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• Ms. Etheridge's official site
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Tavis: Pleased to welcome Melissa Etheridge to this program. The Grammy-winning musician has added something else to her long list of credits and accomplishments, perhaps most importantly, breast cancer survivor. Her most recent project is her greatest hits collection called "Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled.' Melissa Etheridge, nice to meet you.

Etheridge: Hi. Nice to meet you.

Tavis: Glad to have you on the program.

Etheridge: Thank you much.

Tavis: - I'm down with any song called "Refugee" so long as you're not referring to the people who had to evacuate New Orleans. That's not what you're talking about, right?

Etheridge: Not at all.

Tavis: These are American citizens, they're not refugees.

Etheridge: We released that song just a few weeks before Katrina. And since then, it's been kind of quiet. I think everyone went, ooh, we can't play that song, so it went away, but that's all right.

Tavis: Yeah, sometimes you get caught - in the matrix.

Etheridge: You get caught; and you know what, it's fine. I'm leaving that alone.

Tavis: Yeah, but it's a great song, so...

Etheridge: Thank you.

Tavis: ...we'll give it a listen. As long as you're not talking about that.

Etheridge: No, no, not at all.

Tavis: You look great. How you feeling?

Etheridge: I feel wonderful. It's been a year, I'm a year out, totally cancer free and 100% back to my energy.

Tavis: I know you've been asked about this a thousand times, you've been asked everything, but not by everybody. So how scary was that for you, looking back on it a year now?

Etheridge: Well, of course, it's scary. It's scary to hear that you have a disease. What happened to me is it really focused me at that moment to just kind of step through this one step at a time, because I couldn't take the whole thought on. And I certainly didn't take the thought on that I was dying. It just, it really put my priorities in order instantly.

Tavis: How did you avoid - I'm fascinated by that answer, though, Melissa. How did you avoid not getting caught up thinking that you might be dying, when clearly, breast cancer kills?

Etheridge: It does.

Tavis: Or can kill.

Etheridge: Yeah, it can. It can. - I don't know. I look back on it and I don't know. All I know is that I received the information, and I checked and went, all right, what does this mean? Because I believe that in life, that what this life is, is choices and a journey.

And this was, I thought I was going that way and life went - the universe or whatever you'd like to call it, said 'No, this way.' And I thought, okay, well this is really scary and this is going to be really, really hard and it's going to be a lot of pain and everything. But I think at the end of this, I will be a better person than I could have ever gone if I'd never gone through it. That's just the way I chose to look at it.

Tavis: That's awfully courageous, though. I mean, I - can't imagine, I hope I never deal with this, but I can't imagine having somebody telling me that I had prostate cancer, and having to have that kind of courage. And at the same time, not give in to the thought that this thing could kill me. I don't know that I could do that.

Etheridge: Well - yeah. I understand what you mean. And thought has a lot to do...

Tavis: I suspect so, yes.

Etheridge: ...with health. And I think that's part of the problem with our medical association right now, our western medicine, is that we separate mind and body, when they both have a lot to do with each other.

Tavis: Speaking of courage, how - courageous, how brave were you to come out on that stage at the Grammys sporting that nice...

Etheridge: Sporting that 'do?

Tavis: Sporting that 'do.

Etheridge: That negative 'do.

Tavis: Yeah, you and Joss Stone. That was a - great opportunity.

Etheridge: You know what, at the time, that's the way I looked like. I was used to myself that way. I'd been seeing myself for weeks with no hair. So I was kind of used to it. Now when I see a picture, I'm like, holy cow, I'm so bald. I got no hair.

Tavis: Did - are you aware - how can I put this. Are you aware, are you cognizant of, the inspiration that your battle, your surviving this battle, has given to so many millions of women? I said that earlier in introducing you. And people kind of throw that around. She's the inspiration to millions. But there really are a lot of people who are inspired when they see someone overcome what they're dealing with.

Etheridge: There is definitely something tangible out there when I go into the world now. Which I don't do very often, because it's so overwhelming right now. I feel this energy from people, this good will, this - inspiration. I'm - very grateful for it. I was just walking in my path. I was walking in my truth. And just trying to do it the best I can and with as much respect and truth as I can have. And I'm grateful for the response. I'm grateful. And if it can be - if it can be of inspiration to anyone, that's added extra bonus to my own experience going through this.

Tavis: Let me go back and get something you said a moment ago that I'm not gonna leave hanging, because I think there's something behind that. On the one hand, you express how much you appreciate this good will that you are afforded when you walk out into this world. But you also suggested that you don't venture out very often these days because the world is such an overwhelming place. What overwhelms you about the world that we live today?

Etheridge: Oh my gosh. How long is this show? No. Just on a - celebrity level. Celebrity is like a wave. It comes and goes. And - I have been up and quiet and up and quiet. I'm okay with that. Right now, it's really, really high. It's really up there. And I am very noticeable and visible where I can usually kind of walk through my world. And people maybe if they get close go, oh, hey. But I am so noticeable now that it's, when someone pays attention to you, that's energy being put toward you.

And when a lot of people are paying attention to you, that's like overwhelming. That's why us stars kind of go crazy sometimes and we make really crazy mistakes because of all that energy. So, right now, I'm kind of laying as low as I can. In a few months, it'll die down and there will be somebody else doing something, and that'll be just fine by me.

Tavis: See, I know how you feel, 'cause every time I walk out of the studio, just throngs of people, just waiting to grab me.

Etheridge: Tavis! Tavis!

Tavis: And ripping my clothes off of me. And asking for my home phone number and all that kind. Happens to me all the time. I - was late getting here today because of so many people trying...

Etheridge: I know.

