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Feb. 4, 2013 - The Joe Rogan Experience
02:06:34
Joe Rogan Experience #321 - Melissa Etheridge
Participants
Main voices
j
joe rogan
01:10:12
m
melissa etheridge
51:51
Appearances
b
brian redban
02:24
Clips
a
andy stumpf
00:01
b
benjamin jaffe
00:02
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joe rogan
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Alright, you freaks?
Listen, Melissa Etheridge is here, and I don't want to bore the shit out of her with our stupid commercial.
So, it's over.
Brian, cue the music.
Make it official.
unidentified
Joe Rogan Podcast.
Check it out.
melissa etheridge
The Joe Rogan Experience.
unidentified
Train by day.
Joe Rogan Podcast by night.
All day.
joe rogan
Ladies and gentlemen, Melissa Atheridge.
unidentified
Hey!
joe rogan
Thank you so much for being here.
melissa etheridge
What a pleasure to be here.
joe rogan
I gotta tell you, when I got a message saying, Melissa Etheridge wants to do your podcast, I had to think, did I ever talk shit about Melissa Etheridge?
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
I just had a really cool...
Because as a comedian...
melissa etheridge
Oh, I know.
I'm easy, aren't I? Well, everyone's easy.
joe rogan
I'm easy, too.
But it's, you know, it's like you wanna...
If you ever did...
And I didn't.
But if you ever did make fun of something, you're like, look, I didn't mean it.
melissa etheridge
Hey, I completely understand comedy.
I'm actually someone that knows that if you're making fun of me, that means that I must be doing something successful.
unidentified
Oh, for sure.
melissa etheridge
So I'm all good.
joe rogan
Yeah, and even if I'm accusing someone of being pretentious or whatever, I'm guilty of being stupid.
Yeah.
So just a joke.
I have to do it.
I can't just let it sit there.
It's in the middle of the world, and I can't point out...
melissa etheridge
It's your job.
Comedy is sacred.
Believe me.
joe rogan
You believe that?
melissa etheridge
I totally believe it.
Comedy is that part of truth, and it's people like you.
It's why you resonate so well with all what you're doing right now.
Because comedy pushes.
When you stand up in front of people and say, this is...
The truth.
And then they ha-ha-ha, they laugh.
And laughter is that release.
joe rogan
Right.
melissa etheridge
It's beautiful.
joe rogan
I think that release, whatever that feeling is, that when you laugh, whatever that thing that makes you laugh, I think if that was a drug, if you could buy that, like at 7-Eleven, like you could buy a coffee.
Man.
Because when I go to see like a – like I worked this weekend with a couple of really funny guys with Brian Callen and Ari Shafir and Brian Redman here.
We worked in Vegas.
We had this show.
And one of the things I love about like working with really funny guys is like actually getting to laugh.
Actually getting to be an audience member, because a lot of Brian Callen stuff was new.
I hadn't heard it before.
And I was just howling, laughing.
It's such a good feeling.
And very similar in a lot of ways to the feeling that a great song can hit you.
melissa etheridge
Well, it's what we do.
We do very similar things.
We take human emotion, human experience, and organize it in a way that it gets past all the normal barriers.
I hopefully can tap into a feeling that a person has.
That goes beyond their head, but it goes straight into their heart, and then they get to release it.
That'll cause you sickness, too, if you keep too many emotions inside.
So comedy is the same.
It's all about letting it so healthy.
joe rogan
The difference with comedy is your stuff gets better the more I hear it.
Even the greats, like Richard Pryor, I can only listen to one of his bits once, not twice in a row, not three times in a week.
I could take one of your songs and just slap it on repeat and enjoy it more.
brian redban
I've come to your window so many times.
melissa etheridge
That just scares me now.
Yeah, I'm very lucky that my art form is more like I can write a song, I can record it, and in that moment I can put it there and bring me some water.
There you go.
And then, you know what, 20 years later, oh my gosh, I get to sing it again and I can put all kinds of new stuff.
I can do whatever I want with it.
joe rogan
And people want it.
unidentified
Yeah, they pay money to hear it.
joe rogan
It's like with comedy, you have to always keep coming up with new shit.
melissa etheridge
Be funny, dude.
joe rogan
It doesn't last.
You can't redo bits from decades past, but a great song that comes out, man, that's permanently great.
And better with time.
Cool.
It's a weird feeling to be a person who knows nothing about music.
That's who I am.
unidentified
Really?
joe rogan
I know zero.
melissa etheridge
Nothing.
Don't even play any instrument?
joe rogan
Nope.
Can't play anything.
When I look at music written down, I never investigated it, even for a second.
But I love music.
I love to listen to it.
So I look at people like you as almost like, what you do is, it's like a form of magic or something.
The ability to make awesome noise.
melissa etheridge
Well, it used to be alchemical in that it was sacred, music was, because if you look at the nature of the universe and reality and you break it down into quantum physics, it is a reality that is based on octaves and dimensions.
So if you understand music, you can understand.
It's one of the reasons why I understand the nature of reality so much.
This is what happened like eight, nine years ago.
And once you get To understand that we are all octaves.
We are all instruments.
We are all vibrational beings.
Then you understand, oh, music.
That's why music will never, ever go away.
That's why it resonates so much.
joe rogan
Yeah, for a lot of people that hear that kind of talk and they go, oh, goddammit, you just hit my hippie bullshit button.
melissa etheridge
I know!
joe rogan
You're resonating.
What are you?
You're resonating?
Beings or something?
melissa etheridge
Vibration.
joe rogan
What the hell does that mean?
melissa etheridge
You know what?
And they...
Absolutely, they live there.
I have an understanding and a belief, and we're all just made up of our beliefs, and I walk with my hippie understanding belief and go on with it.
joe rogan
I think there's obviously, it's a beautiful and imaginative concept that But there's sort of clear evidence that there's something there.
Say if you're in your car, and that riff of Back in Black comes on the radio, and it was just the perfect sound at the perfect time.
Maybe you're bored or whatever, you're annoyed by something, and then...
Like your whole body, like...
It's just like, that song is so good, it fires you up.
There's certain...
There's a certain feeling that it does to your body that if you could just buy that, man, it would be very, very, very valuable.
melissa etheridge
You are looking for that, aren't you?
joe rogan
I think everybody is.
If you could – I mean I'm super inspired by music and I think one of the reasons being because I don't understand it and because – I don't play it.
I can't create it.
So when I see someone that can, to me, it's like, wow, it's like this totally different thing than what I do.
But I get to see the same sort of energy that makes anyone great at any art.
I love seeing it expressed through different mediums, that pure, I mean, I hate using that word again, but that resonance of expression, you know, whatever it comes with, that burst.
It shows the world, whatever it is, whether it's in a song or whether it's in a sculpture.
I love seeing it.
I love seeing it in all forms.
melissa etheridge
You can go look at it scientifically, and I'm just going to use the word vibrational, because if you study scientifically, not even hippie-wise, if you study quantum physics, you'll understand the vibrational nature of The universe, and so art gives off a vibration.
Absolutely, you can break it down.
They have little machines that can show if someone's looking at a picture and they have a feeling, you have a vibrational, energetic change inside of you as a reaction to that.
joe rogan
Wow, that's amazing.
brian redban
They actually just had something the other day, I think yesterday, where they showed the first thought, like where the brain of a, I think it was a rat, They could visually see a thought.
I'll try to find it, but it was really badass.
joe rogan
I know they've been able to figure out how to take an image of what you can see.
Simple shapes, a simple triangle and simple squares.
They've been able to take images.
That's reading your mind, essentially.
That's the beginning, right?
melissa etheridge
I believe it's the whole experience of all of us understanding that thought creates.
And that's what all of this is made of.
joe rogan
Yeah.
unidentified
Is thought.
joe rogan
That's a weird thing for people to wrap their head around.
And what I always try to say is like, you know, everybody looks at the imagination as almost as if it's not necessary.
But you know what I mean?
He's a childish one with his wild imagination, you know, and that sort of term.
What people don't understand is that's what created everything.
Everything hard, everything you can touch, everything you get in and fly, everything you drive around in, that's all coming from imagination.
melissa etheridge
It started with a thought.
joe rogan
Yes, all of it.
Everything that we've created, good or bad, is coming from imagination.
The idea that we don't put a lot of respect in that and that we don't look at that as being this – that's the real sort of sacred creator of the universe.
melissa etheridge
Absolutely.
Creation.
Absolutely.
And it starts with our own responsibility, what we create for ourselves every day.
And that's difficult because people want to blame.
They want to say, oh, this happened to me because of that person or because I don't have enough money or I don't have enough love or whatever it is, that blame.
And it's hard to look at your own creation and what you created every day.
joe rogan
We're so malleable.
And if I think we grow up in the wrong environments, it's very easy to also raise children in the same environment and repeat this really fucked up pattern where no one has ever stopped the train and said, okay, let's look at the patterns that we operate under.
And how many of these are beneficial?
