Nineteen
years
since
her
first
effort,
lesbian
rocker
Melissa
Etheridge
releases
her
ninth
studio
album,
“The
Awakening,”
on
Sept.
25.
With
it,
she
embarks
on
a
new
phase
in
her
career
and
personal
life
that
involves
quantum
physics
and
devotion
to
her
family.
Etheridge
took
a
break
from
parenting
with
wife
Tammy
Lynn
Michaels
and
public
appearances
to
speak
candidly
with
Southern
Voice
about
the
album
that's
a
sure
bet
to
heat
up
autumn
for
gay
fans,
as
well
as
her
new
outlook
on
life.
Here's
everything
she
had
to
say,
in
her
own
words.
Etheridge
on
'The
Awakening'
It
is
a
concept
album
in
that
it
has
a
beginning,
a
middle,
and
an
end,
it
flows
all
the
way
through...
It
came
from
the
change
I
went
through
going
through
chemotherapy
and
going
through
the
cancer
diagnosis.
I
came
to
the
huge
realization
that
I
create
what
I
do.
I
create
my
reality…
every
moment
I
am
making
choices.
And
those
choices
dictate
the
kind
of
life
that
I’m
going
to
have.
Once
I
realized
that
I
have
the
power
to
do
those
things,
I
started
examining
my
life
and
all
the
choices
that
I
made.
The
first
part
of
the
album
is
a
look
back.
The
first
song
is
called
“California.”
It’s
about
me
growing
up
in
the
Midwest
and
thinking
California
had
all
of
my
dreams,
and
that
they
were
going
to
come
true
there.
There
is
a
song
called
“Unexpected
Rain,”
and
it’s
about
landing
in
the
gay
community
and
playing
the
bars
in
southern
California
and
making
some
choices
there
that
I
am
not
so
proud
of,
like
we
all
do
in
our
early
20s.
On
her
past
and
the
song
'Message
to
Myself'
That
song
comes
from
when
I
was
in
chemotherapy,
and
Tammy
asked
me
if
I
had
ever
listened
to
all
of
my
records,
one
right
after
the
other.
No,
good
Lord,
no,
I
haven’t
done
that.
Since
I
had
weeks
and
weeks
to
do
nothing,
we
spent
three
days
listening
to
the
first
one,
and
we’d
stop
after
each
song
and
say,
“Gosh,
this
is
what
I
was
writing
about,
this
is
the
experience
I
had.”
As
I
went
through
them,
I
would
see
that
a
lot
of
times
I’d
write
things
that
I
didn’t
know
consciously
at
the
time
that
I
was
feeling,
but
later
it
was
obvious
—
“Oh,
gosh,
I
should
have
gotten
out
of
that
relationship”
—
but
I
was
writing
about
it
before
I
had
gotten
out.
I
realized
I
was
sending
messages
to
my
self,
future
self.
My
future
self
is
listening
to
my
past
work.
If
that’s
what
happens
—
if
I
can
write
in
‘93
“Nothing
fills
this
blackness
that
has
seeped
into
my
chest”
and
then
in
2004
I
have
breast
cancer
—
I
think,
“Yikes,
you
know,
wait
a
minute,
I
need
to
start
creating
some
‘Love
is
what
get
when
love
is
what
you
speak/
What
you
fear
can
make
you
weak’
and
all
those
things.”
I
wrote
down
“Well,
I’m
sending
out
a
message
to
myself/
So
that
when
I
hear
it
on
the
radio/
I
am
fine
and
I
am
loved,”
and
I
am
sending
that
to
my
future
self.
That
is
what
this
whole
album
is
based
on.
I
read
a
lot
of
stuff
—
everything
from
cosmology
and
reincarnation
to
string
theory
and
quantum
physics
—
I
read
everything.
I
came
up
with
the
idea
that
everyone
is
saying
the
same
thing.
Our
thoughts
and
our
feelings
really
dictate
what
happens,
and
that’s
the
gist
of
this
album.
On
the
country-inspired
song
"Threesome"
You
either
love
it
or
hate
it.
That
is
the
conclusion
I
have
come
to
as
my
fans
have
been
listening
to
it.
Some
are
like
“Yeah!
I
can’t
wait
to
go
two-stepping
to
this!”
It
is
a
country
rock
song,
a
Southern
rock
song,
and
there
are
people
who
hate
country
rock
songs.
The
song
itself
came
about
because
in
the
months
I
was
writing
this
album,
I
promised
myself
that
anything
that
came
to
me
I
would
write
and
write
to
the
finish.
I
wouldn’t
judge
it
or
throw
it
out
until
I
had
given
it
every
possibility.
Another
one
of
my
rules
was
that
if
the
song
scared
me,
if
I
was
like,
“Oh,
no,
I
can’t
do
that!”
then
I
had
to
put
it
on
the
album.
Those
were
my
rules
going
into
the
thing.
Tammy
was
pregnant
and
in
her
first
trimester
and
was
sleeping
a
...
