created buzz in the rock world about her hard-driving guitar licks and visceral lyrics—not to mention her gravelly, heart-rending vocals. From her painful paean to a lost lover on “Similar Features”, to the rip your heart out and stomp on it anthem “Bring Me Some Water”, Etheridge had already imprinted her instantly recognizable sound into the American fabric.
While a generation of young women could only hope that Etheridge’s sex appeal and powerhouse rock woman persona indicated she was gay, she delivered a virtual love letter to her fans and the LGBT community alike when she came out publicly during the run up to President Bill Clinton’s inauguration. Etheridge’s bold coming out, along with k.d. Lang’s and later, Ellen Degeneres’, would form the trifecta of contemporary lesbians who changed the world.
Now Etheridge is back with her ninth album, The Awakening—a soulful offering chock-full of reflective and joyful roadside paintings of Etheridge’s life journey. That journey now includes finding true, uncomplicated love with her wife Tammy Lynn Michaels—now Etheridge—and their twin babies, which Tammy carried.
A pinup on lesbians’ bedroom walls since her debut album nearly 20 years ago, Etheridge became an accidental poster girl for breast cancer when she battled the disease a few years back. But Etheridge not only survived the bout with breast cancer, she’s come back swinging.
An Oscar in her back pocket for penning “I Need to Wake Up”, the theme to Al Gore’s cry for environmental awareness in An Inconvenient Truth, Etheridge has become a respected political activist.
Etheridge made history yet again when she recently joined a panel of journalists to grill Democratic presidential hopefuls on their LGBT policies at HRC / Logo’s watershed Presidential Forum. “Brave” but not “Crazy”, Etheridge unwaveringly faced Hillary Clinton and told her that she and Bill let down the LGBT community during the early days of Clinton’s presidency.
Etheridge has proven time after time that she not only plays for the LGBT team but, she goes to bat for it too.
LesbiaNation: Thanks so much for taking time to talk with me. I love The Awakening. It seems to have a different sensibility than your previous releases. And certainly you’ve been through so much in the past few years...
ME: I’m different. I think that’s the biggest difference in it. I’ve always written autobiographically and kind of for myself. But it was always about the sort of dramas of the relationship I was in and trying to find some peace or strength. It was always a kind of quest for peace in my relationships.
LN: And now you have that peace?
ME: This comes after finding that and then going through the experience of having cancer and chemotherapy.
LN: I’ve read on Tammy Lynn’s blog that she would fall asleep and wake up and you’d have a new opus that you’d written. Was this record in any way easier or more difficult based on your recent life experiences?
ME: Well. I’ve been writing since I was 10 so it’s been 36 years of writing. I wouldn’t say it was any more easy or difficult. Writing is just an expression. I actually get a lot of my emotions out through my writing, more than I do personally, so it’s sort of another way of communicating. It’s all about allowing myself the time and the space to concentrate and bring forth inspiration and craft it. I just have to give myself that time to craft.
LN: This may be a bit of a silly question but I like to know about an artist’s process. What’s your chicken or egg? Do music or lyrics come first or does it vary?
ME: That’s not a silly question. That’s the most asked question I get. There’s not one formula. The inspiration can be lyrical, musical, a rhythm, an idea. There’s no one way of doing it.
LN: On this record—actually—what do you like to call your work since we don’t have actual records anymore? Since CD’s and iTunes, it’s tough to know what to call them anymore.
ME: I call it an album because an album is a collection of work.
LN: Good to know. Alright then, on this album you at once convey reflection and jubilance. Is that a result of both finding love and surviving breast cancer?
ME: Because I found my joy. I found that life is to be enjoyed. Life is amazing and happy and it’s full of joy if you choose it and there’s a lot that goes into that. But the real basic revelation that life is love, and there’s this incredible joy there. We have just been brainwashed into thinking that life is really just working and eating and sleeping.
LN: I love the song “Threesome”. It made me laugh out loud.
ME: Good.
LN: I think it’s a fun, hilarious way to say I love you. How did you come up with that?
