June 7, 2002

The Queen City’s got a brand new sound

Rainbow band and flag corps to kick off their first year at Cincinnati Pride

by Doreen Cudnik

Cincinnati--Looking back on the 2000 march and festival, Pride Committee member and local transgender activist Paula Ison concluded that there just wasn’t enough music to suit her taste. So when planning began for the following year’s event, she decided to do something about it.

As a result of her efforts, along with the enthusiasm of dozens of local gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender musicians, the Queen City Rainbow Band will march down the hill to Hoffner Park during this year’s Pride parade. They are Cincinnati’s first ever LGBT marching band and flag corps.

After Pride 2000, Ison contacted the Lakeside Pride Band of Chicago and invited them to march in Cincinnati in the 2001 Pride parade. Roughly 45 musicians, flag corps members and drum majors accepted the invitation, making 2001 the first year that the Cincinnati Pride Parade included a marching band.

Marching with the Lakeside Pride Band that year was saxophonist Maryhelen Hibben, a Cincinnati resident who founded the GLB Freedom Trail Band of Boston. The experience was an inspiring one, and the next thing Hibben knew, she was adding “co-founder of the Queen City Rainbow Band” to her long list of musical accomplishments.

“I never anticipated that I would return to Cincinnati after college and play in a LGBT band here, much less help found it,” Hibben said. “But Cincinnati, with its strong musical heritage, has a potential to form a fantastic LGBT marching and concert band and auxiliary units, if the musicians are willing to come out of the closet.”

The band has attracted dozens of people with varying degrees of musical experience. One band member plays in a local symphony. A few, like conductor and music arranger David Shaffer, are music educators. But most, Hibben said, “are people who are amateur musicians.”

“We have people returning to band music after a long hiatus and some people who are learning a brand new instrument,” Hibben said. “We welcome people with any ability, and help and encourage them to re-learn how to play their instrument.”

The band and flag corps have served to foster friendships between individuals who may not have otherwise met, let alone spent several evenings a week hanging out and practicing together.

Head “flaggie” Simone Wieczorek said she “loves being a flaggie and loves being a lesbian,” which is what brought her to the Queen City Rainbow Band. She treasures the moments when the flag corps gets a routine down.

“There is such excitement in the air. We know we rock!”

Fellow flaggie Sam Clemons is an active member of the Cincinnati Men’s Chorus as well as the Imperial Crown Prince VIII of the Imperial Sovereign Queen City Court of the Buckeye Empire, better known as “the Court.”

“Everything about this experience has been fun,” Clemons said. “I think the most fun for me has been being able to be myself as a member of a color guard for the first time. I was not out as a member in high school or as a member of the Bluegrass Brass Drum and Bugle Corps of Louisville, Kentucky.”

Clemons added that what he is most looking forward to this Pride season is his daughter Chelsea “being part of the Pride celebration with me and my partner Jon. She is really looking forward to seeing me perform with the band and in the parade.”

Joining the Queen City band this year will be members of Chicago’s Lakeside Pride Band and Flag Corps. The group is making a return appearance to help swell the ranks during Queen City’s inaugural year.

“But this year,” Hibben said, “I am anticipating that exact moment when the realization hits the audience that this marching band and flag corps is Cincinnati’s own group, and not a group brought in from another city.”

In addition to performing at Cincinnati’s Pride festival on June 8 and the parade on June 9, the band plans to perform at Pride events in Lexington, Columbus and possibly Dayton, Indianapolis and Louisville. Corporate sponsorships are being sought to offset the cost of music, uniforms and equipment. Sponsorship levels and a schedule of performances are posted on the band’s web site at http://www.qcrb.org. The band is still recruiting new members, and welcomes anyone who may want to be a baton twirler or start a rifle twirling corps. Interested parties can contact Hibben at qcrbprez1@yahoo.com.

For more information about Cincinnati Pride, visit their web site at http://www.cincypride.com. _|

A parade and two days of music leads Cincinnati Pride

by Anthony Glassman

Cincinnati--A parade, ten hours of music, special bar nights and more parties than one would think could fit into the Queen City will highlight Pride week this year.

