Come to Her Window :: Melissa Etheridge Sings with SFS

Known for her raspy voice and confessional lyrics, singer/songwriter and guitarist Melissa Etheridge has become a rock music icon. The Oscar and Grammy winner's success is a groundbreaker, since the rock world is dominated primarily by men. Not only is Etheridge a woman, she's a lesbian who came out in 1993. Ellen DeGeneres' historic coming out was still four years away.

Etheridge's appearances with San Francisco Symphony on July 30 and 31 will offer a new depth to her many hit songs, as well as to her covers of songwriters she admires, such as Joan Armatrading. She'll be singing many of her standard hits with a full orchestra, which is not the kind of sound her emotion-laden lyrics are usually associated with.

Etheridge kindly spoke to the B.A.R. as she prepares for her arrival in San Francisco.

David-Elijah Nahmod: What can your fans expect from your new symphonic sound?

Melissa Etheridge: A complete eargasm! There's nothing like this. You'll feel like you're bathing in golden sunshine. I did my songs with the Boston Symphony -- I got chills.

How difficult was it to come out in 1993?

It was an unknown abyss. My friends, people like Ellen DeGeneres, Rosie O'Donnell and Brad Pitt, knew, and it wasn't a big deal to them. In one interview for a music magazine I used general pronouns instead of he/she when speaking of my partner. The writer changed the pronouns to my "boyfriend." I was mortified. I'd look at people like Urvashi Vaid [former Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force] and the work they were doing for equality, and I thought that I'm only successful because people think I'm something I'm not. I wanted to come out.

Is it true that you refused to pay your taxes after Prop 8 [California's now-tossed gay marriage ban] was passed? Can you set the record straight, so to speak, on that?

Prop 8 was a blow in the gut. I was so out of my mind about it. In my manifesto [published in 2008 at The Daily Beast ] I wrote "that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights. Sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books." But I paid my taxes.

And now we have marriage.

It's mindblowing. It feels good to call her [Linda Wallem] my wife. I had to go before a judge and adopt my own kids, it was awful. This is so much better.

Can you talk about surviving breast cancer?

My life has been a journey. When my relationship with Julie Cypher fell apart, I felt like I had let the community down. I took in a lot of acidic behaviors, a lot of sugar and alcohol. When your body is out of balance, cancer grows. Looking back, the tumor made sense. It knocked me over the head -- I needed to wake up. The cancer was a gift, it enabled me to change my life. Every choice I make affects my body. Now I eat good food, do yoga and exercise.

Which was more exciting for you, winning an Oscar [Best Song, "I Need To Wake Up," from An Inconvenient Truth] or a Grammy?

I did the film as a favor to Al Gore. I had no idea it would be released worldwide, and it was the first time a song was nominated for a documentary. Winning the Oscar was the crown jewel. Oscar has a shimmer about it like nothing else. It's the only category I could win for, and it's the most fabulous thing I could win. But I love my Grammys!

Melissa Etheridge sings with the San Francisco Symphony, Wed. & Thurs., July 30 & 31, at 7:30 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave,, SF. Tickets ($15-$45), call (415) 864-6000, or go to sfsymphony.org