good evening from los angeles. i'm tavis smiley. tonight, a conversation with two-time grammy winner, with melissa etheridge, "this is m.e." her most personal and uplifting over her 25 plus year career. she received 15 grammy nominations and an oscar win for a song she wrote, "inconvenient truth." being an advocate for cancer research, she will close the song tonight with a performance called "a little bit of me." glad you could join us with a conversation with melissa etherid etheridge, coming up right now.

♪ the california endowment health happens in neighborhoods. learn more. hands by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ melissa etheridge has two grammy awards and a slew of

nominations. five platinum albums and two gold albums over a 25-year career. she is thankfully, a ten-year breast cancer survivor. her latest cd is "this is m.e." she describes it as personal and uplifts. she will close the show with a performance of "a little bit of me." m.e., it is good to have you see me. how are you? >> happy. i'm glad to be here. >> put the cover of the cd up for me, if you wouldn't mind. these are -- what makes up this photo of you? >> we sent out to the website, social media and said send your pictures in if you are melissa etheridge fans. thousands of them did. we got 900 of them. an artist put them together to create that photo of me.

>> i get it. you wouldn't be you without your fans. i like that. it's cool. >> the website had an app to find yourself. >> oh, i know the fans are loving that. that is a very, very cool concept. cool concept. before we get too far in, we are grateful you are still with us. >> as happy as i am, too. >> i figure you are happy about that. >> ten years ago this week. yeah. >> ten years ago this week. it happens to be the month, october, the pink ribbons. >> everything pink comes out, breast cancer awareness. every october, i'm reminded, i'm very aware and it's about health. i concentrate mostly on that. >> how do you feel? >> happier and healthier than i ever have because, after i went through cancer, i understand it is about my health. those things are priority.

my nutrition, stress, the happiness and joy, it's important. >> somebody wrote, life is best lived when you've -- i'm screwing this up. life is best lived when you have had a near death experience. i am grateful. i tell people i hope it doesn't take that to get you there. it is a choice. it's a thought we can have about life and health and putting ourselves first, oftentimes as partners or parents we constantly are putting other people first, stressing ourselves and weakening our own health when taking care of ourselves. if each of us did that, we could become very strong, very healthy. >> before i get into the project, let me ask a change question. i'll ask anyway. after 25 years, you are not turned off by the music business? the backdrop of you know why i'm asking it. you are on record company.

you ain't sick of this after 25 years, the business of it? >> no, because i feel like last year, i made a choice to become a small business owner. i made a choice to jump off the corporate big boats that are sinking. the model doesn't work. people are still listening to music. people love music and come to see me live more than ever. what is changed is the way they are receiving it. they don't have to go buy that certain record. the business of the records, not so good anymore. but, what does work is the artist. this is, i think, a renaissance for the artist. you can brand yourself. you can create and be what you want. that's what, pardon me, that's what's exciting to me. i can now take a hold of this. >> i take your point. the beauty is you can take hold of this and do it the way you want. you have to answer only to me, you. >> i can only blame me.

>> it's "this is m.e." i get the joy of that, having that liberated way and the freedom of that, i get that. what's the challenge, though, to being in charge of your own brand? >> well, the first challenge is financially. you don't have the money up front. i had to create the album differently. it's much like an independent film. you give away more in the back end. you say, okay, you can have a certain percentage of this song because you are involved in the creation of it. you get people, because of technology, they have the little studios and can make the huge sounds and the music is even more vibrant, i believe, because of this. it's sort of financially it's the hardest part. promotionly, you don't have that money up front. >> until you turn the corner. we all trying to turn the

corner. >> yes, aren't we all. >> great song title. >> turn the corner. >> yeah. speaking of song titles, tell me about this project musically. what are fans going to hear? >> they are going to hear that intensity they love from me, the lyrics are personal and intense and rock and roll. there's a lot of fun. it's been called lusty. there's a little bit of that going on there. >> i like that. >> rock and roll is, i have some hip hop. i worked with a hip hop artist. r & b, country. it's me at the yummy center, surrounded by a lot. >> i like that, the yummy center. you have always been this way, as long as i have known you and talked to you on th this program. i respect your sense of transparency. on this project, ever more

transparent. it's always worked. in the 25 years, i have always made that choice to, not do maybe the comfortable thing, but stand in my truth and be transparent, up front about it. it always led me where i'm supposed to go. i feel that we are -- our society is just opening up to amazing things right now. >> there are some truths about your life. for that matter, my life. there are some truths that are harder for some people to handle than other truths. how have you become comfortable to the extent that you are, being so transparent and being so truthful, never mind what others might think about your truth. >> there came a point, in my life, where i realized that what i felt about myself, the love or frustration or whatever i was feeling about myself was more

important and more -- did more to my life than what other people thought of me. if i could begin to guide my life with, i call it the truth, you know? those choices. it always, always -- never lets me down. it is always the better thing. maybe the moment might be uncomfortable and painful, yet you have to walk through it whether it's the good stuff, the bad stuff, the tabloid stuff, whatever it is. if you don't speak your own truth, then you'll be living someone els. that's just strange, i think. >> how do you get to a place of not taking that stuff personally? well, i had to stop looking at it for awhile. you really do. when you are a public figure, googling yourself can be painful. >> i never do.

