Melissa Etheridge isn’t the only one who is fortunate when it comes to her newest album Lucky (Island). Her loyal legion of fans, who have stuck with her through dark and low-key CDs such as Breakdown and Skin, are richly rewarded with the joyful and celebratory spirit of Lucky. Sexy and romantic, most of the songs on the CD are about being lucky in love, and come in the wake of Etheridge’s courtship and subsequent marriage to actress Tammy Lynn Michaels. Etheridge does an effortless job of balancing confidence and vulnerability in love songs such as “Mercy”, “This Moment” and “Will You Still Love Me”. She flirts and flies and fearlessly wrestles the demons of her world throughout the album and the results are uplifting and empowering. The GLT caught up with Etheridge recently while she was on the road for her current tour in support of Lucky – a tour which brings her to San Diego for a county fair performance Saturday, July 3.

Melissa Etheridge: Oh yeah. It certainly wasn’t a conscience thing like, “Oh I’m gonna be happy now”. It’s actually that it is my experience in my life. And thank goodness I’m not still writing back there. Thank goodness the journey has taken me here. The good stuff has happened and the celebration and the joyousness is real and true. Yes, it’s wonderful.

ME: Yeah, I guess so. I’ve been so involved with it and inside it that I haven’t been able to step outside of it and think of it as a whole yet. I haven’t played these songs live yet. I haven’t lived them and gone through them. They’re fresh and brand new.

GLT: There is a flirtatiousness to “If You Want To” that is equally refreshing and suspenseful. I think it’s the kind of songs that makes the listener root for the singer. Can you say something about that song?

ME: Oh, yeah, and it is flirtatious. It’s like, “OK, I’ve been dead and you gave me your number. OK, I’ll call.” It’s just that moment, that reaching out, that unsureness. Having written the song, of course, much later afterwards, it was fun to go back to it and play with it. [Although] in the moment it’s very painful, every step you take.

ME: Oh, yeah. Not only to show it but to do it. I make these albums and they go out there. Then I spend the rest of the time performing these songs. I wanted to turn up the volume again. I wanted to rock again. I had been so very down and mellow about the last two albums. It was finally like, “OK, let’s go. I feel it. I feel good. I’m ready. Let’s go.” It’s more fun to play it live. You only have that one chance on the record.

ME: I wrote that song when I was kind of in the middle of an identity crisis about myself and my music. After seeing the record company was not responding to my music, I started to think, “Am I obsolete now in the radio world now?” I’ve never tried to write a hit song. That’s not what I’m made of and it’s not what I’m about. I had this real crisis and I went into my living room, sat at my piano and just threw up this song from my soul, that I don’t think will ever see the radio waves. It was so pure, vintage, signature, whatever you want to say … it was so innocent to write.

ME: That we don’t hear much anymore! Yeah, I was sad for the state of the music business. I wanted to write the music I used to listen to in the ’70s. I wanted to go back to the rock ’n roll ballad of Bruce Springsteen and Bob Seger, that Midwestern feeling. So I went back to a Midwestern thought and what it was like for me then. I just wrote from that. I love it. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album.

ME: I, of course, as a person and an artist, was affected by 9/11. I believe we all were. It was reverberating and resounding in me. I was starting to write songs for this album in the beginning of 2002 and I had asked a musician friend of mine, Jon Taylor, to throw together some loops for me. I like to write to a lot of the rhythms. He had thrown some together and he had this one with an Ella Jenkins loop on it. I was like, “What is that? That’s an old gospel singer. It’s an old civil rights song.” So I was listening to it and listening to it on this loop, over and over. I started to sing around it, (sings) “you cannot change this.” I said, “Oh my gosh, is this my 9/11 song?” I started to think my conscious, my political side, what I was aware of and what was going on with Mark Bingham on Flight 93 and the whole thing. I decided I wanted to pay tribute to this man. I don’t want this part of our gay history to be wiped away or swept under. The sample just kept going and I just said that this is how I want to do and it was very important to me.

ME: I did not know that. I do not know anything about her. All I know is she’s still alive! I sent the song to her to ask permission and the word got back that she loved it, and that made me very happy.

ME: My record company liked it (laughs). No, actually it was a long journey with my record company. Sending them songs and wondering how they were going to work it. Were they going to get all behind it or was it going to be a fan record? They were talking to me truthfully, and they said they had a song that, if I was interested in, they thought could be really strong for me. I so wasn’t interested in that. But they sent it and I loved it. I thought, “Oh my goodness, that is a great song and that’s a song that I can sing from my soul.” I certainly know about missing my loved ones at home. It rang truthful, it was strong and my record company loved it (laughs) so I said all right, I’ll do it.

ME: I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited as I am to go on the road with an album and with a set list that I have now. I have eight albums to choose from. I’m thrilled with the band I have. I’vd got Kenny Aronoff on drums, Mark Browne on bass and I’ve got a new guitar player named Phillip Sayce. I’m just so excited. It’s just like the album. It’s full of joy. It’s a celebration and I’m looking forward to it.

Melissa Etheridge headlines the Women’s Rock Fest, taking place at the San Diego County Fair, at 4:00 p.m., July 3. Also featured are Beth Hart, San Diego’s own Tristan Prettyman and Dana Glover. Call (619) 220-TIXS for information.