On Saturday, June 8, the Queen City Marching Band will make its debut at the music festival in Hoffner Park. The festival starts at 7 pm on Saturday and at 2 pm on Sunday, following the parade.

Saturday’s other musical acts include Carol Sherman-Jones, mother of Carol’s on Main, with Sherry McCamley, Muse Women’s Choir, the Cincinnati Men’s Chorus and hip-hop trio IsWhat?! performing with special lighting by Big Bang Productions.

Sunday’s festival will bring Belinda Scroggins, Annette Shepherd, Ryan Adcock, Chris Collier, Tonefarmer, Beatrice, Jake Speed and the Freddies and Vicki D’Salle to the stage.

In fact, the only thing stopping the music that weekend will be the Cincinnati Pride rally and parade on Sunday. The rally begins at noon at the Burnet Woods gazebo, and the parade steps off at 1 pm.

Pre-rally music will be provided by DJ Max of BPM Productions. The rally itself will feature a diverse collection of speakers from the Cincinnati LGBT community, including Erica Riddick, organizer of the Crazy Ladies fundraiser, “Lesbian Fashion Show,” Michael Chanak, longtime activist and one of the prime forces behind the return of Cincinnati’s Pride, and Peaches LaVerne, at 77 years the oldest female impersonator in Cincinnati.

Other speakers include Lois McGuinness and her partner Tess Imholt, Dr. John A. Maddux, Dr. John A. Kelly, Rev. Daniel Newman and Pride coordinator Ken Colegrove, with sign language interpretation by Chris Owens.

The morning of June 8, the Cincinnati Youth Group will present a pancake breakfast at the Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church as part of Cincinnati Pride, while the River Bears Pride Cookout at noon in the McFarland Woods shelter will provide more substantial fare.

Also at noon will be the Proud Artists Contest Showcase at the Cincinnati LGBT Center.

At 4 pm, New Thought Unity Center will host a Pride interfaith service; the center is located at 1401 E. McMillan in East Walnut Hills.         _|

Cleveland Pride expands with youth and senior spaces

by Anthony Glassman

Cleveland--Northeast Ohio’s LGBT community will “Think Outside the Triangle” for the 14th Annual Lesbian-Gay-Bi-Trans Pride on June 15.

The pre-parade rally will start at 1 pm at E. 18th St. and Euclid Ave. Speakers at the rally will include Pride president Bob Krabbe, Willow Witte from Cleveland State University, Craig Tame of the City of Cleveland and Ward 13 Councilmember Joe Cimperman.

Also speaking will be Mark Tumeo of Heights Families for Equality, the group formed to protect Cleveland Heights’ benefits for domestic partners of city employees. Linda Malicki, the departing executive director of the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center will also speak, along with Ken Walton, the president of Prime Timers Cleveland, and Tyree Coats and Charles Walker speaking to youth. The Rev. Irene Monroe from Harvard Divinity School will also speak.

The parade will step off at 2 pm and head to Voinovich Park, at the tip of the East 9th St. Pier in Lake Erie, where the festival will continue until 8 pm.

This year’s festival promises to be bigger and better than ever, with an area devoted exclusively to LGBT youth, featuring teen band Rude Staff Checkers, made up primarily of students from Cleveland Heights High School, Doug Wood, Randi Driscoll from Los Angeles playing her pop sound, Cleveland performance poet Kaoz and more.

The performers in the Youth Zone will also play the main stage, along with Amy Collins, Mr. and Ms. Black Gay Ohio, comedian Eddie Sarfaty, bisexual activist and speaker Skott Freedman, Speechlés, Rachael Sage, Karen Williams and jazz vocalist Trinity.

Cleveland Pride coordinator Brynna Fish was thrilled about the line-up of acts playing at Pride, especially that they reflect all the faces of the LGBT community.

