By Gregg Shapiro

Contributing writer

“The Awakening” (Island), Melissa Etheridge’s ninth studio album and first since her well-documented battle with cancer, finds her embracing her activist voice. Not a stranger to performing songs of a topical nature, including her Academy Award-winning “I Need to Wake Up,” Etheridge covers the politics of body image (“Map of the Stars”), the politics of religious fanaticism (“Kingdom of Heaven”), the politics of war (“Imagine That”) and more, and does so in what has become her signature style. I spoke to her about “The Awakening” as well as her own artistic awakening shortly before the release of the album.

Gregg Shapiro: In terms of your previous work, would you say that “The Awakening,” which includes songs such as “California,” “An Unexpected Rain,” “I’ve Loved You Before” and “Message to Myself,” is your most personal and autobiographical effort?

Melissa Etheridge: It’s the most consciously personal and autobiographical. Everything that I’ve written has been personal, whether I knew it or not, whether I was pretending that it was or not. (With) this, I finally realized what I’m doing as an artist. And I finally let go of this dream of being some sort of famous thing. And I started realizing that I’m an artist and I make music and people want to hear my. It’s like reading a good book—they want the story, they like that I take the personal stuff and create from it and that I hopefully find universality in it. And that’s just what I’m supposed to do and I let myself do it.

GS: It’s interesting, too, in mentioning the universal, because by the very nature of some of the songs, including “What Happens Tomorrow,” “Imagine That” and “The Kingdom of Heaven,” there is a universal and political spirit. Does it ever surprise you to look back over the course of your nine studio albums, at the evolution of your political voice, which is so clear in, for example, “Scarecrow” and “Tuesday Morning”?

ME: That means a lot to me that you noticed that because that has definitely been a journey. I remember writing my first social or political song, “Testify,” and it was on my second album (“Brave and Crazy”), but I wrote it while I was making my first album. And the song, in itself, was about, “I want to testify.” And going back and listening to my songs, which I did on chemotherapy, it was one of the ones that I realized that I was forecasting. I want to be truthful. I want to say something, that life is happening and I’m just sitting here. I think I need to speak out and I started walking this path and things would happen and I sort of stepped into it in “Scarecrow” and “Tuesday Morning” and finally going, “Look, I think this is becoming a part of me, it’s not just one song on the album anymore, I’m finding my voice in this.”

GS: It’s a very different voice, and it’s incredible, like you said, you really can see this popping up more in your work, and it’s very powerful.

ME: Thank you so much, because it is the path that I am on, and it’s kind of freaky, because I’m that “Come To My Window” girl (laughs) and “the broken-hearted girl” and I’m not that anymore. I’m so not that. And this is where I am, and I’m hoping that being an artist who is writing autobiographically, people will want to come with me and appreciate it.

GS: What is it about this particular set of songs that lent itself to the song cycle concept?

ME: I don’t know (laughs). It just became this. What I consciously intended when I sat down to start writing this album was that I wanted a piece of art, a piece of music like what I used to love. I’d take Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On” and John Lennon’s “Imagine” or “Sgt. Pepper” and put it on and you’d think, “What is the artist saying to me? What does that mean? Why does this follow that? What’s the message here?” And there were messages—it wasn’t just about the radio. And maybe some of the songs got played on the radio, but it was about the piece of work. So I opened myself up, and I said, “I’m not going to talk about radio or hit songs or singles or anything, they’re not even allowed in this process.” I wanted to create this, and so as I started allowing myself full freedom to create whatever I wanted, things started coming out and I was like “What’s this? And what’s this?” The first song I wrote was “California” because I gave myself permission to write any song I want, you can write any song you want to write about, and I said, “I’ve always wanted to write a song about California.” And so I did it and it turned out to be about leaving Kansas and the dreams that I had here, and I’m almost free and this place is going to make all my dreams come true. And the second song I wrote was “Kingdom of Heaven,” and I thought, “Lord, what’s that, I can’t put that on (the CD), people are going to crucify me. ‘God is me,’ what’s that?” And then the songs, over a six-, eight-month period, came one by one until I finally just said, “Well, wait a minute, this is my journey,” and I started realizing what I was writing as I was writing it.