>> painful. i had to stop for awhile. you can't do that. you have your source of people around. you know that you can't get everyone to understand your mind or where you come from. we are all different. i don't understand theirs and they don't understand mine. this is a beautiful country that can hold all of those thoughts. >> let me go back to your sound. you referenced this earlier. all of us who are fans of your music and your sound, this is my word. there's a bigness to your approach. i mean the way you play, the way you move, the way you sound. has it always been that way? was there ever a time in your career you were not so big, the sound? you have always been this -- >> always been big, yet i didn't understand that i was. >> yeah. >> for a long time. >> you didn't get that? >> no. >> there's an intensity to your stuff. love it. >> i know when i was, like, in

grade school and would sing in the choirs, they put me in the back row. >> it's funny you say that. last night, for those who are fans of the andy griffith show, barney is in the choir and he cannot sing. they are trying to figure out how to get rid of barney in the choir. it's a funny episode. he couldn't bring it in. your case, you could sing. >> very different, yeah. >> how does that -- i could ask this question of any artist. i remember talking to prince about this how on his love songs, he uses his upper register on his love songs. >> yeah. >> it works best with him. how does your sound influence the music that you write or the music that you -- does that make

sense? >> totally. yes. it's a very musical question. i chose, when i started singing other people's music, i just wanted to use my chest voice, the head voice, the really high voice. i don't use that, except for just, like at the end of a song, on a show, to go crazy. mostly, it's that power, that big -- i take it to that level. also a low voice. it's that range that i always work in when i write and perform. it's just -- there's a couple different -- i kind of get out of my comfort zone. one is do it again. it was -- i wrote it with jerry wanda of the fuji's and angela hunt, who was a grammy award winning song writer. she and i were kind of sitting

around and i don't usually collaborate with someone on melody. she went up to this. i was like, really, that melody? i don't know if i can sing it. she's like try it. i hit it. it's a part of my singing i don't use very often. because someone else was guiding me, i did it. i'm a little out of my zone in a couple of these. it makes for good music. >> it works. that's a good thing. it's a good thing. have you -- have you noticed, you mentioned you were describing your voice a moment ago. can you tell -- can you hear that your voice has changed? >> my voice has gotten healthier. i listen to my older records, there's different times in my life, different albums where i can hear the different health that i had when i was eating

sugar. the healthier my body is, the healthier my voice is. it's like a muscle, an athlete. >> makes sense. >> when my nutrition and my state of health and sleep, my voice is stronger. so, i think this is the strongest that my voice had ever been is right here. >> what do you still get out of -- what do you get, i know it's a pain to go through the process of being on the road. you are actually up on stage, what do you get out of that? >> that is what it's all about. that's the dream i had when i was a child, the first time i stood in front of somebody and sang and got that energetic response from ten people to being able to play for thousands now. to be able to walk on stage and already the audience is going crazy and i haven't done anything. that's an enormous anticipation

of we are going to have a great time. then, presenting my songs and looking out in the audience and seeing people relating to it. relating to it. that moment where i felt so alone and i'm writing because i'm in pain and hoping and dreaming, to know that personal moment transforms -- it translates to another human being. it's universal. i love that. i would love that. >> you have a -- how do i put this, a beautifully rabid, hard core fan base. >> do not spell my name wrong, they will come get you. >> i know that. i know that. the m and the e. a rapid, dedicated fan base. what do you attribute that, after all these years? >> because i think i have been dedicated to my music in such a way that they kind of get that.

they have related to the personal -- they have that song that means so much to them. that song that means about that relationship or that's their song or this is the song people come up to me it's cancer, it's lgbt. it's anyone questioning life. if the music can move them, they jump right in. i'm very -- i'm -- i'm available to my fans. i'm on social media. i like knowing exactly what they feel about the music. >> you mentioned social media. how important is that in advancing this -- this phase in your life where you are produ producing, managing your own record label. >> it's everything. it's what i'm relying on. it's that instant connection to my fans, to tell them this is what i'm doing. i'm on your show, this time. you can buy this.