“Trinity is a drag performer who introduces the jazz world and the gay world to each other,” she noted. “Rachael Sage is a bisexual woman who sounds like a cross between Jewel, Natalie Merchant, Alanis and Tori Amos.”

“This is Skott Freedman’s third Cleveland Pride. He likes our Pride so much, he keeps asking to come back,” Fish continued. “Randi Driscoll wrote a song about Matthew Shepard and got hooked up with the Matthew Shepard Foundation. She plays for free and just asks that Pride festivals have a table for the Matthew Shepard Foundation.”

Wrapping up the performances will be dance diva Kristin W, continuing the tradition of big dance acts. Last year’s headliner was Ultra Naté.

The dance stage, which begins at 3 pm, will feature music provided by the new Grid and Orbit nightclub.

There will also be a drag show at 3:30 pm, featuring a special appearance by Trinity.

In addition, a children’s pavilion, senior space, food court and beer garden will provide a place for everyone at the Pride festival.

Cleveland Pride is not, however, just the parade and festival. A number of events surrounding Pride add to the festivities.

The annual pool tournament, for instance, began June 3 and wraps up on June 13.

The official Pride kick-off party will be held on Friday, June 14 at the new Grid, 1437 St. Clair Ave., featuring the turntable skills of DJ Jerry Szoka. The party starts at 10 pm. The next night, DJ Monty Q spins for the official Pride after-party at Bounce, 2814 Detroit Ave., also at 10 pm.

The day after Cleveland Pride will be filled with activities, as well. At 9 am, there will be a 5k run and walk sponsored by Frontrunners in Edgewater Park; registration is at 8 am.

At 5:30 pm, Rev. Irene Monroe will lead a Pride interfaith worship service at Trinity Cathedral, E. 22nd Street and Euclid Ave.

For real fun, though, toss on a red shirt or pride colors and head to Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky for the unofficial LGBT Day.

For more information on any Cleveland Pride events, log onto their web site at http://www.clevelandpride.org, or call the information line at 216-371‑0214.       _|

Dayton Pride continues with dinner, expo and picnic

by John Gantt

Dayton--Join the Dayton Pride Partnership on Saturday, June 15 for the 16th Annual Gay Pride Dinner and Expo at the Dayton Convention Center, corner of 5th and Main.

The Expo will run from 5 pm - 7 pm, and the dinner will start at 7 pm.

Entertainment this year will feature nationally recognized lesbian comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer. Emcees Rob Austin and Felicia Dalton and special guests Bonni Blake, Jeff Newton and Friends.

Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin will be a featured guest speaker.

Tickets may be purchased at: Q! gifts, Books & Company, The Stage Door and at Club Diva.

The event will be presented by the Dayton Pride Partnership and the Dayton Gay and Lesbian Center.

For more information, call 937-275‑3059 or visit online at http://www.members.tripod.com/pridedayton.

The next day, on Sunday, June 16, visit the second annual LGBT Outdoor Family Pride Picnic in Carillon Park on Patterson Blvd across from NCR. The picnic will begin at 12 noon and go to 5 pm. Activities will include a speedball booth, music, children’s activity area, groups and business information booths, raffle prize tickets passed out with park entry tickets, historical parks open to tours to all attendees with entry ticket, food and beverages available for a small fee.

Don’t forget the Pride Olympics competition games: Around the World Relay Drag Race, Relay Three Legged Race, Pass the Fruit, Threading the Needle and We are Family Feud.

For information or to register your team, call 937-429‑1728 or E-mail radavis@dayton.net.

The Expo, Dinner and Picnic, however, are neither the beginning nor the end of Dayton Pride.

We kicked off the month with the city’s first Pride parade on June 1, which also made it the first Pride parade of the year for the entire state. We will be sending marchers to the Cincinnati Pride Parade on June 9, as well as entering a float in the parade during the Stonewall Columbus Pride Holiday. For more information on participating in either of these two events, please call Dale at 937-275‑4438.       _|

John Gantt is the coordinator of the Dayton Pride Partnership.