ME: That’s funny. I’m glad. Some people don’t get it. They go all around about it. The way I came up with it was, again, Tammy was sleeping. It was her first trimester. She was either sleeping or puking. That was it. It was rough. So, I was sitting in the room and she was taking a nap. She woke up and was disturbed. She was like, “Oh my God! I just dreamed that Linda Evans wanted to have a threesome with us.
LN: You could do worse.
ME: I laughed. You know, Linda Evans from Dynasty. The ’80s. I said, “No, no honey. I don’t want to do that.” And then I realized, well, in my past relationships, that has happened. It’s a reflection of how you can make choices in your life and then you can change and find a relationship that actually builds you up. And you don’t need to search out anymore drama or sexual drama in your life.
"Threesome" from The Awakening
LN: Did you feel the difference when you started seeing Tammy?
ME: Yes. She was one of the first… she was the first really. We actually dated. We met, we went out to dinner, we were both single. There was no drama involved what-so-ever and that was a big difference to begin with. I was a drama seeker before then. I was just…
LN: Well, you needed material.
ME: Exactly! I became very successful… but it was about to kill me. [This] relationship is built on this solid foundation and this is how I like it... when you come to a relationship with exactly who you are and with honesty. There’s nothing like it. It’s amazing the energy you save.
LN: That’s a great way to put it. Shifting gears a bit, this has been a kick-ass month for new music from great women artists, including you, Annie Lennox, Joni Mitchell, Reba McEntire… Do you think the country wants to get back to some real music?
ME: Yes I do. I think it comes in waves. Now that I’ve been around long enough… over 20 years, I see that our society, what we need and what we look for in our entertainment and in our soul, that changes and it swings back and forth. When my first album came out I was involved with so many incredible artists. The late ’80s, it was filled with Tracy Chapman, Edie Brickell, Toni Childs, Michelle Shocked, Sinead O’Connor and on and on…
LN: I love them all.
ME: And the men too. REM, Counting Crows… this great music that was soulful and felt like it was coming from the heart and the head. It was thoughtful. Then we got to the end of the nineties and we didn’t want anymore of that. It was like candy and fast food. It was ’NSYNC and Boys on the Block or whatever. It was the Britney’s and the Christina's and we went very young it was all very sexual. I was like, “holy cow,” I don’t fit into this.
LN: Any thoughts as to why that happened?
ME: We fell asleep in a lot of ways. Our television shows got cheesier—the reality stuff. It was like individual thinking got bought out by corporations and the corporations marketed to just this really narrow thing they know they could sell a record to so they only make that. Our capitalism, our desire to incorporate and make corporations out of everything and make massive amounts of money sort of kills the art. When that happens people kind of lay around say, “oh, it’s so awful,” and then musicians come in and we say, “No it’s not,” and we all release the music and say, “Here, follow us again.” We’ll get out of it.
LN: I came out in the late ’80s before you, k.d. Lang or Ellen came out publicly and there was scant lesbian representation in the media. Now we enjoy much more visibility thanks to people like you and we have this hit show, The L Word. Do you think because it’s not as big a deal for most people to come out that there’s a sort of complacency? Do you think we need a call to action for gays and lesbians and feminists?
ME: Oh yeah. I remember after the ’70s, being a child and a teenager of the ’70s and hearing about women’s lib and then getting to the ’80s and there was a backlash. I remember Susan Faludi’s book Backlash. It stood me on end. I was like, whoa, this is happening. They come so far and then it goes back. And I just take for granted that, well, it’s all fixed now. And I think that generations learn this and now I’m up here going, “No, we have to fight this.” We have to keep the consciousness. We have to be aware of what’s going on and keep moving forward and not become complacent. And the young girls now are like, “No party on,”—cuz that’s what I was doing.
LN: What has to happen for people to start caring about their collective history and future?
ME: I think every generation has to discover it for themselves. And it’s easier as it goes along. They’ll have their own Matthew Shepherd or whatever it is…unfortunately. Everyone learns at their own pace.
LN: So you came out here to Los Angeles. You did the West Hollywood scene. Do you feel as though you’ve contributed to The L Word?
ME: (chuckles) I lived The L Word! You know, I know the creators. I can tell you exactly who every character is based on.
LN: See now, you’re teasing us.
ME: When we’re old ladies there’ll be some great books written on it.