Tavis: Anyway, tell me (laughs) how you deal with these quiet times. It's one thing to deal with the up times. I suspect - there's an energy level that you feed off of when you're - at points in your career when the record is hot and people want to talk to you, etcetera, etcetera. But what do you do, how do you deal with those quiet times in your career?

Etheridge: Well, this is the best time. This is life.

Tavis: Yeah, you like being here.

Etheridge: This is life. This is what - I do this so that I can, you know, live in a really nice house or - have time with my kids. It's about my family. It's about my wife and my kids and my choices and things that I'd like to do here. This is time. This is - the living is done between all this.

Tavis: Tell me what you think when you look back on the fact that you have been around long enough, but not just around long enough, but have been good long enough to do a greatest hits CD. It's never lost on me when somebody puts out a greatest hits CD, that you had to be around long enough and had to have enough good stuff to compile something like this. Because a lot of people would have like one of these, you know, with like one song on it and that'd be it.

Etheridge: But still, people do release that still.

Tavis: Wouldn't be greatest hits, plural. It'd be like 'greatest hit.'

Etheridge: Greatest hit. A medley of my greatest hit. I - actually had a moment when I was putting this together of, 'Oh, I've got a few hits.' I didn't - as I've been going along in my journey, as I've been going along in this music, over 17 years I've been in the business professionally. I wasn't really keeping track of hits.

I was just kind of making the music and putting it out there. And I put eight albums out. And when I finally stopped and looked at it, I got to see where I'd been and where I came from, and it felt great. And it was kind of like, okay, here's a marker, here's a signpost of this was my work up to now, and here you go. If you want like a little Melissa sample, there it is. And then I go on from there, and I've got lots more music to make.

Tavis: Yeah. I'm glad you finally showed up for the conversation because I'm so tired of hearing Brian, our floor director, attempt to sing "Come to my window.' No, leave the window, Brian. Just, get away from the - don't come to the window and sing.

Etheridge: That's a hard song to sing.

Tavis: Yeah, it is, but you - did a good job with it.

Etheridge: Well, thank you.

Tavis: Tell me how you feel - tell me how people respond to that song. Because I mean, of all the hits you've put out - as I was saying to you, some songs are just so catchy it gets in your system and you're just like Brian, walk around just humming it all day long.

Etheridge: That song is interesting because I wrote it - I almost didn't put it on my album. I almost...

Tavis: Shame on you.

Etheridge: ...didn't release it. Because I don't know what a hit song is. If I knew, I'd write 10 "Come to my windows.' But I just - I wrote that one...

Tavis: You'd stay at the window all the time, if you knew what a hit song was.

Etheridge: All the time, come to my door or something. But that song, people have projected their own interpretation of it. And I have let it go. And songs are like that. You write them. I have my own meaning that I put into them, but however anyone wants to interpret it is great. And that song, I think it was just obtuse enough that it was projectable, and people put on whatever they wanted to and - hold on to it. And it's a fun song to sing, and I'm really grateful for it.

Tavis: It's a great song. I was going to ask you, and I still want to do this because you said a moment ago that you almost didn't put "Come to my window" even out. And I'm glad you did because I love that song, as does Brian obviously.

Etheridge: Thank you.

Tavis: But is there a song - you said you didn't know what a hit was, but if you were not going to put "Come to my window" out to begin with, was there something that you really wanted to get out, that you really did think was the closest thing that you could do to a hit, even though you don't know what a hit really is? But this - was a really good song, I want to get this thing out?

Etheridge: Well, I always thought on that album, on the 'Yes, I Am' album, that "I'm the only one," I thought that was going to be a hit. And it ended up being a hit after "Come to my window.' But no - there are songs that I haven't put on albums, and, I don't know, maybe they're hits. I don't know.

But it's really - when I put out an album, it's about the collection of songs. It's about the mood and the emotion and - just the collection of them, the putting together of them, into a piece where I can go, this is where I am right now. And so, that's how I choose the songs.

Tavis: I would argue with you that you know what a hit is. I think you do know what a hit is. And I would offer this greatest hits collection as exhibit A. That said, if you don't know what a hit is, clearly you know what a good song is. So what's a good song for you?

Etheridge: There you go. And now a good song for me is one where I can reach - where I can reach into myself and find some truth, truth in - emotion or wherever that inspiration comes from, truth that inspires. Then I put that truth in a bed of music that is interesting and compelling and rhythmic, maybe. And a melody possibly that is catchy. And then if I can then do a performance of it, if I can get all three of those things together and they all work, then I think that's a good song. And one that people can relate to.

Tavis: Did growing up in Kansas in any way help you along the way to write good songs?

Etheridge: Growing up in Kansas is what made me me. It's - when you grow up in the Midwest, which you were just telling me before we started in Indiana, growing up in the Midwest, you have this real sense of, look, if you work hard, and are a nice person, you'll get far. That's kind of what we were told in the Midwest. You just work hard, be nice. And that's basically where I come from. And I kind of expect everyone else to do it. They don't always do it.

Tavis: No. They teach you that in Kansas and Indiana. Then you come to Hollywood, and neither one of those things work.

Etheridge: It's not the same thing. No, no.

Tavis: Neither one works, but whatever works, Melissa Etheridge has figured it out. Finally she's out with a greatest hits CD. It's called "Melissa Etheridge Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled.' I'm sure you'll be traveling on the road real fast to the store nearest you to get it, 'cause it's some good stuff. Melissa, nice to meet you, I'm glad to have you here.

Etheridge: Oh, thank you so much, Tavis.

Tavis: It's my pleasure. All the best to you. That's out show for tonight. You can catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from LA. Thanks for watching, and, as always, keep the faith.