Q&A Melissa Etheridge

By Sora Song

Two-time Grammy winner and high-profile breast-cancer survivor Melissa Etheridge releases her new album and DVD set, Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled, this week.

Why now for the greatest-hits album?

Before, I felt like I hadn't reached the place that I needed to be. After Lucky [in 2004], I felt, I can do it now. I felt like this is a nice place to put a stake in. It was kind of fortuitous that the cancer diagnosis came [when it did]--it made it even more of a milestone.

What's on the DVD?

You can see all the different hairstyles. I started in '88, so there's a mullet in there.

Are you also working on a sitcom for ABC?

It's still in development. Basically, it's about what my life might have been like had I not left to find my fame and fortune, and stayed in Kansas and become a teacher and been gay and dealt with life there.

Why the urge to do TV?

I want to be home for dinner. I love music, but I don't want to rely just on touring for my income. And I'm realizing right now people are interested in my person more.

Speaking of home, you were married in California.

Did you consider doing it in a place where it's legally recognized? Well, I could have gone to Massachusetts, but it's not valid unless I live in Massachusetts, so what's the point? I keep believing that California is going to come around. It got very close, until Arnold I-want-to-poke-his-eyes-out Schwarzenegger.

And there's another baby on track?

We are talking and thinking and developing, but there's nothing to report.

But you won't be going back to David Crosby [father of her first two children], right?

Nah, I think he's been through enough.