What are we doing?
Like, why are we living the same goddamn way and everybody's miserable?
Let's just stop and think this through.
And no, let's not yell at each other.
I don't want to be yelled at.
You don't want to yell at me.
I don't want to yell at you.
Great.
Okay.
We agree to that.
unidentified
We love each other.
We won't yell.
joe rogan
Now, let's think things through.
What the fuck are we doing on this planet together?
We're enjoying our company.
melissa etheridge
We're creating.
joe rogan
And we can do that or we can just create chaos and create problems everywhere we go if we repeat the same patterns.
Which we're like to do if somehow or another it doesn't reset itself.
melissa etheridge
Exactly.
I actually feel like we're in a big resetting right now.
I can feel it.
I can start to see it in the people around me.
Just that there's a way that you can reach anybody who'd like to listen to.
You can do that right now.
That is different.
Ten years ago you weren't available like this.
joe rogan
Yeah, no.
Ten years ago there was nothing like this.
unidentified
No.
joe rogan
You would have to...
To put it on a radio show, they would put you in jail.
melissa etheridge
Yeah, make the crazy joke when he's lost it all.
joe rogan
No.
They would tell you you're out of your mind for almost everything.
You're talking about illegal drugs.
melissa etheridge
I know.
joe rogan
I was listening the other day, or reading rather, about the Hollywood sign.
You know the Hollywood sign used to be Hollywoodland?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
And at one point in 76, somebody got up there and made it Hollyweed.
Because they passed some decriminalization law in California.
melissa etheridge
It was so close to being legal nationally during Carter's administration.
joe rogan
Wow.
melissa etheridge
So close.
If you really look into the journey of cannabis, it's criminal and it's what they've done to this natural product.
joe rogan
It's ridiculous.
It's really bad.
And the people that are trying to keep it illegal are the people who could benefit from it the most.
melissa etheridge
Oh, isn't that...
joe rogan
Those people all need to get high.
melissa etheridge
It's like, yes!
That's why I love when Colorado, when Denver and Colorado was doing that thing, making it legal, they're saying, look, it's just better than...
You're not going to get in a fight.
You go to the bar and you have a smoke, you're going to be chill.
You're not going to cause damage.
joe rogan
Yeah, you're not going to just become a crazy person who can't even drive.
You know, that's unbelievable that almost everywhere in America are these spots where you can get fueled up with a drug that makes your body not work so well.
And we're fine with that.
unidentified
Get in your car.
joe rogan
Get in your car, and of course we don't want you to drunk drive, and we prefer you take cabs, and we always say that.
However, the possibility is always there.
You're talking about a drug that massively inhibits your thinking process and makes you do really irrational shit, and you're combining it with the access to a car.
I mean, the idea that people see through that.
melissa etheridge
Our society was built on that.
It's that worker society.
Keep them on the caffeine and the sugar and the alcohol.
Boom.
joe rogan
Do you think it's a self-fulfilling sort of a thing?
Because those things are all awesome.
That's the problem.
unidentified
I know.
I love them.
joe rogan
Caffeine is awesome.
Sugar is awesome.
Alcohol is the shit.
It's all good stuff.
So, I mean, is it possible that we just like it?
melissa etheridge
A big part of it, caffeine changed the world, and sugar too.
It was what brought industry to Britain, and that's why colonialism happened.
That's why they conquered the world, so they could bring spice and taste and sugar.
And in the 1800s, the British doctors were like, Whoa, wait a minute.
We're seeing all these new diseases now because of sugar.
It's a drug, it's a drug.
And they were like, hmm, too late.
It's over.
joe rogan
Yeah, once they had figured out how to extract sugar from natural products, and then you can get these massive doses of it right into your bloodstream.
Like, if you eat spoons of sugar...
melissa etheridge
Have you seen your kids?
They get a little, oh, we got a cupcake at school, and they lose their minds.
joe rogan
Yeah, yeah.
I gave my little one cotton candy yesterday.
She went off.
She went off.
She only weighs like 30 pounds.
She had like a pound of cotton candy.
melissa etheridge
See, it's tough.
It's tough.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's a drug.
melissa etheridge
It's for sure a drug.
And it wrecks our immune system.
Sugar just totally wrecks our immune system, and that's why a lot of us are so sick.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's really close to like a toxin.
melissa etheridge
Yes.
joe rogan
I mean, there's a lot of people that are trying to say it's a toxin.
So I fed my baby a delicious toxin.
But she's fine.
melissa etheridge
They're so available.
And they do bounce back.
joe rogan
It's fucking cotton candy.
The kid's going to want it.
unidentified
Yes, they are.
joe rogan
She can't have it every day.
No.
Every day you eat healthy.
But every now and then, if you're at Disneyland, fuck it.
It's time to go off.
melissa etheridge
To go.
brian redban
They sell cotton candy machines at Target for the kids.
melissa etheridge
Oh, a machine?
brian redban
Yeah, they're these little machines.
They're like 50 bucks and you make your own cotton candy.
joe rogan
Oh, dude.
That's so wrong.
melissa etheridge
I know.
joe rogan
That's just pure sugar.
melissa etheridge
And they put them in front of TV and we've brainwashed them and then it's all good.
joe rogan
Yeah.
melissa etheridge
And they're ready to be plugged in.
joe rogan
Unfortunately.
But TV's awesome too.
That's also a problem.
melissa etheridge
See?
unidentified
Exactly.
melissa etheridge
See, I am not a – I'm not going to do any of this.
I believe in all of these things in moderation.
It's all about balance because I don't want to be the other way.
I don't want to be – I'm not going to do this and this and this because those things are fun and they're beautiful and they add taste and spice to life.
And I want that balance and it's just about balance.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's a moderation thing, right?
It's like figuring out how to ride the waves.
melissa etheridge
Not be addicted to it, not be a victim to it.
joe rogan
But also enjoy a little TV every now and again.
Damn, some good shows on.
Like, what's wrong with you?
It doesn't mean that you're shutting off the world.
I think that it's not an either-or situation.
melissa etheridge
I think if you know what you're being manipulated by when you see an advertisement or you understand the manipulation behind it, what they are intending, if you know that, then you can be safe and go in.
But if you go in and just watch mindlessly, you will be swept away in it.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's like a balance issue, right?
melissa etheridge
Yeah, I think.
joe rogan
You just got to figure out how to do it.
How do you do it?
melissa etheridge
How do I do it?
It's a constant practice every single day.
It started when I went through breast cancer.
It's that sort of, oh, fuck, I could die.
You know, right?
Uh-oh.
Wait a minute.
This is serious.
And I had this – I actually ate.
It was one of those – you're talking about – before we went on, you're talking about cannabis and actually the difference between smoking it and eating it.
And I'd eaten a couple of cookies, and they were, of course, delicious.
I had a bit more than I should.
And I had one of those really severe trips.
And in that came a very clear understanding of the nature of life, of balance.
And I came back, went through breast cancer.
I went through the system.
I did the chemo.
I was all bald.
I did all that, and I got out of it going, wait a minute.
While I'm in this, every doctor I had kept saying, cancer starts when cells go bad.
And I go, okay, well, why do cells go bad?
And none of them would answer me.
None of them had that answer.
Because that's the way our medical system is set up.
And this has been a journey of finding out why did my cells go bad.
Why did they go bad?
It was my nutrition.
It was my stress.
It was I didn't drink enough water.
It's very simple stuff.
And it's about an emotional imbalance.
We've got to bring emotion back into balance in the body.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's as much of a factor, I believe, as all the other things in your body.
Your blood, your tissues, your bone.
I think your emotional health.
is as important as your biological health, the health of your actual body.
They're connected.
melissa etheridge
Yes.
Unfortunately, it was the Catholic Church in 400 A.D. when Descartes decided that he went to the church and he said, I want to study medicine.
I want to study the human body.
And they said, okay, you can study.
It wasn't medicine yet.
He invented medicine.
They said, okay, you can study the body, but the emotion and soul, that stays with the church.
And that's one of the reasons why this break happened.
And all of our great thought and intention and the smartest of us for hundreds of years have only developed the body separate from emotion.
And we are now seeing that break down.
Our whole system, our whole healthcare, everything.
Because it's just not true anymore.
Emotion plays.
My belief is it plays almost all the part of disease, dis-ease.
joe rogan
Wow.
But what about like little children with horrible disorders, like that kind of shit?
melissa etheridge
Well then you have to get into...
This is where it talks about we are here to create.
This is where we talk about we are here to create.
We are here to work through whatever we've decided.
This gets into real spiritual stuff, the stuff before, and it all depends on your basic belief.
My belief is all of us create what we need to work through to create and learn what we need to in this world.
So I can't look at anyone as a victim.
I can't even a child.
I don't blame them.
I don't say this is your fault.
