Dan MacIntosh (Songfacts): The latest album has a lot of lyrics that talk about loneliness and being alone, so what inspired writing those types of songs?

Melissa Etheridge: The well of loneliness is in each of us. Whether you're at the end of a relationship, or you're successful, or whatever, you can still feel alone.

The first song, "I Won't Be Alone Tonight," that was written actually about the guy I was collaborating with, Jon Levine the producer. It's funny because I can't help but be influenced by the souls that I'm working with, and he's a sweet guy, just a wonderful guy, and he would spend all day long in that studio looking at that screen making music. All day long. He had no life. And I said, "Dude, you've gotta get out!" He said, "I know, I have a girlfriend." And I said, "I don't see a girlfriend anywhere in the studio."

We wrote the music to that song and I went home that night and I wrote the lyric like I was him. I totally just put myself in his shoes and I wrote "I Won't Be Alone Tonight."

Songfacts: This interview is for Songfacts, so I wanted to talk about some of your bigger songs. A song like "Bring Me Some Water," does the meaning for that song change for you over the years? When you sing it, do you feel different emotions than when you first wrote it?

Etheridge: Oh my gosh! I don't know if it's different emotions, it's just that the intensity is always different.

When I first wrote it, it was very painful. It was very true. It was awful. I don't like this at all.

When I'd play it, I'd be, [sounding in pain] 'Ahh...bring me some water.' It's awful. And then, that relationship went away and I'd be in new relationships and sing the song and I'd be, like, I don't feel it anymore.

The song is really fun, but I can remember those feelings of betrayal. Now, I'm not there emotionally, yet I can go right back there and jump into that suit and play.

Songfacts: When you sing songs that reflect a painful period your life, does it bring you back to that painful place?

Etheridge: It doesn't bring you back where you have to viscerally go through it again. It's almost safe. Let's release that, without actually hurting us. We're not in that situation anymore.

Songfacts: Who are your songwriter influences?

Etheridge: My top ones would be Bruce Springsteen, Joan Armatrading, Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, Rickie Lee Jones and Joni Mitchell. It's the ones that sing it right and scratch their own skin to really put it into a song.

Songfacts: One of the names you mentioned, Joan Armatrading, is woefully underappreciated in this country. Why do you speculate people don't realize how great she is?

Etheridge: Because she was outside of the box in the '80s. People could not put her in any of the boxes. They could understand it through Tracy Chapman, but not through her. Tracy Chapman came out, and Joan Armatrading had been doing this for ten years. She was outside of the box.

Songfacts: I talked about some of the songs that I've liked of yours. Do you have any favorites, especially with your hits, that you just always love to play?

Etheridge: I love playing the hits because people love them so much - that's what's so fun about them. But I would say my favorite is "Like The Way I Do." That song is just a monster to play and I love how people love it. Also, "Bring Me Some Water" is a blast.

Songfacts: I saw you at a recent concert where you did "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

Etheridge: Oh my gosh, just a few weeks ago!

Songfacts: Yes. And the thing that was strange was you didn't sing on that, you just played guitar. I didn't realize what a great guitarist you are, which makes me wonder if you've ever considered doing an all-instrumental album?

Etheridge: It's funny because I've gotten to be a better player in the last five, ten years. That's been my journey on that last few albums: to lean more on my own playing and become a better player. So instrumentally, yeah, maybe I suppose.

It's funny how that turned out. They asked me to do "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" with Aloe Blaac. I said, "Yeah, but I wanna play guitar." Waddy Wachtel was in the band and he was, like, "No, I want to play!"

Aloe's singing, and he's singing so amazingly, so I said, "Dude, you're gonna sing. I'm not gonna sing. I'm gonna play." And because of that song, it was so much fun.'

Songfacts: Let me ask you this, then, who are your guitar influences?

Etheridge: Very different. Electrically, I'd say Keith Richards. That rhythm. Not about playing fast, more about feeling. I like him, and I like Richie Havens and Jose Feliciano.

Because I played solo for so long, all my guitar playing I had to accompany myself, so it comes from this rhythm background. So it's those kinds of guitarists. And I love Gary Clark Jr.

Songfacts: Your last album came out in 2014, so I imagine you've got other stuff you're cooking up. Is that right?

Etheridge: Yeah, that's the nature of the business now. You don't have to wait so long. So I do.

Songfacts: What can we expect? Phrase it like a trailer for a movie.

Etheridge: It's like a trailer for a movie that you've just begun shooting. That's what you're getting right now. It's very much in the same vein of This Is M.E. in collaborating with Jerry Wonda, working on songwriting. It's hard to say. There's not a big change or difference from the last album, but I've only done, like, two or three songs, so we've just started.

July 7, 2015. Get more at melissaetheridge.com.

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