Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 23, 1994 TAG: 9403240005
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Nor did she really plan to "come out." It just sort of happened - and she doesn't regret it.
Now she can talk about it, get it over with, and get on with her life, rock singer Melissa Etheridge said in a recent telephone interview. Etheridge will play tonight with Matthew Sweet at Virginia Tech.
Before she went public last year, the question about being gay sometimes came up. Interviewers would ask her why she seemed to have such a strong lesbian following. They would ask if it was because she was a lesbian herself.
Etheridge wouldn't answer. She didn't talk about her personal life, she would tell them.
Such questions made her squirm, she said, but not because she was trying to hide her lifestyle. What bothered her more was the perception that she was trying to hide something. She didn't like being anything but truthful.
Chalk that up to her Kansas upbringing, perhaps.
Her reason for holding back was primarily a career decision. She was a new artist, and one of only a few women in the male-dominated world of rock music. If she made an issue out of being a lesbian, she worried that it might damage her rising career.
She said she wasn't pressured to keep quiet by her record company, Island Records. But the company didn't encourage her to go public with the news, either. "We didn't talk about it. It was just sort of understood," she explained.
By 1993, however, Etheridge had three albums under her belt and a fourth in the works. She was up for a Grammy award and firmly established in the music industry. Plus, her friend k.d. lang already had come out and was topping the charts.
"Her career just went kaboom! -So, I said, well, I can do that," she said.
Still, she really wasn't planning a major announcement. She just got caught up in a moment at the gay and lesbian ball during Bill Clinton's inauguration. She said there was such a strong sense of gay pride there that she was overwhelmed.
An open microphone was set up, and people were making declarations. k.d. lang stepped up and said coming out was the best thing she did that year. Then lang introduced Etheridge, who stated that she was proud to be a lesbian.
And that was that.
To the record company, she said: "Well, I'm out. Deal with it."
To the press and the public, she now welcomes questions about her personal life, and she predicted that by next year nobody will care anymore. It won't be an issue. "Then, I'll go on with the rest of my career," she said.
For the record, she is romantically involved with Julie Cypher, whom she met on a video shoot five years ago. Cypher will be making her directing debut on the movie "Teresa's Tattoo" later this year. Etheridge said the film is about a mathematician who is comically mistaken for a hostage. She contributed two songs to the movie.
Meanwhile, Etheridge's fourth album, aptly titled, "Yes I Am," has found its way onto rock radio, with little attention given to her coming out. "Yes I Am" is also the name of a song on the album, and Etheridge said she knew she wanted to use it for the album title as soon as she wrote it.
"Because I felt that statement is very powerful, very strong."
As with previous albums, Etheridge was vague about genders in some of her songs, particularly the ones involving relationships. In her music, the object of desire is always "you" - not him or her - and therefore open to interpretation.
As usual, Etheridge also delivers the same raspy-voiced vocals on the same sort of earnest, three-cord rock that often have drawn comparisons to Bob Seger and Bruce Springsteen. In fact, Chris Blackwell, who signed her to Island Records and who helped further the careers of U2 and Bob Marley, among others, said he signed her with ``the female Bruce Springsteen'' in mind. He believes the next big rock star will be a woman.
"I thought, and still think, that she's the most likely to fill that role," he has said.
At 32, Etheridge is still relatively young, too. Plus, like Springsteen, she has a heartland-of-America background. She was raised in Leavenworth, Kan., a military prison town. Her father was a high school teacher.
She started playing guitar at age 8. By 10, she was writing songs. By 13, she was singing in local cover bands. By 21, she had moved to Los Angeles. But she didn't have much luck on the club scene.
"With the hair and roses bands," she said.
She found her niche in the women's bars in Long Beach, where she built a loyal following from 1982 to 1987. Her debut album, "Melissa Etheridge," was released in 1988. Two hits, "Bring Me Some Water" and "Like the Way I Do," put her on the map.
She followed with the albums "Brave and Crazy" in 1989 and "Never Enough" in 1992. The song, "Ain't It Heavy," from "Never Enough," earned Etheridge a Grammy last year for best female rock performance.
The award and her success, she said, have been sweet. Until Blackwell and Island Records showed interest, Etheridge had been passed on by nearly every record company in the business. So, now, whenever she encounters a record executive who had his chance and blew it, she likes to boast a little.
"I say, `Yep, well, here I am.'"
Melissa Etheridge plays Virginia Tech's Burruss Auditorium tonight at 8. Matthew Sweet opens. 231-5615.
Keywords:
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by CNB