I say you made an agreement in this place to do this and I'm sending you all my love and I believe in you and I believe that you will you can be a miracle.
joe rogan
When you say that, do you mean that when you see someone who has a disability, you don't see it as a disability, you just see that they're just another entity in this life and just go forward with love and it all works out, in the long run, it all works out great anyway?
Is that what you mean?
melissa etheridge
Yes, and it's what you deem works out in the end because a lot of people have different ideas of what that is.
I have tons of people that come to me who are stage 4 cancer and the doctors have said, there's nothing we can do, you're going to die in a few weeks.
And they come to me all the time in cities all over the world.
And I want to, and I try, and sometimes it works.
Sometimes their belief is...
I just give them another way of looking at it.
If you have another perception other than cancer is something that happens to me and oops, I got it.
If you understand it as my body...
is on this journey and you're willing to dissect and break apart what am I eating?
What am I feeling?
What am I doing?
What do I need to change?
You can control cancer because it is a symptom.
It is not something that happens.
It is your own cells that have been so taxed by your immune system, which has been taxed by sugar or emotion or any of that stress, that acidic stress.
It's so taxed that then those cells go bad.
joe rogan
Is it all environmental, though?
I mean, is it all emotional?
Aren't there some random genetic roles that dice, like kids that are born with massive birth defects and things along those lines?
melissa etheridge
Well, this is the lie.
It's how you hold reality and creation.
I believe that this reality is...
One of thought.
So whatever you are creating, whatever that massive deformity, that massive thing, it's theirs.
I'm not judging it.
I'm loving it.
I'm not seeing them as a victim either.
I don't believe something unjust happened to them, and I don't believe something just happened to them.
I believe that this is the balance of life, and we are all here to walk through it and make our choices.
joe rogan
Wow, that's heavy-duty stuff.
I mean, I think there's something to a person that has gone through what you've gone through physically, where you get to a real point where you're, you know, you're worrying about your body ending.
You're worrying about your trip being over.
And I think the insight that people that have been through those situations, it's really remarkable.
And it always makes me wonder why we can't wrap our heads around that without a crisis.
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
You know?
That's one of the reasons why I love to come talk to you.
That's why I want to talk because I would love to just have one person not have to get to crisis, but to go, wait a minute, that might be the path that I'm on.
Maybe this can help me.
Maybe it can, because when I was in it, I saw what the fear of death can do.
It holds everyone.
Cancer, I mean, I still see people, and it's been eight, nine years now since I was diagnosed and went through all that, and people still look at me like, are you dying?
You know, they still hold.
It's a powerful energy.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's a weird part of our life, a weird part of our journey, the body just sort of failing prematurely in some strange way where it's growing its own problem.
unidentified
Well, that's or?
melissa etheridge
There is something, there is some choice that I am making.
My body is perfect.
Every single human body is amazingly perfect.
joe rogan
Right, but what about people with environmental factors, exposure to radiation, things along those lines?
melissa etheridge
Again, why are you there?
You are there because you made your...
And again, it's not about blame.
You chose this when you were just an angel or a spirit or whatever you want to call it.
joe rogan
Oh, so you believe they chose this life from another dimension.
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
I mean, you've been there.
joe rogan
I wonder.
Yeah.
I have and I haven't.
You know what I'm saying?
It's like the ideas from the psychedelic experience.
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
joe rogan
The ideas are very intoxicating, but I wonder how much of it is correct when it comes to things along those lines, like you choosing your own destiny.
melissa etheridge
Try letting go of the fear.
Try believing it.
Try believing it just once for one day.
joe rogan
Yeah, I could believe it.
But, I mean, I could disbelieve it too.
It's up to you.
melissa etheridge
It can be whatever you want.
joe rogan
I mean, you can, in that sense, if you believe something like that, it really can sort of create a reality for you.
melissa etheridge
Absolutely.
Very empowering.
And that was my choice.
I'm going to choose to walk like this.
And it's not easy, believe me.
Everything in a reality, you want to say, okay, except for that because that just happened to me and I'm just blaming that.
joe rogan
Well, I would really look at it that way if it wasn't for massive environmental issues, you know, toxic issues, things along those lines where...
People clearly, like a whole town gets cancer because there's a fucking factory nearby and they're throwing some shit in the lake and people don't know about it.
melissa etheridge
Absolutely.
Now go beyond that story.
Go there in 10 years and find out whose life was made better, whose life was changed, what happened.
Everything happens for a reason.
joe rogan
So you think – are you like a deterministic person?
Like you believe that the world moves in a way that you cannot control?
melissa etheridge
No.
No, again.
Again, it's slippery because, no, I don't believe – I'm not a fatalist.
I believe each and every one of us controls our own fate.
Reality.
Every single day.
Through every choice we make.
The choice of what to eat, what to think, how to feel.
A lot of us think we don't have a choice in how to feel.
Well, you hurt me, so I'm angry.
I don't have a choice.
You do.
Everything is choice.
And then, you know, you throw some spirituality on it and you get that everything's a choice just between love and fear.
And if you break it down that small into every breath, it's like a practice.
That's why the monks go live on the hill and all alone so that they can get to this perfect place of neither blame, you're not a judge, and you're not a victim.
You're just right in there in the middle.
joe rogan
Yeah, the monks essentially give up all civilization.
They give up life entirely.
No sex.
melissa etheridge
I would not want to do that at all.
I believe you can do that in this life.
joe rogan
As you were referring to earlier, balance.
To enjoy it all.
Yeah, I've always felt like monks are pussies.
You can't handle it, really.
I know relationships are tough, but if it wasn't for relationships, all the best music comes from relationships.
melissa etheridge
Hey, I'm living proof.
joe rogan
Yeah, I must, right?
Go back and listen to the greatest songs of all time.
It's always a guy and a girl talking about some shit.
melissa etheridge
Breaking up!
joe rogan
We thought we'd be together forever.
melissa etheridge
No, absolutely.
joe rogan
Yeah, I mean if it wasn't for that, where would all that beautiful art come from?
There's a yin and a yang to this crazy life.
melissa etheridge
Absolutely, and when you can hold on to that, it's neither going into all the fear nor all the love.
I'm not all airy-fairy.
If you can hold that middle, life gets really cool.
joe rogan
Yeah, if you can hold that middle.
How do you go about holding that medal?
melissa etheridge
Every single day.
It's a practice.
You stay in the now.
joe rogan
Did your personality change when this happened?
melissa etheridge
In a way, I let go a lot of personality reactions.
I believe that.
You call up who's sitting here today looking across the table at you.
I'm choosing who gets to answer this.
I would like 51-year-old Melissa to answer you, not 14-year-old.
14-year-old has answered, you know, in my relationships, 14-year-old Melissa.
She comes out and she says some pretty naughty things.
And that's who I can choose.
How to do it.
So it's this choice every day how I do it.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's a weird thing where we sort of get stuck in those young patterns.
The patterns are...
I mean, a lot of people do, though.
It's really, really common.
brian redban
Every day I do.
melissa etheridge
Every day.
Oh, look, I'm doing it right now.
Oh, no.
joe rogan
That's how he always does it.
Yeah, you gotta...
Finding out how to manage your life is probably one of the most difficult things the person can accomplish in their life or...
Attempt to accomplish, I should say.
melissa etheridge
Isn't that what it's all about?
I want to come to you.
I want to come to listeners, everyone, as a person who...
I achieved my goal.
I set out in...
I was born in Leavenworth, Kansas.
I wanted to be a rock star.
I got to be a rock star.
I wanted to meet Bruce Springsteen.
I got to meet Bruce Springsteen, you know?
Those dreams came true.
Well, there's something that happens.
After those dreams come true, you realize, oh, I'm still me.
I still have all my problems.
So, where someone who might hold that big dream and think, well, I'll never get it, and so they just hold it out there.
And then they have lots of excuses.
Well, if I got that, then I'd be there, but I'm not.
I'd have enough money.
I'd have enough this or that.
Then you can get caught in the turmoil of life and always believe that, well, if I was famous or if I had more money, I'd be better.
Well, I'm here to tell you that the fame and the money, it's nice.
Oh, absolutely.
I love not having to wait in line.
Yet, it does not solve all my problems.
joe rogan
And it can cloud you in a little bit of confusion.
melissa etheridge
Oh, we see that every day.
joe rogan
Yeah, we've all met famous people or seen famous people wig out in certain ways where you're like, okay, you're being like a child.
You're feeling like a child's tantrum.
melissa etheridge
Yeah, because they're making choices to let that child still do that.
joe rogan
Yeah, and there's a weird imbalance.
There's a certain type, there's one type of celebrity, the I told you so celebrity.
And the reason why I call it that is they're the type that once they get famous, they feel like the whole world fucked them up until now.
And now that they've got the world by the balls because they're famous, they just really act shitty to people.
And I've seen that one.
That's a really shocking one.
melissa etheridge
And you put that out, and what you put out comes back.
And you just sit back and watch their world come down.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's hard enough getting through this life without acting like the world owes you something.
And that sort of delusional thinking among successful famous people is very, very odd.