21 years is a lucky number for Columbus Pride Holiday

by Anthony Glassman

Columbus--In blackjack, 21 is the lucky number. On June 29, it will also be the lucky number for Stonewall Columbus’ Pride Holiday.

“Uniting for Equality,” Pride Holiday 2002, will have as its centerpiece the traditional parade from the Short North to Bicentennial Park, where it will let out into the day-long festival that last year drew 32,000 people to Columbus.

Line-up and registration for the parade will begin at 12 noon, with the parade stepping off at 1 pm.

The festival will officially begin at 2 pm and run until 6 pm; a $5 donation on sliding scale is requested at the entrance, but no one will be turned away.

The rainbow banners will be back from last year, with ten more being added to light poles downtown to bring the total to 40.

Martha Wash of Weather Girls fame, the diva behind the hit single “It’s Raining Men,” will headline the entertainment at the Pride Holiday festival this year. Emceeing events on the main stage will be WCMH Channel 4 anchor Tyler Bacome. Other acts include the Columbus Stompers, the top country-western dance group in the state; Andy Kuncl; Commonbond, a lesbian folk duo from Washington, D.C.; the Dyke Queens and the Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus.

A second stage will showcase more local talent, as well as drag acts and a DJ spinning music to keep the crowd dancing throughout the festival.

Last year’s new arrivals, the family area and the beer garden, will return this year. The beer garden confinement, however, will not return; patrons will be given wrist bands designating that they are of legal drinking age, and they will be allowed to roam free.

Once the festival ends, the festivities will continue in a different venue. The traditional Dancing in the Streets outdoor dance party will open its gates at 6 pm in the parking lot of Axis, 775 N. High St.

Headlining the party this year will be dance divas Niki Haris, one of Madonna’s backup singers, and Pepper Mashay, returning to the site of her successful July 4, 2001 show.

Dancing will be hosted by the Lady Alexis Fontaine, and will also feature Virginia West, TNV, the Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus, Aurora, Kemistry, Rhonda and the Moulin Rouge Splash Girls.

Dancing in the Streets will benefit Stonewall Columbus, the Columbus AIDS Task Force, Project Open Hand, Ohio AIDS Coalition and the Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus, as well as the Midwest Institute for the Arts.

The following day, Bat ’n’ Rouge, the yearly charity drag softball game, be at the field by the former Mohawk School, now the Afrocentric School, at the corner of Grant and Livingston. The gates open at 12 noon, with the game beginning at 3 pm. Admission is $5 in advance, or $7 on the day of the game.               _|

How the rainbow flag lost two stripes

The banner once had eight colors. It caps a long line of gay and lesbian symbols

by Eric Resnick

Throughout the year, and especially during Pride celebrations around the world, symbols and colors are used within the LGBT community to symbolize pride or to recognize one another.

The rainbow has become the most popular and universally recognized sign of pride for the LGBT community. It first appeared in the 1978 San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade, when artist Gilbert Baker borrowed symbolism from the hippie movement and black civil rights groups.

Baker’s two original banners, which were hand-dyed and stitched by 30 volunteers, had eight stripes. Each color represented a component of the community: hot pink for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit.

Pleased with the success of his creations, Baker approached the Paramount Flag Company to manufacture flags for the 1979 parade. The company couldn’t purchase hot pink material for the mass-produced flags, so that stripe was removed.

The organizing committee only wanted six colors so three could be on each side of the street. The turquoise was removed and the indigo was changed to royal blue.

The flags with the remaining colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple were a hit, and their design and message of unity quickly spread to other cities and around the world. Today, the International Congress of Flag Makers recognizes it as a symbol of gay pride.

The flag is correctly displayed with the red on top, as it appears in a natural rainbow. With the flag hung vertically, the red should be on the left.

Over the years, different versions of the rainbow flag have been used to identify gay groups with special interests.

The Victory Over AIDS flag is a rainbow flag with a black stripe attached to the violet stripe, in memory of those lost to AIDS.

