| Melissa Etheridge, on the road again |
 Despite - and possibly because of - an increasingly messy divorce from second wife Tammy Lynn Michaels, singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge is everywhere lately. In April, she performed on an episode of "Dancing With the Stars" on ABC. She co-hosted ABC's "The View" in June. And currently, she's crisscrossing the country on her "Fearless Love" tour, which hits Ovens Auditorium Thursday.Etheridge spoke to The Observer last week from her tour bus about her gay icon status and her new album. Q. Did you ever think you'd become such an iconic figure? (Laughs) Nah. When I was a kid, I believed the (American) dream ... you know, run away to Hollywood and become rich and famous. The carrot they dangle in front of all of us. Some of us believe it, and try to do it. That's the dream of a teenager. ... I mean, I knew I was gay. But I didn't think I was ...any sort of gay (icon). Q. But there came a point when you made the decision to put yourself out there and be more open personally, right? As everything rolled along and as my life progressed, I realized around '92 that I couldn't continue doing what I was doing and speaking truthfully about it. You spend a lot of energy making everything gender-neutral and that weird stuff - changing lyrics. That's just ridiculous. (I thought), "People are not not going to like me because I'm gay. They might not like my music. I'm not going to lose anything (if I come out) and if I do, so be it." But I didn't lose anything. Q. Do you think it's easier for artists now? I would like to hope so. The difficulty lies inside them. How much are you willing to not be like everybody else and still insist that your art is good enough, and that people want to hear it no matter where you come from? It starts inside you. I think Adam Lambert, he's kind of, "Hey, this is what I am." You can feel the tentativeness in it, and I understand that. But if the music is good, it relates past that. Q. Earlier this month, Logo TV (MTV's gay- and lesbian-oriented sister network) featured you in one of its "NewNowNext Icons" specials. What do you think about that channel? I think it's awesome. Growing up as a teenager, seeing anything that even hinted at homosexuality I would hold onto that like a precious stone. To think there's a television station that you can go to and there's gay content blows my mind. Q. Can gay- and lesbian-friendly entertainment transcend gay audiences? That's what I believe we're doing. We don't want to be sectioned out. We want to present ourselves truthfully, and make great art. My songs aren't gay. I have a large gay following, and I am gay, but I'm always looking for the universality. I think love is hard. It's not a gay thing. Q. Your new album "Fearless Love" deals with universal themes of love and fear. Were you thinking about those themes on a number of levels? Yes. What I'm trying to do is relate the personal relationship issues and fears to the greater universal fears of each other. I hope there's layers in my songs that can be related to on all those levels.
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