Because that's like the furthest from the vulnerability of the reality of our biological life.
melissa etheridge
Right.
But it was the dream that we were fed.
I grew up in the 60s, in the 70s.
You want to do better than your parents did.
You want to make more money and buy things because that's the meaning of life.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's how you show you're successful.
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
joe rogan
Not management, not like health, not happiness, miles per hour.
melissa etheridge
No, no, all those things.
Yeah, no, no, no, no, no.
joe rogan
Yeah, smiles per hour is probably very important.
I never thought of it like that, but that phrase, smiles per hour, like, you should probably have a lot of that.
A lot of smiles per hour.
You'll probably get off way better in life.
melissa etheridge
Yes, indeed.
joe rogan
That's so huge.
Like, laughter and having fun, so goddamn huge.
People that don't laugh about things, I just don't understand.
melissa etheridge
I don't trust them.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, yeah, there's emotional stunting sort of a thing to that, right?
melissa etheridge
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah.
How do you fix that?
melissa etheridge
You, again, take care of yourself.
You can fix yourself.
You cannot fix anyone else.
joe rogan
Isn't it funny how people who can't fix themselves try to fix other people?
melissa etheridge
Oh, yeah.
There's a lot of those.
joe rogan
There's a whole lot of those.
melissa etheridge
I've been married to a few of those.
joe rogan
Those people are crazy.
They'll tell you what to do and you're like, look at your own life, bitch.
melissa etheridge
You're in your mind.
unidentified
You're not happy and you're giving advice.
joe rogan
You're not happy and you're giving advice.
melissa etheridge
Once I realized I cannot fix anybody else.
No one else.
I became a much happier person myself.
joe rogan
You can't fix them, but you can rock their world with a song that changes the way they feel about life.
And even if only for a three or four minute song, even if it's only for that three or four minutes, the positive reaction that someone can get for something like that, that can affect their choices.
melissa etheridge
Absolutely.
Then you start seeing how it works.
joe rogan
Yeah.
When you had jobs, did you ever have jobs, like regular jobs back in the day?
melissa etheridge
Back in the day, yeah, a couple.
joe rogan
If you listened to a badass song before you went in for an audition or for an interview, you'd be in a better mood.
unidentified
There you are.
joe rogan
You'd have a little pep to you, and they'd be like, I like this Etheridge girl.
She's got moxie.
She's got a lot of energy.
melissa etheridge
Exactly.
joe rogan
Yeah, because you had heard some fucking badass music in your car on the way over there.
melissa etheridge
It's vibrational.
joe rogan
Yeah, but that's hippie shit.
People don't want to hear that.
melissa etheridge
Balance, balance the hippie.
Bring your inner hippie out.
joe rogan
But the regular hippies are so annoying, they've ruined it for the hippie ideals.
unidentified
See?
melissa etheridge
Again, it's about balance.
joe rogan
You stinky, lazy motherfuckers.
It's about balance.
Stinky, lazy hippies.
They have ruined the hippie culture.
brian redban
But not a bounce of patchouli.
Not even a little bit of patchouli.
joe rogan
You don't like patchouli at all?
melissa etheridge
Patchouli and tea rose.
joe rogan
See, you say that, but if you met the most wonderful woman, she was sweet and sensitive.
unidentified
And she smelled of patchouli.
joe rogan
She smelled of patchouli.
Patchouli would give you wood every time you smelled it.
brian redban
I could get into rose water, but I can't drink it.
joe rogan
Rose water's nice.
The smelly hippie is a problem.
It's because a smelly human's a problem.
You're being ridiculous.
Silly bitch.
melissa etheridge
What are you covering up?
joe rogan
Why are you putting rocks under your armpits?
Get some deodorants.
melissa etheridge
Oh, now.
Don't get me started.
joe rogan
Just get some non-aluminum deodorant.
unidentified
Yeah, there you go.
Non-aluminum.
Arm and hammer.
joe rogan
Arm and hammer is a natural deodorant.
It's like herbs and shit.
melissa etheridge
But don't put the aluminum under there.
unidentified
But it works.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Aluminum's bad, right?
melissa etheridge
It's really bad, yeah.
Aluminum chlorhydrate.
joe rogan
And why were they putting it in deodorant?
melissa etheridge
Because the aluminum industry, 100 years ago when it first started, had a lot of waste that they needed to get rid of.
joe rogan
What?
melissa etheridge
So this aluminum waste became sodium fluoride, which was put in our water, and it was thought to use, oh, it'll keep us from sweating, which, I'm sorry, you're supposed to sweat, there's a reason.
joe rogan
Oh, so it's only antiperspirant, it's not deodorant, right?
melissa etheridge
Yeah, it doesn't do anything.
joe rogan
I don't mind sweating.
I just want to smell nice.
melissa etheridge
Yeah, you smell nice, you do.
Smelling radio, he smells very nice, girls, if there's any.
joe rogan
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
But stinky people, you should know you're stinky.
Okay?
Stinky hippies, you fucking lazy bitches.
Get up.
Get up.
Go run.
Water is everywhere and soap is not expensive.
Okay?
Go get crafty.
melissa etheridge
Take a shower.
joe rogan
And you can use defense soap.
It's natural.
Okay?
It's a great soap that has like...
Tea tree oil in it and eucalyptus oil.
It's all natural.
It's good.
It's good for the skin.
It keeps you from getting ringworm and stuff like that.
melissa etheridge
Are you talking to someone specifically?
joe rogan
Yeah, unfortunately, grapplers.
Anyone who practices jujitsu has to deal with ringworm.
melissa etheridge
Oh, wow.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's really common.
As well as staph.
You can get staph infections, too.
Sure, sure.
I've had ringworm a couple times.
I've had staph twice.
melissa etheridge
Jeez.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Once I caught it like really early so I didn't have to take antibiotics.
It took like a topical, but once it got pretty bad.
It was weird.
I had to take these super strong antibiotics.
melissa etheridge
Which, careful, because if you look at people's, I believe my cancer started with, I took these super duper antibiotics.
It's actually the stuff, Accutane.
I had really bad acne because I was out of balance in the beginning.
And then I took a whole bunch of the super duper antibiotics.
Those also are killing everything good inside of you.
joe rogan
Yeah, people don't understand that, right?
melissa etheridge
No.
People, when you do rounds and rounds of antibiotics, you are really knocking yourself down.
If you have a diagnosis of cancer, look in your past.
Was there a time?
Did you do the antibiotics right before it?
Because it compromises the immune system.
joe rogan
But when you have a big infection, like a stab infection, you kind of have to take it, right?
melissa etheridge
Yeah, absolutely.
You really do have to.
Antibiotics, great for...
joe rogan
So then you have to put probiotics back in your system?
melissa etheridge
Totally, and you have to really be aware of your acid and alkaline balance inside of you because that's what keeps your immune system.
joe rogan
So a lot of green leafy vegetables and probiotics, acidophilus, things along those lines.
melissa etheridge
No gluten, no sugar.
joe rogan
Yeah, that gluten-free, where the hell was that 10 years ago?
Was there any gluten-free food?
20 years ago.
Was there any?
melissa etheridge
No, hardly any.
Well, because in the last 20 years, what has genetically modified our wheat, and it's become just this unedible food.
joe rogan
The real problem with that is that lasagna is delicious.
melissa etheridge
I can bring you a gluten-free lasagna.
Gluten-free pizza now.
I had some Sunday for Super Bowl.
I did, I did.
unidentified
Don't make me go Joey Diaz on you guys.
joe rogan
Fucking gluten-free lasagna.
What are you talking about, people?
Gluten-free lasagna just seems like a mess.
unidentified
It's good.
joe rogan
I don't want no part of that.
benjamin jaffe
I don't want to be pretending that I'm enjoying it.
melissa etheridge
I'm just going to bring you some pasta.
joe rogan
Isn't it a balanced...
I like regular pasta, though, unfortunately.
I've tried...
I eat Ezekiel pasta, and I eat it because it's healthy for you, sprouted green pasta.
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
joe rogan
Is that not healthy?
melissa etheridge
No, that is.
But again, the taste is like, ooh, wow, you are giving up a lot.
unidentified
It's a little rough.
joe rogan
Yeah.
melissa etheridge
You can...
Find the balance.
There's spelt.
Spelt is like a lesser wheat.
It's still a wheat, and it still will fluff up.
You can get spelt bread that's pretty good.
joe rogan
I don't believe you.
melissa etheridge
I'm going to show up here.
I'm going to bring a bag.
joe rogan
You said pretty good.
I'm like, not convincing, not buying it.
Why would I do that when I can get awesome, delicious bread?
I can make a sandwich out of fat Italian bread.
Oh, it'll be yummy, yummy, yummy.
I just feel like...
melissa etheridge
If you love it, yes.
joe rogan
I don't eat it a lot.
melissa etheridge
Yeah, good.
joe rogan
I'm pretty good.
melissa etheridge
You're balanced, absolutely.
joe rogan
But when it's there, I love it.