Sgt. Leonard Matlovich, a Viet Nam veteran dying of AIDS, suggested that when a cure for AIDS is found, the black stripes should be removed from all the flags and ceremonially burned in Washington, D.C.

The Leather Pride Flag first appeared at the Mr. Leather contest in Chicago in May 1989. It was designed by artist Tony DeBlase with eight alternating black and royal blue horizontal stripes, a ninth, white stripe in the center, and a red heart in the upper left. Because this is not an exclusively gay symbol, some leather aficionados remove the purple stripe of the six-color rainbow flag and replace it with a black one.

Bear Pride flags are a combination of colors and symbols adopted by local clubs and groups. The most commonly recognized is the International Bear Brotherhood Flag, made up of six earth tones and originated in Seattle in 1995. Its black paw print and colors represent earth and the various varieties of bears that live on it.

The most defiant of all gay pride symbols is the pink triangle. Its history begins with Adolf Hitler’s rise to power.

In 1935, Paragraph 175, a 19th-century German law prohibiting male homosexuality, was revised by the Nazis to include kissing, embracing, and gay fantasies as well as sexual acts.

An estimated 100,000 people were convicted of homosexuality between 1935 and 1944. The men were first sent to prison, then to the concentration camps where they were castrated and assigned the most degrading of work details and the harshest treatment.

The Nazis made different groups of people in the camps wear colored cloth triangles. Ordinary criminals were made to wear a green triangle; political prisoners wore red; homosexuals wore pink. Two yellow triangles overlapping to form a star marked Jewish prisoners; and an inverted yellow triangle under a pink triangle marked the gay Jews.

Even after the Allied troops liberated the concentration camps in 1945, homosexuals remained incarcerated in “legal” prisons because they were still considered to be sex criminals. Paragraph 175 remained in effect in West Germany until its repeal in 1969.

In the 1970s, gay liberation groups reclaimed the pink triangle. It is easily recognized and draws attention to its history of oppression and persecution.

The black triangle, which has been claimed as a symbol by lesbians and non-lesbian feminists, also has its history in Nazi Germany. Though Paragraph 175 did not include sexual relations between women, those who displayed “anti-social” traits, believed to include lesbians, prostitutes, and those refusing to bear children, were imprisoned and forced to wear the black triangle.

Today, the pink and black triangles symbolize solidarity, pride, and a promise to never allow another Holocaust.

In the 1980s, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power inverted the pink triangle, making it point up, signifying an active fight instead of a passive resignation to fate.

Artist Michael Page created a bisexual pride symbol by placing a powder blue triangle behind and to the right of the pink one. It debuted in 1998.

The lambda, the Greek letter L, was selected as a gay symbol meaning “liberation” when it was adopted in 1970 by the New York Gay Activists Alliance. In 1974, the International Gay Rights Congress held in Edinburgh, Scotland also adopted it as the international symbol for gay rights.

Greek Spartans regarded the lambda to mean unity. An additional theory is that veteran Spartan warriors, who were often paired off with younger men during battle, displayed the symbol on their shields. It was believed that the warriors would fight more fiercely knowing that their lovers were fighting alongside them.

The lambda never achieved the prominence of the rainbow because it was originally viewed as a male-only symbol.

The labrys is regarded as the lesbian counterpart to the lambda, and is depicted as a double-bladed axe used by matriarchal societies and Amazon women as a weapon and harvesting tool. It has been adopted as a symbol of lesbian strength and self-sufficiency.

The labrys also played a part in ancient mythology. Demeter, the goddess of the earth, used a labrys as her scepter. Ceremonies in her honor are believed to have included lesbian sex.

The astrological sign of Mercury is the traditional symbol of transgender people. The crescent moon at the top represents the masculine, while the cross at the bottom represents the feminine. The ring in the middle represents the individual with male and female balanced at either side.

The color lavender became a gay symbol because it results from the fusion of red and blue, the symbolic references of the genders. In the 1930s, lavender became a colloquial term used by lesbians to identify one another.          _|

It is the point

by Winnie Stachelberg

In post-September 11 America, a great premium has been placed on wholeness, on opening the arms of our nation’s family to all who seek its warmth. Today we seek our place, a full place, a respected place, a loving place and an unquestioned place, in the American family.

