Photo Credit: James Minchin III

By Paul Freeman [August, 2010]

Grammy and Academy Award-winning artist Melissa Etheridge has been creating memorable music for more than 20 years. But she’s not resting on her laurels. The courageous singer-songwriter’s latest album, “Fearless Love” ranks among her best.

It’s filled with anthemic, powerful rock songs, reflecting Etheridge’s primary musical influences. Yet it contains bold, dramatic, original viewpoints. Fearlessness contributes to her longevity as an important artist.

The icon, an inspiration to millions, graciously spoke with Pop Culture Classics.

POP CULTURE CLASSICS:
On this album, you were conscious of honoring your influences. Can you elaborate on that?

MELISSA

ETHERIDGE:

I think I spent al ot of my earlier years definitely being influenced, yet thinking, ‘You know what? I have to find my own sound. I don’t want to sound too much like anybody else.’ And the more I have studied and listened to my influences - Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, The Who, the great rock ‘n’ roll of the ‘60s and ‘70s - the more I realized how much they were playing their influences.

I sort of studied rock ‘n’ roll and realized, ‘Wait a minute, that’s what rock ‘n’ roll is. You listen to what you love and then you make it your way. There’s nothing wrong with me being inspired by Bruce Springsteen or being inspired by the drama of Pete Townshend and The Who. I can do this.’ It was kind of nice to let go of the sort of guilt, maybe, that I was thinking that I couldn’t really draw on my influences.

PCC:
And though it’s kind of a return to your rock roots, then, do you view the album as the result of your evolution as an artist? That it couldn’t have been created without building on all the elements you’ve explored in your previous work?

ETHERIDGE:
Definitely, definitely, I could never have made this album without having made all the others before. And to let myself honor and be grateful to the work I’ve done and not say, ‘Oh, I should have done this,’ ‘I should have done that.’ That would have been easy. Instead I was able to just honor it and say, ‘That was the path and that’s what I had to do and here I am now. This is great.’

PCC:
You’ve been creating music for 20 years and yet this album sounds so fresh and exciting. What has enabled you to keep the music as relevant as ever?

ETHERIDGE:
Because I love it. It’s about keeping that fire, that inspiration alive. As soon as I stop worrying about what the record company’s going to think or ‘Oh, is this going to be played on the radio?’ ‘Are the kids going to like this?’ Whatever those worries are. As soon as I let go of all that, I went, ‘I’m going to just make music that I love, to where, when I listen to it, I go, ‘Whoooh! I can’t wait to play that!’ As long as I do that, then I’m trusting that that’s how I do what I do best.

PCC:
So that approach, that perspective, contributes to your longevity as an artist? The fact that you’re honest and have integrity in your music? That’s something that’s hard to find these days.

ETHERIDGE:
Yes it is. What does that say about us? Yeah. But that approach is exciting and it’s dangerous and it’s fun. That’s what rock ‘n’ roll is. Rock ‘n’ roll should be a little dangerous and outside the norm.

PCC:
The risks have never daunted you? Do you welcome them?

ETHERIDGE:
I’ve been daunted before. I’ve made some daunted moves in my life. And I’ve always ended up in the hole, going, ‘Why am I doing this?’ Just a couple of instances of hitting the brick wall like that and you’re like, ‘Oh, I get it.’ So everything I’ve created, especially after my bout with cancer, everything I’ve created after that, I’ve said, ‘I’m never going to make a piece of music unless I love it.’ And that’s what I’ve been living the last six years.

PCC:
Life changes, motherhood, surviving the cancer, those things alter perspective. Are they all reflected in the music in some way?

ETHERIDGE:
Oh, yes. My music is so autobiographical. I’ve always felt that that’s what a songwriter’s supposed to do is experience the feelings, the emotions, the inspiration, whatever it is, feel it and then put it into the art, so that other people can feel your experience of it. That’s what I always thought it was supposed to be. That’s what I grew up with.

So I do that. So, after going through motherhood, oh my God, which is a mind-blowing experience, all along the way, I have teenagers now and I have little kids again. And it’s a trip. It brings up your own stuff constantly. You’re learning every day.

And having gone through chemo and having a run-in with cancer and mortality and going, ‘Whoah! ‘ and having an awakening and enlightenment and the breakthrough and then putting all of that in the music, I’m having a lot of fun.

PCC:
The title track, where you sing, ‘I am what I’m afraid of,’ have you learned to conquer your fears or to embrace them?

ETHERIDGE:
Yes and yes. I’ve learned that the key is what you fear and to recognize that every choice you make, all day long, from the second you open your eyes and you’re consciously awake, every choice you make is either love or fear - what you eat, what you think, what you say, what you wear, what you do, where you go - every choice you make, you’re making between love and fear. And if you can start recognizing when fear comes up, then you can start navigating around it. And then life gets really fun.

PCC:
And that song, ‘Fearless Love,’ you weren’t sure you wanted to put it on the album? It’s so instantly grabbing. It’s hard to believe it didn’t jump out at you.

ETHERIDGE:
You know what? I’m the worst. I almost didn’t put ‘Come To My Window’ on ‘Yes I Am,’ so...what do I know, at all? [Laughs].Yeah, what happens is, I think, ‘Oh, that’s too simple.’ But what I miss is, sometimes an emotion can actually be put across more powerfully when you express it simply.

PCC:
The song ‘The Wanting of You,’ is that grappling with fears and changes, as well?

ETHERIDGE:
Yeah, well the whole album is about love and fear. It’s the choices between them and whether they’re speaking of my own personal experiences with it or, in ‘The Wanting of You,’ I did something I don’t do very often, which is, I removed myself from the story. And I want to do more of that. This is sort of my testing the waters. I know the story. I have been other characters in the story. But I wanted to write about an individual’s struggle with fear and love and the choices you make and why and the struggle with it.