Linguini with clams.
Are you kidding me?
You have that?
Like real linguini.
Not some funky whole wheat pasta shit.
melissa etheridge
No, no, no.
joe rogan
Whole wheat's still bad, right?
melissa etheridge
Yeah, that's full on bad.
joe rogan
That's crazy.
You're too hardcore for whole wheat.
melissa etheridge
I know.
joe rogan
You should start selling t-shirts.
unidentified
I'm too hardcore for a whole week.
joe rogan
So, you're like, you must be like super organic then.
melissa etheridge
Well, again, it's balanced.
You would think, yes.
But you know what?
I have kids and they would run me.
I have teenagers.
They look at me like, Really?
Are you going to serve this for dinner?
Oh, that's right.
So it's about finding that in between.
You know what?
I searched and searched and I did find good gluten-free pasta that my kids don't even know that it's gluten-free.
joe rogan
Oh, now they do.
melissa etheridge
Oh, yeah, because they're listening to your podcast.
joe rogan
They're like, Mom, what the fuck?
melissa etheridge
They're going to be in trouble if they know.
joe rogan
I thought this was real spaghetti.
unidentified
This is some hippie bullshit you're feeding me.
melissa etheridge
So I do try it.
It's about a balance.
It's about doing at least 70% alkaline or the whole foods.
And 30%, you know what?
Yeah, I had a pizza Sunday.
It was Super Bowl football.
We'll have a pizza.
joe rogan
Pizza's delicious.
unidentified
Come on, it is.
joe rogan
If you have a diet and it doesn't include pizza, you can go fuck yourself.
melissa etheridge
There's something wrong with you, right?
unidentified
See?
That's stupid.
joe rogan
That's dumb.
You can have pizza one day a week.
unidentified
Yes.
joe rogan
How about one day a week?
melissa etheridge
Absolutely.
Have a cheat day.
Absolutely.
joe rogan
Do you know, a lot of athletes, they eat clean every day of the week except one day, and they'll have one day where they go bananas.
melissa etheridge
Yeah, because it helps you, because otherwise you don't go, you don't start, oh, I need this, I'll never have this again in my life.
And then you're up in the middle of the night having donuts.
joe rogan
You know who has amazing cheat days?
I just started following him on Twitter, The Rock.
Have you ever seen what that guy eats?
Dude.
Pull up some photos of what this guy eats.
He's a massive, massive human being.
And he works out like two or three times a day.
The dude's crazy.
He's very inspirational.
If you're into exercise, if you go to his tweets, the guy's up at 3.30 in the morning doing cardio because he's got to be on a movie set at 6. Yeah, he's nuts.
He's super, super, super dedicated.
But he eats like really clean and healthy and he takes pictures of his food and then on one day a week he goes off.
And I'm talking like giant stacks of brownies and like a gallon of milk.
The dude had like a mug of milk.
Yeah, look.
Look at his cheat days.
unidentified
Wow, look at all those pizzas.
joe rogan
Look at those pancakes.
Look, he's got four giant pizzas.
The dude goes off.
Look at the brownies and that mug of milk.
That is fucking insane.
And look, he's shredded.
The guy's got no body fat.
His kids all throughout the rest of the week, he goes bananas.
He's at the gym all day, practically.
Does movies and hits the gym.
brian redban
I do it backwards.
joe rogan
Yeah, you do it.
You don't even do it backwards, bitch.
There's not a moment in your life where you live as much intensity as that guy.
Not even when you eat shit.
Doing it that way, he just must be like a battery.
Just like constantly going, like...
There's certain people that you've got to go, wow, what gets you going like this?
3.30 in the morning, you're doing fucking cardio?
If I had a 6 o'clock time where I had to be at work, I would get up at 5.58, put my shoes on, and show up.
I'm not going to fucking get up at 3.30 and do cardio.
melissa etheridge
Indeed.
joe rogan
I've never done anything as intense as that.
brian redban
He works so much, though.
Maybe he doesn't have, like, relationships, so he has to do something.
So, like, working out's the only thing.
Because he works, like, nonstop.
He's on a movie set for, like, seven months and then to the next movie.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, everything I've read about him, everything, every interview, every, like, tweet he does, he seems, like, really thankful for all the good things that have happened to him.
And he works, like, he's got this attitude, work hard to get there, work harder to stay there.
So that's what I think it is.
I think he's just obsessed with it.
melissa etheridge
Gratitude is amazing.
Gratitude is a medicine.
You can change your life with gratitude.
joe rogan
You really can, right?
And as we were saying before about people who've had sort of near-death experiences and became very spiritual afterwards and really sort of understood life in a broader perspective, like that, choosing to look at life that way, it's kind of difficult for people to visualize without the real life-changing experience.
But if you could, You would see so many amazing things about life.
The whole thing is a beautiful mystery.
melissa etheridge
Yes.
And to hold it with less fear, then you have a less fearful life.
joe rogan
And realize that that energy that you're expressing on fear, you could be expressing on positive things and advancing your position in life.
Think of all that energy you've seen, yeah.
Yeah, advancing the way you interact with people and enhancing your relationships.
And advancing the way you approach whatever you do for a living and enhancing your creativity.
melissa etheridge
Think of how you think about your boss or someone that you work with.
The energy that you spend going, oh, there's such a...
That.
Next time that thought pops in your head, go, okay, okay, I know I don't feel that way, but I am grateful for that job because blah, blah, blah.
Or just, I'm grateful.
If you can find something to be grateful about your boss, that's even better because then you can kill that fear.
And turn it into love.
And I know it's all hippy-dippy, but that's what creates more of that positive vibration in your life.
joe rogan
You know what you can also do?
And this is very practical.
If you have someone in your life that you don't like and you have to work with them, use them as an exercise.
An exercise in your own patience.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
And exercising your own ability to actually be kind to someone that is not being kind to you.
Because it gets really weird when you do that.
When you're kind to someone and they're not being kind to you, they get even more aggressive sometimes.
And they're almost like, They're stuck and they can't swim.
It becomes this weird sort of situation.
melissa etheridge
Fear and pain is an energy that people want to hook into you to release.
There's actually, again, you can look at energetically that I've got this going on.
Oh, there's somebody.
I can give it to you.
And if you react, if you react what I gave you, Then, oh, you've got it now.
I don't have it anymore.
I'm good.
So break that chain.
Don't react.
Respond.
Look at them and go, okay, where can I find gratitude or love here?
All right, I'm just going to...
You know what?
You've got a lovely tie and just move on.
joe rogan
Yeah, for some people, though, they're always at like a 7 or an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10 with being upset at things because they're sort of this almost momentum of chaos in their life from jobs to relationships to this to that to things.
They never have this moment where they can just stop.
melissa etheridge
Well, here's one.
When you start practicing living your life intentionally, understanding that it is all vibrational, then you start understanding that the people that come into your life are all part of your vibration.
So if there's someone in your life who is Always on to seven and eight and bringing it out and losing it and all that.
That's part of you.
And the only thing you can do, you can't change them, but you can go inside yourself and go, okay, where's the part of me that's afraid of that I'm over the top and then I'm losing it?
And you go in and heal that and then that person will disappear or they will change.
And I've done this for eight years now and I can say that that is exactly what happens.
joe rogan
How do you explain stalkers?
melissa etheridge
I don't have any.
joe rogan
Well, you don't have any, but other people do.
melissa etheridge
Because it's a fear.
You manifest it as a fear.
You are afraid that as sexual as you're being in a photograph or in a movie or something that someone's going to take that and take it wrong and come back and hurt you.
It's a fear.
joe rogan
That becomes very hippy-dippy when you're dealing with the reality of people actually being victimized.
melissa etheridge
It just depends on what your definition of reality is.
joe rogan
Wow.
You're really putting yourself out there and I really appreciate it.
I know.
I can only do it here.
It's such a weird way of looking at the world and a lot of people think that that strange, although non-judgmental, very non-judgmental way of looking at the world It's almost akin to like The Secret, like that kind of thinking.
melissa etheridge
The Secret is like the McDonald's of this movement, I would say.
I feel that a lot of people are starting to understand this on a very basic level.
Like, okay, if I... Just eat better.
I'm going to feel better.
Okay, food must have some sort of energy that makes me feel better.
And you start with that.
And then you realize the things that do make you feel better, make your day better.
And it's, again, it's not going to happen all in one day, but it is something that is happening on a very wide scale.
And it is the tipping point right now.
I think there's more people who, I think there's people at home going, oh, that's what I always thought, but I was just too afraid to say.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
We have a model of the world, I think, that comes more from the media, from books and movies and TV shows.
That's sort of our model of how life goes because we see that almost more than we see our neighbors' lives.
We see that almost more than we see other people interacting with each other.
You think about how many hours people sit in front of the television watching television shows.
And it's almost, it becomes this very strange thing where fiction becomes almost the framework for the culture.