But we all know that nothing has more clarified the extent to which our LGBT families are at risk of falling through major policy cracks than 9/11. We all know that the gay lives that were shattered were not well-covered in the national press, so we must be the living witnesses to their lives and the partners and families they left behind. People like:

Mark Bingham, a hardy rugby player, who joined other men to storm the cockpit on United Flight 93, thereby almost certainly saving the Capitol or the White House and thousands of lives.

Father Mychal Judge, one of hundreds of thousands of noble Catholic priests who ministered to the toughest neighborhoods of New Jersey and even tougher New York firefighters, died as he lived--ministering to a fallen firefighter at the World Trade Center. His was the same tender heart that brought so much comfort to the poor and dying of New York.

David Charlebois, a consummate pilot who loved to fly and who died as his hijacked plane crashed into the walls of the Pentagon, an institution that would not have wholly embraced him.

One of David’s passengers, Joseph Ferguson, a National Geographic educator, surely worked hard to lift the spirits of the young students and teachers who accompanied him on Flight 77.

Carol Flyzik, a skilled nurse, no doubt provided comfort to many on American Flight 11 before it struck the north tower of the World Trade Center. Along with her partner Nancy Walsh, Carol raised three children for 14 years.

And we can be sure that Ronald Gamboa and Dan Brandhorst held their three-year-old son, David, close in the way that any parent would.

In their courage and the unmatched caring that have poured from Americans’ hearts since, we have seen so much of humanity’s best.

An extraordinary thing happened on that horrible day. In an instant, America became whole. The flames of terror forged our hearts together and vaporized the differences between us.

From the trough of terror, we glimpsed the peak of possibility--what this nation can be. This spirit of caring and unity is so powerful it is hard to imagine its lesson could be lost on anyone.

I suspect the gay community of our nation has a thing or two to share with America about facing down fear, and safeguarding cherished values of honesty, integrity, strength and the dream of equality. More than anything else, we can share the dream of a nation, free from terror from within or without.

Since September 11, some have suggested that our goals should be put off to a different, more convenient time.

I say this: Our goals have never been so vital and relevant. Indeed, they are an essential part of America’s sacred quest for a more perfect union. It is that quest the terrorists sought to derail, and it is exactly what we are now fighting to defend.

For you see, it is the very right to engage in this advocacy, to ever perfect America on its journey towards true equality, that is the magic of our nation. America has always been a nation in search of itself. We stand at a historic juncture when we are the light on that path.

At critical moments of national crisis, our quest is not beside the point. It is the point. This burning within us to make America that much better is not just America’s gift to us; it is our gift to America.

In the urgency of the moment, we must not let this unity, this sacred quest for an equal nation, to drift to any distant place in our lives.

We must remember those whose courage and compassion inspired us. In their name, we must carry on as a community and a nation.

We will heal as a nation, and when we do, we can be, to borrow those graceful words of Hemingway, stronger at the broken places. As a community, we will continue on this journey--not only because it is a privilege surpassing all imagination, but because there is chance with passion and determination we might make the world that much safer tomorrow.       _|

Winnie Stachelberg is the political director of the Human Rights Campaign. This was condensed from a speech she gave at the HRC’s Cleveland dinner on May 11.

It was a huge dream, and it came true

Melissa Etheridge is having fun now

by Janet Macoska

Rock goddess Melissa Etheridge is about to embark on a 40-city plus tour this summer, performing at three Ohio venues. She will be at Cleveland and Akron’s Blossom Music Center on June 29; Columbus’ Polaris Amphitheater on July 5, and Cincinnati’s Riverbend Music Center on July 7.

After a very successful “Live and Alone” tour this past winter, the summer tour will feature her full band, and also include special guests Meredith Brooks (with that song you love to hate, “Bitch”) and newcomer Rosey.