PCC:
In terms of the shadings of the lyrics, looking back now, how do you think your marriage coming to an end might have affected the subtext or tone of the album?

ETHERIDGE:
That’s a question I can answer better later, because I’m still right in it. And I tend to find those things a couple years down the line afterwards, when I go back and look at my work and go, ‘Oh, I was telling myself this’ and ‘I didn’t know that!’ And it’s really still a process right now and these songs are new and I haven’t been able to get away from them.

PCC:
When you do write such personal material, it must be really revelatory and fascinating to go back a couple years later and reexamine the songs.

ETHERIDGE:
I tell you, it is, because I keep seeing different layers. When I thought, ‘Oh, I was writing that’ and then later realize, ‘Ah, no, I was writing that.’ And it’s pretty cool. I actually enjoy looking at it. And it gives you another perspective of what your past is, what your memories are. It helps you sort of reshape the past.

PCC:
With ‘Indiana,” were you reflecting on your Midwestern background?

ETHERIDGE:
Actually, ‘Indiana’ is about Tammy. It’s Tammy’s story. It was inspired by her. She was from Indiana. And I just found myself being inspired by her story. Again, probably years from now, I’ll know more about the song than I do now. [Laughs].

PCC:
And it probably will inspire others, as well.

ETHERIDGE:
I hope so.

PCC:
You must hear all the time from fans who are inspired by various aspects of your life.

ETHERIDGE:
It’s my favorite thing, I gotta tell you. It’s a really cool way to go through life, to have strangers come up and tell you wonderful things.

PCC:
What sparked the writing of ‘Nervous’?

ETHERIDGE:
Right now, I don’t know exactly the moment in my life that inspired the actual event in that song, I just know I was writing about being afraid of something, nervous, afraid and wanting to fight it. Trying to understand that sometimes we, not understanding that we love it, that we want this thing, and fearing it causes us to lash out in anger sometimes. That explains a lot of things.

PCC:
Another of my favorites on the album is ‘We Are The Ones.’ Is that kind of an exhortation to shake off the apathy and be proactive and end the unproductive divisiveness we’ve got going?

ETHERIDGE:
There you go. That’s exactly it. And very well put. Unproductive divisiveness. I might have to use that. Thank you. That’s exactly it. We chase each other around, like we’re chasing our own tails, trying the ‘I’m right, you’re wrong.’ The minute we can stop and go, ‘You know what? Everybody’s right. There is no wrong.’ There’s enough and there’s space for everybody to have their own life, their own choices. You don’t have to feel and think the way I do. And I don’t have to feel and think the way you do.

PCC:
But do you think people are feeling the futility and frustration to the point where they are hesitant to get involved again?

ETHERIDGE:
That’s a personal experience. As you go down your journey, as you go down your path, you’re going to pull things into your path that are going to help you get closer to understanding your own peace and your own self. That’s what we’re here for. So people, as they start to understand the nature of reality, as they just walk along, they’re going to find it in different ways, at different times, that hope is the same as love. And the minute you start forgiving what you consider to be wrong and harmful, when you can get your mind around a different perspective about it, then you’ll start to find this peace. And then you’ll understand that we are the ones we’ve been waiting for. You’ll understand that we, each of us, are capable of creating a new future, a new life, a new world. Each of us can do it. We can. And we have that power. So that’s what I’m kind of trying to shake up.

PCC:
And in terms of the changes that still need to come, are people starting to realize that it’s not just about a change in administration, that more is needed?

ETHERIDGE:
I hope so. Anytime I get asked now about politics, I say, ‘Guess what I’ve learned, that it doesn’t matter whether it’s Republican or Democratic, at all. There’s a few social issues that I certainly represent, but, other than that, they’re each owned and in the pocket of these huge multinational corporations and the way that we face that and change that is every day we vote with our pocketbooks what we’re going to put up with. And we put the oil companies in charge. We put the drug companies in charge. Because we’re willing to be sick and we’re willing to think that we need all that, when all we have to do is think, ‘Oh, wait a minute, I can actually be healthy as long as I want to be and I don’t have to have a pill. And I don’t have to put oil in my car. We can change it. We have the power. Anyway, that’s my politics.

PCC:
And ‘Miss California,’ it’s just so baffling what happened in California with Proposition 8.

ETHERIDGE:
Threw me for a loop. [Laughs] I had to write a song about it.

PCC:
What are the issues now that most concern you?

ETHERIDGE:
I think it comes to, what I’ve just been saying, to this personal path. You can go out there and try to change everybody and fight, fight, fight. But it’s time to say, ‘I need to start walking my path.’ And the only thing I can do is inspire as I walk my path. I can’t tell anybody to change, because I’m telling them not to tell me to change. I’m not going to tell them to change. So that’s sort of what I’m into now.

PCC:
You have such a clear view of the present. What excites you about the future?

ETHERIDGE:
What excites me about the future is that I’m constantly creating it in the present. I’m never going to get to the future, because I’m always in the present. So, if I create the present to be this joyous experience, then I can be excited about my future.

PCC:
And with all you’ve already achieved, are there still goals you’re yearning to reach?

ETHERIDGE:
You know, it’s funny how I look at goals now. I used to think being rich and famous was a goal. There’s really not a goal there.

I ended up succeeding in what I love to do. And now I get to keep doing what I love. And that is success.

I sure put dreams in front of me. I’d love to have a musical on Broadway. I’d love to do all these things. That’s just my fun creating I just hope that I can continue doing what I love.

For the latest Melissa Etheridge concert dates, visit: www.melissaetheridge.com/events