And it also, it's sort of like It becomes a strange issue where everyone has to wonder, where do the roots of all this come from?
Where's the roots of all this crazy behavior?
Are we creating this ourselves?
Is our media creating this world that we can't live up to, that we can't keep up with?
Unnatural interactions with each other, always perfect endings, the people that you're following through the whole movie never die.
What are you showing me here, man?
What are you showing me that's so influential?
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
joe rogan
And they're showing it to themselves.
As we said about the people who are in the movies themselves that get so crazy and delusional.
They are obviously caught up in whatever the fuck that is as well.
melissa etheridge
Yes.
And there's a lot of different roads of thought.
I've been down the David Icke.
I've read all that.
What do you think of that guy?
What's interesting is I started reading him about eight years ago and I read all this stuff.
joe rogan
You read all of it?
melissa etheridge
I know, can you believe it?
I needed to understand, if I was going to change my life, and I wanted to live too, I wanted to understand, to really understand this on a very, like a molecular level, I want to get this.
So I studied him.
And the beautiful thing was, is he deconstructed everything.
joe rogan
But doesn't he also believe in reptilians?
melissa etheridge
Yes, okay.
Yes, indeed.
Part of this whole thing is each of us is entitled to our belief.
joe rogan
And that's what his belief is.
melissa etheridge
And that's what his belief is.
joe rogan
That they're all reptiles though?
But he's had lectures on this.
melissa etheridge
Oh yeah, but he also goes past it.
He also goes past it and he starts talking about, but in the end, I understand that I am living an intentional reality and that I create my reality and I have to go into and only take care of myself because – and he even goes hippy-dippy and he gets to love.
He does.
Read his last book.
joe rogan
Well, I believe that a lot of people that have wacky ideas also can have very good ideas.
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
joe rogan
I mean, I think the idea that you can – I mean, that's the idea of taking someone's good work and connecting it to some bad work as if it negates the good work.
It doesn't really.
melissa etheridge
I look at the world again in balance and you can't have all good.
And the issue comes when you start labeling and judging what's bad and what is evil and then that's a whole...
joe rogan
But Homeboy does think that the ruling elites are lizard people.
That is an issue.
Okay.
That's an issue with thinking.
That's an issue where you gotta get...
melissa etheridge
And you know what?
He will present you with facts.
joe rogan
No, he won't.
I bet he won't.
Wouldn't you love to get David Icke to sit down with Neil deGrasse Tyson and have him tell him why there are not reptiles running this world?
It would be hilarious.
It would be fascinating.
But that is a fucking crazy belief.
melissa etheridge
There's all kinds of ways to look at it.
joe rogan
I believe in Bigfoot.
Not 100%.
melissa etheridge
You can break it down.
You can say the reptilian ancestors of ours are actually the whole darker side.
We've got, scientifically, our reptilian brain.
That's part of us.
That's the part of us that if we can imagine these horrible things that they have done, each of us has that inside of us.
joe rogan
Well, we're actually way worse than reptiles because reptiles just kill things and eat them.
They don't torture them and tie them to trucks and pull them apart from each other and do all sorts of shit that you can find every day on the internet.
Yeah, reptiles don't do that.
So to call us reptilian in a lot of ways, we are way cooler than reptiles, first off.
We're capable of amazing shit that reptiles can't even fuck with.
But if you get past that, I mean, reptiles are actually less cruel than us because reptiles don't kill for fun.
They kill to eat you.
They're there just to try to get by in life.
And they're programmed to not be emotional and think about things.
But if you're programmed to be emotional and think about things and you still choose to act that way, that's way worse than being a reptile.
melissa etheridge
Yes.
And then horrible things are going to happen to you.
joe rogan
I still hate reptiles.
I do not like them.
They're not my friends.
I don't trust anything that you can't train even a little.
You never fucking train a crocodile monitor.
You just keep feeding it until it's too stuffed so it doesn't want to bite you.
And they get used to you handling them, but they're never your buddy.
They don't care.
If you fell down right in front of them, they just start eating you.
Right?
They don't give a fuck.
A monitor?
A lizard?
brian redban
I believe some of the reptilians are humans.
joe rogan
Oh, they came back?
You think so?
brian redban
Yeah, like look at frog and toad.
joe rogan
You think there's interspecies sort of reincarnation?
melissa etheridge
Are you talking about Wind in the Willows?
What are you talking about?
You're so cute.
joe rogan
When you're talking about making the choice, like in another dimension, like a psychedelic dimension, making the choice to re-exist in this life and that you create your reality, do you think that people can be other animals?
Do you think that a life form is just a life form?
Are humans the only one with a soul?
melissa etheridge
No, no, no.
I think that this earth is a place of biological life and that it is a special place that all the other dimensional spirits can come and work through karma.
It's one of the only places where you can get through karma.
That's why I don't blame anybody for anything that is, quote, unquote, wrong with them.
joe rogan
So you think this is like a way station?
melissa etheridge
Yeah, I think this is a way station where you learn.
I think this is a life school.
This is a school.
Yeah, wow.
There you go.
joe rogan
That's fascinating.
What's really fascinating also is how...
Different people come to it at different levels.
They come to it from different starting points, economically and physically and geographically.
melissa etheridge
It's all about what you need to ascend.
We are all ascending.
joe rogan
Unless you're stuck in Africa in one of those shitty towns that doesn't even have water.
melissa etheridge
No.
Or they're so close to nature.
That's the cradle of civilization.
They've existed for millions of years.
joe rogan
Yeah, but they get eaten by lions.
melissa etheridge
It's true.
I'm not saying it's good or right.
I'm saying there's always a different way to look at everything.
joe rogan
I guess.
I guess every day that you don't get eaten by lions, you're scored.
melissa etheridge
There you go.
And you get that gratitude.
joe rogan
But then they eat like fly hamburgers.
You ever seen that?
Have you seen that?
melissa etheridge
See, I choose not to.
joe rogan
It's the craziest thing ever.
They eat like mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes, they make like a cheeseburger with mosquitoes.
They take them and they use a pan and the mosquitoes are so thick around them that they take these pans like it's a giant cooking pot and they throw it through the air and as they're swinging it through the air, it's killing these mosquitoes because they're hitting the back metal and they keep doing this over and over again and it sticks to the bottom and they scrape it up And then they fry it and make like...
brian redban
They shake their face off and all the flies fall onto the mosquitoes.
joe rogan
I don't...
I guess...
I guess that's better than getting eaten by a lion.
melissa etheridge
I guess so, but...
joe rogan
But I don't know.
melissa etheridge
No, it's...
Yet, none of us can understand what that person is even going through.
joe rogan
When you look at all the poverty and all the terrible places on earth and the war and all the strife and all the things, and then you look at the good aspects of life and when people are cool to each other and kind and When you look at this big balance, what do you see?
Do you see like a work in progress?
Do you see like a gym?
melissa etheridge
I see a beautiful creation that works so perfectly.
This whole reality is like a super mega biocomputer that is so brilliantly engineered that we can't even see it, that we don't even know we're in it.
We come here and we forget about it.
And when I look at the bat, I'm grateful for the whole experience.
I'm grateful for everything.
I'm learning.
I'm growing.
I'm creating.
That's all.
I can't feel their pain for them.
I can't take their pain away.
They are here to work through that and make their choices.
joe rogan
The issue also comes down to...
So educating more people to the idea that the reality that you choose to accept, the way your reality is in front of you at this very moment, what you can write on paper and take pictures of, that that is your life.
It's not.
This is just where you are right now.
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
joe rogan
This is what you're doing right now.
melissa etheridge
We are only aware of 4% of the whole energetic spectrum of energy that – again, I'm talking physics.
Only 4% of it can we see.
There's 96% of a whole energetic world that we are unaware of.
So it's kind of silly that – and this is, again, science, that we think that that 4% is everything.
Right.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, isn't there like a massive amount of the universe that they believe is dark matter and they don't even know exactly what that is?
melissa etheridge
Because what's happening, I think in the next 10 years, our own scientists, and it's already begun, they're starting to say, okay.
We are seeing that our universe is constantly expanding.
You've heard that, right?
Constantly expanding.
Well, that expansion is the creation, is us creating and intending.
That's the nature of our universe.
And as above, so below, so are we constantly expanding.
We are this great, huge mandala.
We're this...
Oh, there goes my brain.
See, I smoke too much.
LAUGHTER No, it's this hologram.
That's it.
And when you understand a hologram, a piece of a hologram contains the whole thing.
And that's how we are as human beings.
We are in this hologram.
joe rogan
A piece of a hologram is like a fractal?
melissa etheridge
Yes, it's a fractal.
joe rogan
Really?
I didn't know that.
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
And when you understand hologram and what it is, you'll understand that we live in a holographic universe.
Yeah, that was a book, right?
joe rogan
Somebody wrote a book called A Holographic Universe?
I started reading it, but I don't know what happened.
melissa etheridge
I got distracted.