"California" from The Awakening
LN: Congratulations. You know you’ve really arrived when you get skewered on The Daily Show.
ME: (Laughs) Good. When you’re skewered on The Daily Show, you’ve made it absolutely.
LN: That’s really just a lead in for me to ask you about the HRC / Logo Presidential Forum. When all was said and done, how did you feel about the event?
ME: When all was said and done, we won before we started. We benefited before we even started because they agreed to come talk to us. That’s more than in any presidential election—that they would agree to talk to us. And on television, so we could run the tape back and go, “oh look, you said this.” We won going in. The funny thing is that they all sat down and said we completely agree on gay equality, DOMA, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. They all agreed, but the top three and Bill Richardson all said, “Well, we can’t call it a marriage.” It’s this crazy political, “I have to please everyone. I can’t call it marriage.” Even though each of them, if there was a way to sit down privately and say to them, “Off the record, do you really believe I should not get married?” They're going to say of course you can get married. The constitution guarantees this. It’s about equality.
LN: So who can we put our faith in?
ME: Well, the only one, well, Mike Gravel—bless his heart—but the only one who walked up there and said it was Dennis Kucinich. I wish Hillary could stand up and say, it might not be popular but you know what? This is what’s right. Instead of looking at poll numbers. It makes me crazy.
LN: It does. I agree. Could a frontrunner who supports gay marriage get the votes from the flyover states?
ME: Yes. Absolutely. If I go to Kansas and my hometown, and I go there and I say, look, this is what’s happening in America and you want this to still happen. Our young people are dying, the deficit, the treasonous behavior of our government. Or would you rather have all that, plus, men and men and women and women can’t get married? I think people have reached the end of their rope. I think when they saw Katrina. I think all of that seriously changed most of their minds and I think they’re looking at Massachusetts, and it hasn’t fallen off into the ocean. I think that people just want a leader. Oh… I could go on and on.
LN: Can you give a shout out to Tammy for pissing off Page Six with her blog rant about Bush and Karl Rove.
ME: How about that. I was like, “Woo, honey.” You know they picked it up. She wrote about two weeks before.
LN: Yeah, well, it got a lot of play.
ME: Yeah, her next blog was like, “Oh, there paying attention to me.” I'll let her know.
LN: I’ve enjoyed this immensely but I’m sure you have plenty of folks to talk to, so I’ll let you go. Is there anything you’d like to say about The Awakening before we go?
ME: It’s a part of me. I loved making it. I hope it lifts people up. I think we need some joy and we need some forward thinking and it’s never as dark as we think it is. We’re going to get out of this and we’re going to be very much smarter after all of it.
"Message to Myself" from The Awakening
If You Like Melissa: Gadget White, anchored by her jaw dropping vocals that slice to the core, has been entertaining audiences with her rare breed of honest, profound lyrics for more than two decades. The openly gay singer joined the Navy right out of high-school and, after four years of service, paid the bills fronting cover bands. With two solo, indie albums under her belt, she has opened for everyone from Patti Griffin to Joan Jett. Be on the look out for Gadget's music on forthcoming here! TV programs. You can check out her new single, "28 Years", at her official Web site, www.GadgetWhiteBand.com.
Rock chicks with guitars are irrefutably sexy. But Grammy-winning rocker Melissa Etheridge has all that plus some. She’s carved her name out, not only on her inevitable path to rock and roll history, but as a fearlessly out lesbian and politically prescient activist. 
ME: I’m different. I think that’s the biggest difference in it. I’ve always written autobiographically and kind of for myself. But it was always about the sort of dramas of the relationship I was in and trying to find some peace or strength. It was always a kind of quest for peace in my relationships. 
ME: We fell asleep in a lot of ways. Our television shows got cheesier—the reality stuff. It was like individual thinking got bought out by corporations and the corporations marketed to just this really narrow thing they know they could sell a record to so they only make that. Our capitalism, our desire to incorporate and make corporations out of everything and make massive amounts of money sort of kills the art. When that happens people kind of lay around say, “oh, it’s so awful,” and then musicians come in and we say, “No it’s not,” and we all release the music and say, “Here, follow us again.” We’ll get out of it. 