When Melissa Etheridge fought breast cancer in 2004, she had wife Tammy Lynn Michaels by her side.
The Grammy-winning musician attributes changing her diet and “making sure that every day I do what I love” to her success.
Posts Tagged ‘Melissa Etheridge’
Melissa Etheridge Opens Up About Her ‘Happy’ Life After Breast Cancer
October 4th, 2009 / Author: Valerie NomePHOTOS: Paula, Liza and the VH1 Divas Do Brooklyn
September 18th, 2009 / Author: OK! Staff
Legendary ladies of the past and the future joined forces at last night’s VH1 Divas 2009 concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House. A sleek and spunky Paula Abdul hosted the event, performing a medley of her greatest hits at the start of the show and later doing a hilarious sendup of her American Idol replacement, Ellen DeGeneres.
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February 2nd, 2009 / Author: OK! Staff
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Melissa Etheridge Talks Prop 8
November 6th, 2008
Following California’s controversial passing of Proposition 8 to ban gay marriage, voters—including many celebrities—are speaking out against the measure.
In an interview with Momlogic.com, Grammy-winning singer Melissa Etheridge said that while she was disappointed in the voting results, she has no plans to leave California.
"Today the gay citizenry of this state will pick themselves up and dust themselves off and do what we have been doing for years. We will get back into it. We love this state, we love this country and we are not going to leave it," Etheridge said. "Even though we could be married in Massachussetts or Conneticut, Holland, Spain and a handful of other countries, this is our home. This is where we work and play and raise our families. We will not rest until we have the full right of any other citizen. It is that simple, no fearful vote will ever stop us. That is not the American way."
Meanwhile, Ellen DeGeneres–who released an ad during the campaign asking voters to say no to Prop 8– has also spoken up.
In a statement, the talk show host had this to say:
"Watching the returns on election night was an amazing experience. Barack Obama is our new president. Change is here. I, like millions of Americans, felt like we had taken a giant step towards equality. We were watching history. This morning, when it was clear that Proposition 8 had passed in California, I can’t explain the feeling I had. I was saddened beyond belief. Here we just had a giant step towards equality and then on the very next day, we took a giant step away."
Ellen continues, "I believe one day a ban on gay marriage will sound totally ridiculous. In the meantime, I will continue to speak out for equality for all of us."
OK! Interview: Melissa Etheridge
October 3rd, 2008
Melissa Etheridge can’t wait for Christmas to arrive. So much so, she’s released a new Christmas album two-and-a-half months before the big holiday!
OK! caught up with the Grammy winner, who’s married to Tammy Lynn Michaels, (the couple has four children) at Hard Rock’s Pinktober Launch Event at the Hard Rock Cafe at Universal Studios in L.A. Melissa says it’s her kids who revived the spirit of Christmas for her family.
"Having them become adults and realize that a lot of the things I believe and feel come in direct conflict with the fundamentals of a lot of this stuff that Christmas is based on, I was kind of like, ‘Aw, doggonit.’ But I still celebrate it for my kids because it’s Christmas, even though it would seem out of context."
It was also her children who inspired her to make A New Thought for Christmas, her new Christmas album that dropped Sept. 30.
"I decided last year as I was listening to Christmas music I was thinking, ‘Why, this time of year, for thousands of years, we’ve been celebrating at this time of year because of the solstice, the sun, when the days are the shortest and the nights are the longest, it’s a wonderful thing…And I feel like we’ve lost that, so I wanted to make a Christmas album for everybody else."
Melissa, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 at the age of 43, famously took the stage — minus a head of hair — at the 2005 Grammys. The singer tells OK! that it was around this time that she decided the time was right to go public with her fight.
"It was when I did the Grammys, which was my first step back into it and that was pretty intense, but I knew I needed to take that opportunity when it came and I knew it was the right thing to do," she says.
The singer went through chemotherapy, which she describes as being "painful," and it was during that time that she re-evaluated her lifestyle, specifically her diet.
"When you realize that we’re the spirit that’s in our bodies and our bodies are like the vehicles that take us around, you realize that you have to take care of that body," she tells OK!. "I mean, I love french fries, yet I know there are certain oils that you can cook potatoes in that are less healthy for you, that create an imbalance."
She continues, "I have days when I say, ‘I’m going to have five chocolate chip cookies today.’ I’ll have a salad every day but every week I have a cheat day. And, I never look at it as weight. Weight isn’t a factor in nutritional health."
Melissa just celebrated her fifth wedding anniversary to Tammy Lynn Michaels. Of marriage, Etheridge says, "Tammy, she’s the greatest mom in the world, and my children are the most awesome children ever," she gushes. "That’s probably the best, [thing about being married] you know they’re there no matter what and you can go through things like cancer and she’s right there with me."
Melissa adds, "I used to always be afraid that I was going to make a mistake, but you do, you make mistakes and you just have to trust that you do it from love, you do the best you can and that’s the right thing."
By Jennifer Birn