It's a big piece of steak to digest.
joe rogan
The idea, though, is becoming more and more mainstream that the reality that we see in front of us might not be the entire picture.
Yes.
melissa etheridge
Let's just start there.
Let's just start there.
joe rogan
Yeah, but the issue comes when people get all, you know, either incredulous or hippy-dippy.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Either or.
melissa etheridge
You have to stay in the middle.
That's what's going to save us.
Is the people in the middle.
That's what I said about gays.
I was like, there's straights and gays, but it's the bisexuals that are going to save us.
Because they're going to go, you know what, I just want a choice.
joe rogan
Or they're just greedy.
melissa etheridge
Yes.
Do they double your numbers or my numbers?
I don't know.
joe rogan
Have you paid any attention to these recent ideas of computer simulation theory?
That the Earth is some or the universe itself is a simulation?
melissa etheridge
Well, it depends on how you look at it.
I do.
When you see, when you, as I have just studied the fractal, the nature, the nature of the universe, the quantum physics, the perfection is astounding.
And then you start to think, well, we as a human race are just trying to replicate what we see and so we've made computers.
And we are like, okay, this brain can't think that fast, but I can get this computer to think that fast.
And all of a sudden, these computers are starting to look like reality.
Wait a minute, maybe our reality is...
And then you walk away with, okay, it's just intelligent design.
And I'm not going to get outside of the game right now, so I might as well play the game.
I understand the rules now.
joe rogan
Whatever the design is, it seems pretty clear that there's, no question about it, there's some sort of a progression going on.
And there's a progression going on with human consciousness, with human innovation, but there also is a progression going on constantly in the universe.
New galaxies are forming.
New stars are forming.
It's very, very, very strange because to think that somehow or another it's all just happening.
Well, why?
What's going on?
What's causing it to happen?
Is it just – it just is?
Okay, but even it just is is unbelievably fascinating.
It just is.
You don't have to call it God, but it just is the force.
Behind hypernovas, the force behind black holes and the idea of fractal universes, it's the force behind the idea that inside every galaxy is a supermassive black hole with one half of 1% of the mass of the galaxy, and inside that galaxy may very well be a whole other universe with hundreds of billions of black holes and hundreds of billions of galaxies around them.
melissa etheridge
Yes.
joe rogan
And each one of them, another universe.
melissa etheridge
And you can go the other way.
You can go inside your body.
You can look at your cells and you can find exactly the same wonderment.
joe rogan
When they get to that string theory shit and they start talking about everything being strings that are vibrating at different frequencies.
melissa etheridge
It's all vibration.
It's all vibration.
joe rogan
And how much air there is even in like these atoms that make an oak tree.
This is all space.
melissa etheridge
Yeah, that space is the 96%.
The 4% is what our brains hold together in front of us so we can have this experience and create.
joe rogan
The idea that a rock is all space.
melissa etheridge
Well, it is.
Put it under a microscope.
You'll see it immediately.
joe rogan
Yeah, if you go deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, you see that most of it is just, what is this?
melissa etheridge
It's just the way it's vibrating.
joe rogan
What's this crazy shit?
melissa etheridge
Study it.
joe rogan
It's just the way it's vibrating.
melissa etheridge
I never thought, I was never a school, I was always just music, you know, hanging out, whatever.
When I started actually reading about quantum physics, Ken...
Ken Wilber, really great.
He's, you know, based in science.
Bill Lipton, they're based in science and they're saying, look, this is the wonderment we found and we think it means more.
joe rogan
There's a gentleman who recently did an interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson who I should give him credit so people could look this up.
It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life coming from a scientist.
What he essentially said was that in the inner workings of quantum physics when they get to these badass crazy equations One of the things they found is self-correcting computer code.
And this self-correcting computer code was a type of code that was invented, they thought, in the 1940s.
And they found this very code In the calculations of quantum physics, I don't know what the fuck that means, unfortunately.
melissa etheridge
Well, it sounds like, clearly, we are discovering ourselves, and we're discovering the great code, the gigantic computer that is this beautiful Earth and is us.
joe rogan
Yeah, I guess.
But it just seems like even putting a label on it, it's one of the things that I've always felt like...
The gentleman's name is James Gates, and he's the one who discovered this computer code.
So just go...
Check it out and read it online because it's so crazy.
Wrap your head around this.
Doubly even self-dual linear binary error-correcting block code first invented in the 1940s has been discovered.
I mean, it literally is like The Matrix.
If this guy's right, it literally is like The Matrix.
melissa etheridge
Yes.
Come on!
joe rogan
Yeah, well, the idea is that if they were able to create a simulation, that it would be indiscernible from reality, and that what we might have already done, we might have already transgressed from the biological life into this symbiotic sort of computer life.
We just don't recognize it yet.
melissa etheridge
I think a lot of it is when you realize that you are creating what's in front of you, then you can get out of that game.
joe rogan
That's fucking ridiculous.
melissa etheridge
Try it!
joe rogan
I guess.
But the problem is, does it only work?
That's how I felt about The Secret.
I'm like, they're only interviewing winners.
I know losers who have tried The Secret.
There was a young lady who's a very nice person.
She's a friend of, what the fuck's her name, bro?
Kelly Kirsten.
Friend of Kelly Kirsten, she used to always come down to the Comedy Store.
And she was super positive.
And I remember she came down and she was telling us about The Secret.
You know, she just started doing The Secret, living her life by The Secret, and everything's amazing now.
And I can see how I'm gonna totally manufacture a completely new life.
And then I met them.
I didn't see her again for about two years.
And then I met them again at another comedy club.
And I'm like, and she was all bummed out.
And I go, how you been?
I go, what's going on?
Are you still into that secret thing?
And she goes, yeah, I really wanted to see if this makes sense to anyone else.
Because I've been doing everything they said.
And my life is a fucking wreck.
And she's like, and I have all these people in my life and I can't get rid of them and I can't get them to straighten their life out and I'm always dragged into this bad relationship over and over and over again and job sucks and work sucks.
I'm like, wow.
melissa etheridge
Absolutely.
joe rogan
You need to be in the secret too.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
You need to like let people know you can't just think things and all of a sudden the world is going to be better.
melissa etheridge
That's why I call the secret the McDonald's.
It's a process.
It's the idea, which is great.
I love that they got the idea in there.
It takes practice because it is belief.
If you look at your life and you believe, oh, I don't have enough and I want this, you are coming from lack.
So you are creating lack.
It's a crazy...
Formula.
And how you think.
joe rogan
It's very hippy-dippy.
unidentified
It is!
joe rogan
A lot of people must get upset at that kind of thinking.
Do you ever have arguments?
melissa etheridge
They don't come around me.
joe rogan
They don't.
Well, what they would go after is they would go after the idea of children with terrible diseases is their choice.
melissa etheridge
Absolutely.
joe rogan
That's what they would go after.
melissa etheridge
That is where it breaks down because people want to hold on to the thought that it is possible for something just to happen to you with no reason.
joe rogan
So do you believe that this life leads into another one and you do this life the best you can and then you reap the bounty in your next life?
melissa etheridge
My belief, no, no, because that's, my belief is this is a school, like I said, and that we are all ascending and there are those who've gone before us who have figured it out and overcame death, which is pretty intense.
That's a lot of work.
There are those who understand that death is a transition and they are done here with, okay, I've learned everything.
I'm ready to move on.
And there are those who choose death, game over, because, you know what, I can't quite figure it out.
I'm going to try it again.
Let me do it again.
joe rogan
Yeah, the transitionary phase for a lot of people was made easier by psychedelics.
Larry Hagman was doing an interview on CNN. It was really fascinating to see him talk about it.
And he was talking about how when he did acid, it released him from fear of death.
It completely released it.
So knowing that and knowing that he died recently, it was comforting knowing that that guy had that experience and had this different perception which really mellowed him out and made him kinder and gentler and sort of he saw it for what it really is.
Supposedly really is.
I mean, maybe he's just dead.
I don't know.
That's what a lot of people would like you to think.
melissa etheridge
His body is dead.
All spirits totally live on.
I mean, that's just...
joe rogan
Silly to not think that.
melissa etheridge
Silly.
Why would you choose?
Why would you choose to believe that this is it, and when the lights go out, that's it, and it's over forever and ever?
joe rogan
Why would you choose to believe that it's not, though?
Because why would you choose to believe that when you go to sleep, when you take a nap, you assume you're going to wake up.
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
joe rogan
But you're not afraid to just shut off.
melissa etheridge
Right.
joe rogan
Right.
Why be afraid anyway?
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
Why be afraid to just shut off?
It don't have to live forever.
melissa etheridge
Exactly.
joe rogan
You could just shut off, too.
melissa etheridge
That's right.
unidentified
Really?
melissa etheridge
No.
When you overcome the fear of death, you really free yourself up.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, you've got to realize that it's going to suck.
melissa etheridge
One way or another.
joe rogan
You're probably going to die screaming.