i'm going to be in your town. i can go straight to them. it's the reason i don't need the middleman anymore. i can do it myself. social media really changed that. >> yeah. do you -- you are 25 years -- you have a lot of time left in front of you. do you imagine you are going to do this until they throw dirt on you? >> oh, heck yeah. there's no such thing as retiring from this. this is part of who i am. i love creating and i think we are beings that were put here to create. to learn and create. i'm going to do it until they put dirt on me. >> how much will you be touring for this one? >> i start in november. we'll see. i'll go until they tell me it's time to come back. >> i'm fascinated with these questions. i'm a music lover. when you have a new project out, how do you balance or weave, you tell me, this new stuff in with

the stuff that you know they want to hear? if you ever do a concert and you don't sing, i like to say, the window song. they would say where's the window song. i love singing my hits. i do. every show, you are going to hear -- unfortunately -- >> you have a few of them. >> this tour, this album is so strong. my fans have been reacting so strongly, this tour is a good amount of the new ones and the hits. that's pretty much what this show is going to be. i have a new band. i love to do it. it always challenges me to work with new musicians. i'm going to work with jerry and the platinum sound. it's a little more r & b sound. i'm going to move more in that direction. it's always been there.

definitely, you will hear the hits and the rocking songs. >> two things you said. one, any number of artists do this. when an artist changes a band, changes bands at a certain point in their career, whatever it might be and for whatever reason, why do that? why change a band in your career? >> i changed it up on the record because i don't want to stay in one place. i'll tour with these guys. i have the same drummer that i have had four years. we are definitely connected. two branch out where want to go, i felt like i needed just different -- different musicians. >> a different band helps you get a different sound? >> yeah. not the sound, the feel. a different feel. very much so. i's a collaborative effort up there. personalities and the way someone plays a song, you know, whether they are on top of the

beat or whether they hang back makes a big difference. that's going to bring that out on me. i look forward to playing. >> when you say r & b, it's always been there. for those of us who listen to your stuff, we can hear. you make us rock and move. what has been your love affair with r & b? how did that start with you? >> i grew up in kansas. we have run radio station, whb. an am station. it played tammy why net, led zeppelin and marvin gay and the supremes. m motown was coming through big time. everything was right there. i had the jackson five, knew nothing about michael jackson. the temptations. when the '70s came, we had a rock and roll station and a

crazy soul station. all of that felt perfect to me. then they want to put me into a box. i'm like okay, i'll go over here. some day, i'm going to get out. going to move a little more. >> free at last. >> yes. >> i love hearing the term. >> come on. >> i love it. that was priceless right there. the m to the e is back. the new project, "this is m.e." i think you will love it. good to have you on the program, again. i'm honored to have you come see us. melissa is going to close the show with a song called "a little bit of me" off the cd "this is m.e." love you, too. thanks for watching.

enjoy the performance. as always, keep the faith. ♪ ♪ if you believe, if you tried ♪ it could be enough to know you were alive ♪ ♪ if you knew the truth, it couldn't be denied ♪ ♪ it could change the world enough that you might find ♪ ♪ that the world goes round and round and round ♪ ♪ everybody walks on common ground ♪ ♪ we gotta pull together if we're gonna pull through yoet a little of me and a little of you ♪ ♪ the world goes round and round and round ♪ ♪ no need to be afraid of anybody you see ♪ ♪ a little bit of you and a

little bit of me ♪ ♪ nah, nah,nah ♪ a little bit of me ♪ nah, nah, nah ♪ is it on the skin, is it in the love ♪ ♪ the things about each other that we're so scared of ♪ ♪ you can shake your head ♪ you can change your mind nout either way you wake up inside yourself to find ♪ ♪ that the world goes round and round and round ♪ ♪ everybody walks on common ground ♪ ♪ we gotta pull together if we're gonna pull through ♪ ♪ there's a little bit of me in a little bit of you ♪ ♪ the world goes round and round and round ♪ ♪ no need to be afraid ♪ a little bit of you and a

little bit of me ♪ ♪ in a little bit of me ♪ oh, lean to your left now lean to your right ♪ ♪ the corner of the room and every seoul here tonight ♪ ♪ have a little bit of faith and everyone will see ♪ ♪ that all the good books in the world agree ♪ ♪ there's a little bit of you in a little bit of me ♪ ♪ yeah, yeah ♪ and the world goes round and round and round and everybody walks on common ground ♪ ♪ no need to be afraid of anybody you see ♪ ♪ a little bit of you in a little bit of me ♪ ♪ nah, nah,nah ♪ in a little bit of me ♪ nah, nah, nah

♪ just a little bit of me [ applause ] >> thank you so much. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. hi, i eam tavis smiley. join me next time as we dive into what's grabbing the country in the coming weeks. that's next time, see you then. ♪

the california endowment, health happens in neighborhoods. learn more. hands by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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