Etheridge has had a career that any musician and songwriter would envy. She’s sold over 25 million albums worldwide, won Grammy awards and an ASCAP Songwriter of the Year award. Millions of people around the globe adore her, and can’t get enough of the raw passion and power she brings to her music, on record and in live performances.

Etheridge has also been a strong symbol of gay acceptance and pride since she came out at the presidential inauguration gala in 1993. Despite her activism, Etheridge’s songwriting has mostly been of an intensely personal nature, cathartically autobiographical. Life. Love. Desire. She connects with her audience at the heart and soul. She is our modern day rock and roll troubadour.

Janet Macoska: Your last album, Skin, tells your story, beginning with the pain of your break-up, how you learned to be alone again, then picked yourself up, regaining your resolve as you go into the song “I Wanna Be In Love.” I found that a very affirming statement, reminding us that we have to believe in love. Don’t settle, because it’s out there.

Melissa Etheridge: Yeah

JM: Hey, I got it, right?

ME:You got it. Yeah, okay, bye.

JM: Wait--no, there’s more. I understand that you’re featuring some new material in concert on this upcoming tour. Some time has passed since you wrote the songs on Skin. You’re in a different place, in a new skin. So what are you writing about and singing about these days? 

ME: Sex.

JM: Oh . . . cool.

ME: (Laughing) It’s amazing. My music is just is an extension of my self. Even when I try for it not to be, it has always been such. Now that I’ve given myself over to it, it’s been so fun writing these songs recently. It’s about goodness and clarity and strength. I’ve got a lot of fun songs right now and I haven’t had fun songs in a long time.

JM: So it has been quite a metamorphosis for you.

ME: Oh yeah. Now it’s that hope in action and it’s been so much fun. I’ve performed a couple of these songs and they’ve been met with such great response, which you don’t hardly get with a new song.

JM: You’ve said the songs are about sex. Are they about love too?

ME: Oh yes, oh yes. Yes, they’re about sex, but that sex coming out of love, different than the sex I was having searching for that. It’s coming out of a celebration. As you were saying, believing in true love. I wanna be in love. I believe in that and actually getting it. Not settling.

JM: That’s really about you when you decide not to settle, to say this is what I really want in my life, and then it happens.

ME: Yeah. It’s truly amazing.

JM: What’s your girlfriend’s name?

ME: Tammy Lynn Michaels.

[The 25-year-old blonde actress is best known for her role as Nicole Julian on the now-defunct WB series Popular.]

JM: Is she that love you were writing about in “I Want to Be in Love”?

ME: Well, I didn’t know her then.

JM: But she’s the one who showed up?

ME: I put that out in the universe and she showed up. Look out what you ask for, because you might get it. (Laughs)

JM: You share a fairly intimate connection with your audience through your songs, which are very revealing. You’ve made your life an open book. How do you retain some sense of privacy and a private life? When is enough enough?

ME: What I’ve found is that by being open, by saying this is what’s going on with me, and this is the truth, then people leave you alone. They’re not hounding me. They’re not following me and chasing me. I’ve actually found more privacy in doing such.

JM: I imagine it takes more energy to keep pushing away and running away.

ME: The one time when I tried to keep a secret about who the father was of my children. Oh, my God, it was like insane and it was so oppressive. The chasing. I just said, okay, this is who it is, now go away! So, I got my privacy then.

JM: You do manage to maintain a private life. You close the door and you have your relationship with your girlfriend, you have your kids. A private life.

ME: I create that. I make the space for that.

JM: I think I noticed on your tour schedule during the solo tour that you would only be on the road for a certain number of days, then take off a chunk of time to be at home. Are you going to continue that practice on this tour?

ME: Yes, and because it’s summer the kids will come out with me a lot. The schedule is very much put together with family life in mind.

JM: Do you have any budding performers at home?

ME: Of course, my children are geniuses! (Laughs) But ask me again when they’re eight years old.

JM: Do they enjoy watching you onstage?

ME: They love it. Love it!

