Like the way I do
| 26 May 2010
Lesbian icon Melissa Etheridge has returned to her rock-chick roots on her latest album. Here she talks to Garrett Bithell about the gay movement, her cancer battle, and confronting her deepest fears.
It’s 6.55am on a Wednesday morning, and I’m frantically gulping down a double-shot coffee in a sincere attempt to trick my body into sharp, inquiring interview-mode much earlier than is usually required. My chat with one of the original rock chicks, Melissa Etheridge, is scheduled for 7am, and when my desk phone starts to ring aggressively, I answer in a summarily apathetic tone, expecting some conference-call lackey to be on other end.
Needless to say, the chirpy, instantly-recognisable voice that actually greets me is mildly jolting. “Hi Garrett, it’s Melissa Etheridge!”
“Oh, hi!” I stammer. “I thought I was at least a foreign accent and two minutes of holding music away from you,” to which she laughs heartily.
That Etheridge was evidently calling interviewers herself from her home in Los Angeles perhaps reveals a lot about the woman. After more than 20 years as a recording artist, during which she assumed her post as one of the celebrity gatekeepers of the gay rights movement after coming out publicly in the early 90s, battled breast cancer in 2004, and raised four children, Etheridge is now happy, grounded, and grateful.
“I’m so fortunate that after 20 years you people still want to talk to me,” she tells MCV. “I hold that very dear and I’m actually very grateful.”
Old fans of Etheridge will be happy to know that after her “introspective years”, she’s back to doing what she does best – rocking out. Her new album, Fearless Love, is brave and bold and empowered. The title itself is revealing.
“My journey over the last five years has been one of finding my strengths, conquering my fears, and understanding that any fear I let come in my way is just keeping me from doing the things I love,” Etheridge says. Indeed within the title song is the illuminating line, ‘I am what I am, and I am what I’m afraid of’.
“I am what I am; I’m not going to be anything else,” she muses. “It’s about recognising myself and my truth. I’m a woman, I’m a rock and roll artist, I’m a lesbian, I’m a cancer survivor – I am those things. And ‘I am what I’m afraid of’ is about understanding the power that fear has. If I’m afraid that I’m too old, I will be too old.”
This frame of mind is what led Etheridge to triumphantly take to the stage with soul ingénue Joss Stone – who incidentally features on Fearless Love – at the 2005 Grammy Awards. Still healing from the operations and chemotherapy that ravaged her body, she fronted the world, bald, and sung her heart out in a tribute to Janis Joplin. “The universe gave me the chance to stand on the public stage again, and I chose to take it,” she says. “The rewards from that moment continue to this day.”
Etheridge has never been scared to make a political statement, and her song ‘Miss California’, off the new album, is a pained ode to her state. It’s not, as has been suggested, directed at one Miss California in particular, Carrie Prejean – although the timing was serendipitous.
“I certainly don’t know her, have never known her, and I’m not speaking to her personally, but she does fit the picture,” Etheridge tells. “It’s definitely more about the Proposition 8 debate in general. It’s a spurned love song to my state. I’ve lived here for over 25 years, I love California, and I’ve always felt it was a very progressive state that I contributed to and we were all getting along. Then I thought, ‘wait a minute, you’ve done me wrong’.”
Etheridge is perhaps more connected to the fight for same-sex marriage rights than most. In April 2003, she became engaged to actress Tammy Lynn Michaels, and the two married in Malibu in September of the same year. Last month, however, it was announced that they had separated.
“Same-sex marriage solidifies our democracy and what democracy is,” Etheridge asserts. “It’s a separation of church and state, and it’s equality for everyone. To deny citizens basic rights based on a religious feeling or belief is undemocratic and it’s bad for our country.”
For now, Etheridge is looking forward to touring back to Australia for the first time since 1999. No dates are locked in yet, but we’re on her radar.
“I’m hoping to hit your summertime,” she says. “So hopefully in February I’ll be down there rocking out with my Australian fans and hoping they haven’t forgotten me!”
Fearless Love is out now through Universal.
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