The Tao of Etheridge

Enter Al Gore, who asked the singer to write the theme song for An Inconvenient Truth. "I was working with someone who was at the front of the whole wave," says Etheridge. "I saw Al Gore stand up, and in a summer, I saw the world change." The song she wrote for the film, "I Need to Wake Up," not only won her an Oscar, it reinforced Etheridge's developing belief in the concept of "intentional reality," a theory with which she has become absolutely fascinated. "I've read hundreds of books, everything from physics to Buddhism to Pleiadians — you know, outer-space extraterrestrials — and they're all talking about the same thing, which thrills me. They're talking about intentional reality. If you can get to that truth, that everything that happens to you is because you've intended it, then you realize how powerful we are."

Growing up in Kansas, Etheridge enjoyed going to church because of the music. "I was in the choir in these Baptist churches," she says. "As a matter of fact, in high school I had dreams of maybe having a career in Christian music." Etheridge's first real gig was opening for Christian contemporary artist Phil Keaggy in her hometown, and after the show, she asked him what he thought of her set. "He basically said, 'I don't think there's a place for people like you in Christian music,' but he said it very nicely. I thought, 'OK. They don't want me, I don't want them.'"

Nowadays, for the first time, she's willing to say she's "into God": "Religion is an oppressive form of crowd control," she says. "But what I understand now is the idea that we are all one, that we come from this one higher consciousness and that we are here to create the kingdom of heaven here on Earth." She says she'll keep the philosophizing to a minimum during her shows, but she's certain to touch on the political and the spiritual. "There's a reason that I'm calling it the Revival Tour," she says. "I want people to know that you're getting more than just the songs."

In the political sphere, Etheridge — a supporter of the Clintons in the Nineties — backed Barack Obama in the primaries. "I was involved with the Clintons deeply," says the singer. "But I could not reconcile myself with some of the choices that I saw them make, and now the corporations run 'em. I think Obama is further outside of that. Do I think he's all the way outside? No. But with trepidation and great hope, I throw him my support." In May, she even signed on as one of 14 co-chairs — alongside Dave Matthews and Usher — of Obama's "Vote for Change" voter drive. "You have to believe not just in the man but in human spirit," she says. "In four years, we can have a totally different world."

But just for this summer, Etheridge has a more modest goal: "I realized the greatest thing that I can do is incite feeling in people," she says. "Maybe it's just 'I want to scream and holler, and this is a safe place to scream and holler.' Go. Scream. Holler all you want. That's what I do. That's why I'm doing it now."

[From Issue 1056-1057 — July 10, 2008]