JM: Let’s allow your fans to live out a fantasy. Put us in your shoes, just as you are about to go onstage. Tell us how you feel, what are you thinking about. Are you nervous? How does it feel when you get onstage and you get hit with the roar of the crowd?

ME: That is probably my favorite time--ever--in my life: that moment when you can feel the audience and the anticipation.

That is what I used to dream about every night when I’d unload my equipment at the bar and walk in there and start playing and there would be five or six people, if even that. I’d say: Someday people are gonna come and they’re gonna pay money and they’re gonna be there just to hear me. They’re going to want to hear me and they’re going to know my songs when I play them. It was a huge dream.

Every single time I’m getting ready to go out onstage . . . when those lights go out, that is my favorite moment. Everyone is just excited to be in the same building. And it is responsibility. I want to live up to that excitement.

JM: Well I’ve never seen you hold back onstage. I’m guessing you’ve dragged yourself out there with a 102 degree temperature and the flu.

ME: Yeah . . . and it all goes away for those couple of hours. It hits you later, but I’m completely healthy onstage.

JM: You’ve shared the stage over the years with a lot of notable performers. Any favorites in those experiences, where you’re on an equal footing as a performer, but may still be enjoying the moment as a fan?

ME: Bruce Springsteen was definitely that. That was one of those moments where I felt that I reached a place in my life. I didn’t want time to pass. I just wanted it to stop because I knew it would never be like this again. Very, very special. Very honored to just be singing with him. C’mon, it was just insane. I still think it’s insane. I think about it now, and just go “Wow.” From just rehearsing in the dressing room, sitting with guitars on our laps and singing. Just unbelievable.

JM: I wanted to throw some questions at you that maybe you don’t normally get, though I think you’ve probably been asked almost everything. Quick questions. Quick answers. What book are you reading right now?

ME: Well, I’m not. I’m reading Newsweek and Time.

JM: What is currently in your CD player? 

ME: Rough mixes of my new album.

JM: When will we get to hear the finished product?

ME: Probably next spring.

JM: What’s on your mouse pad? Do you have a mouse pad?

ME: Isn’t that funny . . . I just got a new computer and they didn’t give me a mouse pad. It’s just on my desk. Isn’t that funny? I’m so not answering your questions.

JM: No, no. That’s okay. There are plenty more. This just kind of a verbal Rorschach test. If you could have one super power, what would it be?

ME: To be in two places at once, to be two of me. I could be home with my kids and also working.

JM: Favorite sound?

ME: My kids’ laughter

JM: Favorite smell?

ME: Ha . . . boy, a lot of things went through my head . . . Tammy!

JM: What is the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning?

ME: Hmmm . . . wow . . . usually what I have to do that day. I try to get the day organized in my head.

JM: What's the worst feeling in the world for you?

ME: That I’ve done something wrong.

JM: Least favorite sound?

ME: My kids’ crying.

JM: Chocolate or vanilla?

ME: Vanilla.

JM: What’s under your bed?

ME: What’s under my bed? New carpeting.

JM: Do you drive fast?

ME: No.

JM: Storms: Cool or scary?

ME: Cool!

JM: If you could meet one person dead or alive, who would it be?

ME: Princess Di.

JM: That’s interesting, why?

ME: We were the same age and I don’t know why . . . I just always wished that I’d met her.

JM: What is most important in life?

ME: That’s hard. I mean I want to say love, but that’s very complicated. Love of oneself. Love of another. Most important thing in life is to know that it’s a journey.

JM:  What’s the last movie you’ve seen.

ME: Harry Potter, I think.

JM: With the kids?

ME: No, it’s too scary for them.

JM: Is the glass half empty or half full?

ME: Half full.

JM: Favorite food?

ME: Chips and salsa.

JM: Favorite TV show?

ME: I don’t watch much TV. Will and Grace.

JM: What is your favorite sport to watch?

ME: Football!

JM: Who’s your team? 

ME: Kansas City Chiefs--so I’m disappointed a lot.

JM: Last question. If you ruled the world, what would be your first order of business?

ME: Education.                _|