GS: I‘m so glad you mentioned “California” because “Map of the Stars” also seems to mirror that as well.

ME: Yeah, that’s what I found (laughs). And, again, I wrote “Map of the Stars” just because it was something I was feeling. And then when I put that in there, I went, “Oh, that was the answer,” I got here and realized that everyone was starving themselves and looking for this fame because we’d been sold this idea that fame and money will make you happy. And we all believe it and we destroy the whole feminine side of our society. We’re telling our women to starve themselves. It’s insane.

GS: “The Awakening” is punctuated by musical interludes, such as “All There Is,” “God Is in the People,” “A Simple Love” and “All We Can Really Do.”

ME: When I then started placing these songs together in album form, I still had these little pieces. I had just jotted down, “Why do we keep trying to turn people into gods/When God is in the people,” and I felt, “That’s what I’m trying to say in “Map of the Stars,” so why don’t I just put that before “Map of the Stars”? But I thought “Map of the Stars” proved my point in that and all I needed was this little piece. And, again, my brain’s like, “You can’t do that.” Who says? I have no rules here (laughs) that says the song has to be three minutes long—it could be 30 seconds or a minute long. This is all I want to say.

GS: In spite of the serious nature, you find a way to work your delightful and distinctive sense of humor into the proceedings with the hilarious honky-tonk of “Threesome,” in which you can actually be heard chuckling on the song.

ME: It’s true. That’s because I want people to know, in expressing my awakening or my new spirituality, it’s not a bummer—it is joy and finding one true love can be extremely fun and sexual and exciting and when you’re in your 40s you’re still very alive sexually for a long time. There were just a lot of things I wanted to emphasize. Yes, I can get very political and there are some very serious issues in front of us and things we’ve got to do and changes we need to make, but it doesn’t mean it has to be with no fun. Fun is a part of it.

GS: Over the course of your lengthy artistic career, you have amassed a stunning array of accomplishments, but would you have ever guessed that Oscar winner (“I Need to Wake Up” from “An Inconvenient Truth”) would have been one?

ME: (Laughs) It’s funny, growing up in the Midwest, the Oscars, that’s just something you watched. Every February you were watching the Oscars—you had seen the movies, or if I was old enough to see the movies. I didn’t know why (Marlon) Brando won for “Last Tango In Paris,” but I thought it was very interesting, the whole thing. And you sort have a dream of winning an Oscar, but I wasn’t an actress, so wasn’t that a funny dream? And then knowing that there was one little category with music in it, but then flash forward to last year when Al (Gore) calls me, and says, “Come see my slideshow” and then, “Gee, will you write a song for my slideshow?” Which really wasn’t an Oscar (contender), I thought it was a slideshow that was going to be shown in high schools or something. But when I saw the finished product and how powerful it was, I was hoping and praying that this gets out to the world, because we have to change. And then seeing that whole wave come and take over it gave me so much hope, seeing the world change and watching one man just stepping out and speaking his truth, and bringing about change—I am eternally charged by that.

GS: What did it mean to you to participate in the Democratic candidates political debate on Logo?

ME: It meant that I was grateful for my celebrity. And I know that we live in a world of celebrity worship or whatever it is that we’re celebrity-crazed. And know that I was asked to be on that because I am a name and it will bring people to watch it or something. I hope that I represented my community, and it’s hard—the gay community. You can’t get more different people. We’re all the people in the whole world. We’re not even all Democrats or liberals. And I hope that I brought a personal side to it. That’s what I was asked to do and that is what I wanted to do, and I was so honored to be there and I learned a lot.

GS: Speaking of Logo, as an out musician, with a new album, what does it mean to you to have a home of sorts on a cable network, where it seems that your videos have a better shot at being played than a place like MTV or VH1?

ME: (Laughs) Well, they (MTV and VH1) don’t play videos. I love the outlet that Logo is. Not only for us to put content on, but it is a great place for young gays to go to and see a mirror of them. I had nothing. I had no idea what gay life was when I was a teenager. You didn’t see it anywhere. I think it is great, and I love being a part of Logo and being able to put my products on it and stuff. I think that’s great.