Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
BY MELISSA RUGGIERI
When Melissa Etheridge says, “I’m the luckiest person on Earth. I have the best job ever,” it’s impossible not to believe her.
Calling a few hours before a show in Las Vegas earlier this month, Etheridge sounds relaxed and happy.
Sure, it helps having her kids on tour during the summer — “They love the bus,” she said — but she’s also enjoying the continued success of a 25-plus-year career that has brought her a couple of Grammy Awards, an Oscar (in 2007 for “I Need to Wake Up” from the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”) and an arsenal of hits that have crossed pop, rock and adult contemporary boundaries.
While fans will certainly hear Etheridge classics including “Come to My Window,” “I’m the Only One” and the eternally fiery “Bring Me Some Water” at her Saturday concert at Atlanta Botanical Garden, they can also expect a smattering of tracks from her 13th studio album, the independently released “This Is M.E.”
During her quick pre-concert break, Etheridge, 54, chatted about her rocking solo show, playing with Joan Jett and Blondie and taking the plunge with Howard Stern.
Q: Your show here is one of the solo dates, but I’ve seen you live enough to know that does not mean it’s going to be a quiet, laid-back set!
A: I do want to get that across. When I went on my first solo tour, I wanted the tour poster to be a stool with a cross through it, like, no sitting! I use a looper, so I can build drumbeats, then I can pick up another guitar and play lead and by the end we're singing and dancing. I do everything live. It's a different experience than with a band, but it's no less rocking. I enjoy these shows because I can get into smaller places, and get so intimate with an audience and really stretch and play.
Q: You’re here every year or so. Has Atlanta typically been good to you?
A: From the very beginning, from 1988 on, it's been a wonderful place. Atlanta radio has always been supportive, especially in the '90s.
Q: You recently played a show (in Spokane, Wash.) with Blondie and Joan Jett. Now that would be a cool tour.
A: That one show was astounding. Joan has been touring with The Who, but I'm hoping next year we can put a whole tour together. The audience was so happy. It wasn't even about the girls, it was just … this is great rock 'n' roll.
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Q: You’ve always had a close relationship with your fans and you post #melfies on Twitter from your shows. But how about the other side of it — does it bother you to look out there and you’re seeing more cameras than you are people’s faces?
A: (Laughs) I call them my camera songs, like "Come to My Window." As long as there is one person giving me eye contact … My favorite thing is looking out and seeing mothers and fathers and daughters and families. I love it. My audience is so diverse. So I often I hear, "You're the music we can all agree to listen to in the car."
Q: When you started to work on “This Is M.E.,” did it feel different knowing it would be released on your own label and that you had a new sort of freedom?
A: Completely. It was very liberating, and also a big responsibility. I couldn't say, "Oh, they didn't do this right." The budget went way down because we didn't have as much (money) up front, so I had to do things differently. I had to collaborate more, but I learned and had such a great experience.
Q: Do you write on the road?
A: Not so much right now. I usually write at home or in the studio. I seem to have fallen into the rhythm — album, tour, album — it's just the way it's happened. There will be something released by the end of next year.
Q: By the way, your interview with Howard Stern (on SiriusXM) last year was brilliant, and it also sounded like you really enjoyed being there.
A: I always know when (the interview) has been re-aired because someone will always come up to me and comment about it. I had never done his show before that. I was a little afraid of him in the '90s, not of him, but I was afraid I would say something I would regret. So finally, it was really nice last year to go, I've never done Howard Stern, so it was like, "Hey dude, let's go." It was crossing a line in so many areas, but it really was fun.
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