And your body's going to fail.
melissa etheridge
If you believe.
If you believe.
joe rogan
But then the next things happen.
Well, if you're in a plane crash, did you manifest that?
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
joe rogan
You think so?
melissa etheridge
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
joe rogan
Whoa.
melissa etheridge
I know.
Again, not blame.
joe rogan
Okay, not blame.
Maybe it's just one asshole in the plane that manifests that.
melissa etheridge
No, no.
joe rogan
What if he's the shoe bomber?
If there's a shoe bomber on your plane, did you manifest that?
melissa etheridge
Yes.
joe rogan
Wow.
Are you really sure of this?
brian redban
Only you exist, Joe.
melissa etheridge
In my belief, I do believe.
And then I have to let go and go.
And I believe that I do not need that lesson.
I do not need to die terrifyingly in a plane crash.
I do not need that.
joe rogan
Right.
melissa etheridge
So I'm not even going to think about that.
That is not even a possibility.
When I board an airplane, I actually think this is because I fly a lot.
And for the first few years, I was a white knuckle.
Every little thing was like, oh, I'm going down.
You know, rock stars, airplanes.
So when I board an airplane now, I think, look at all these lucky people because there is no way this plane is going to do anything because that's not what I signed up for.
That's not the end of the Lifetime movie.
It's not.
joe rogan
Well, that is a very positive way of looking at life.
And if you're correct...
It's going to be amazing.
brian redban
Yes.
melissa etheridge
I hope you're around.
joe rogan
Isn't it funny though?
Because even if your life was a masterpiece, people were like, she got lucky.
melissa etheridge
Exactly.
And that's belief.
If you choose to always believe that, so you look at my life, it's bad.
It will be bad.
joe rogan
The real problem with that is people believe all sorts of silly things.
And what I say to that is, yes, but the real issue is...
Have we shown that beliefs can change reality?
Yes, we can through the placebo method.
That's real.
That's scientifically measured effect where they've shown that they can give you something that is not physically active.
It's an inert substance.
And the idea of taking it for whatever reason, you believe that this sugar pill, which is actually poison, right?
melissa etheridge
Right.
joe rogan
Is doing something.
It's changing your life.
melissa etheridge
That's why I tell people when they come to me with cancer, I say, what do you believe?
Do you believe that this chemotherapy is going to help you?
Do you believe that?
Then go with your belief.
joe rogan
What about R. Kelly?
Because he believes he can fly.
melissa etheridge
Well, then there's that.
joe rogan
But then he does a lot of other shit that's really rude.
melissa etheridge
Exactly.
joe rogan
So I would look at the balance.
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
joe rogan
If R. Kelly could just stop peeing on people, maybe fly around a little bit.
melissa etheridge
Oh, that's so old.
unidentified
I'm just saying.
joe rogan
He doesn't do that anymore?
You're saying, don't judge.
He's out of that space.
unidentified
I don't know.
joe rogan
Are you an R. Kelly fan?
Do you stick out for all musicians?
melissa etheridge
No, no, no, no, no.
I think people make their own reality in the world.
joe rogan
Are you aware of R. Kelly?
melissa etheridge
I am aware of him, yeah.
joe rogan
Have you ever watched any of his music videos?
melissa etheridge
I just watch Chappelle where they always make fun of him.
joe rogan
His unintentional comedy is amongst the greatest things the world has ever known.
Yeah, for real.
There's a video called Real Talk and you must watch it.
I will.
Preferably under medicated conditions.
melissa etheridge
Well, yes.
joe rogan
Because then the ridiculousness of it comes blaring at you like an awesome parody.
But it's not a parody.
I don't think.
I mean, he might be like parodying.
He's trying to be a little bit funny, but...
A lot of it is just, he's bananas.
melissa etheridge
Sort of like the Budweiser commercial yesterday.
Did you see the Clydesdale?
Did you watch the Super Bowl?
joe rogan
No.
brian redban
I slept through the whole thing.
unidentified
Oh, Jesus.
melissa etheridge
I'm a football fanatic.
It's a lesbian high holy day.
joe rogan
Are you really?
A lesbian high holy day?
That's hilarious.
Do a lot of lesbians get into, like, guy-type shit like that?
melissa etheridge
Yes.
joe rogan
Really?
melissa etheridge
My best friends are guys because I can relate.
Women are crazy.
unidentified
Girls are crazy.
melissa etheridge
They are.
Oh, that's funny.
It's about the balance.
My father was a huge football fan and just adored my father.
He passed away when I was 30, but he was a football coach and basketball coach.
So I just, you know, I love that.
And I grew up in the Midwest and it was a big part of my life.
brian redban
Is your team Kansas?
melissa etheridge
Oh, can you imagine?
The Kansas City Chiefs.
We are in dead last this year.
We have first round pick next year.
joe rogan
Well, maybe you chose that.
melissa etheridge
See?
Everything's a metaphor.
Life is a metaphor.
Watch me now.
I'm going to choose the best.
joe rogan
Choose the Patriots.
unidentified
Get your shit together.
You can't.
joe rogan
Try manufacturing a great team in Kansas City.
There's not enough money in Kansas City, unfortunately.
melissa etheridge
Oh, but there's gratitude.
There's will.
I'm telling you.
Good luck.
joe rogan
There's giant black super athletes.
They're seven feet tall now.
They run a million miles an hour.
They're going to find them when they're ten.
They watch them the whole way and give them the right food.
There's guys to this day that are recruiting kids.
They go and get high school kids.
They find these white dudes that can shoot a penny that you throw in the air with a rock.
They can football like a piston.
They find these kids.
They find these running backs that have ungodly speed and they just keep a good eye on them and follow them through college.
So much money in football.
They'd be crazy not to.
The athletes that are being born today...
melissa etheridge
Look at the quarterbacks.
They're changing the game.
joe rogan
Just the technology in training athletes and the athletes, the realizations now of what's possible with various strength and conditioning programs and diet.
Stanford just came out with some glove.
This is really crazy.
It's a glove, a cooling glove that's better than steroids.
Okay?
It's legal, completely legal.
Somehow or another, they put your body in this glove, and the glove freezes, somehow or another, your body.
It cools you down.
And it cools you down in a way that lets you recuperate at an incredibly rapid pace.
unidentified
Ooh, wow.
joe rogan
It's a complete new thing they figured out.
So people are going to be able to take this, they're going to be able to work out unbelievably hard, wear this cooling glove, and through no illegal methods, no unnatural drugs, just cooling their body, they're going to recuperate like crazy.
melissa etheridge
When they start working with the body's amazing properties to create a better body, that's when it's going to work.
joe rogan
Yeah, this is like a hijack.
They found a fuck-up with the system.
All you have to do is cool that body temperature down.
That's a thing they've been doing with ice baths as well.
That's something that didn't really exist that long ago.
But now, after training, a lot of guys do these crazy ice baths.
Oh my God, that's a hard idea.
melissa etheridge
That's hard.
joe rogan
It's so hard to relax in there.
That's the hard part.
Once you climb in, your body constricts.
You can't get any air.
You're like...
unidentified
It sucks.
joe rogan
But if you can do it, it's awesome for your recovery.
Well, this is even better, apparently.
It's crazy.
So the athletes that they're getting now...
They're going to be even bigger.
They're going to be even faster.
melissa etheridge
And they're going to be on the Kansas City Chiefs.
joe rogan
You think so?
melissa etheridge
We got the first pick.
Even our second round pick is huge.
It's way up there.
joe rogan
How does that work?
Who gets what pick?
melissa etheridge
The worst team gets the first pick.
joe rogan
Really?
That's hilarious.
That sucks for the best guy.
The worst team takes them in.
melissa etheridge
It's true.
But look, Andrew Luck.
The Colts were the worst team last year.
They got Andrew Luck.
They made it to the playoffs.
joe rogan
Isn't that amazing that one super athlete dude is a quarterback, one super athlete in one way, one Herschel Walker type dude, just unheard of athletes, they just can change your whole fucking game.
melissa etheridge
Well, that's because he believes it.
And then the other people around it start spreading and they start believing.
joe rogan
So dudes with slow twitch muscles, can they believe they can win in sprinting competitions against Usain Bolt?
melissa etheridge
You ask any professional athlete, what is it?
And they'll say, the difference between the Ravens and the 49ers last night?
The Ravens believed it.
You can see when the 49ers stop believing it.
brian redban
That's just what I mean.
joe rogan
Maybe that's just what you believe, and you've created this whole Super Bowl, and we are just participants.
melissa etheridge
And you are my funny Joe Rogan.
joe rogan
Yeah, I'm just your background.
I'm your new toy that you just picked up today.
melissa etheridge
I want to go talk to him!
Yeah.
joe rogan
You just created us and our old world didn't even exist before you came around.
But in your world, that is the case.
The reality is, in your universe, I didn't exist in a physical form until we meet each other.
And you didn't either.
I saw you on TV, I've heard your songs, but as a physical human being, you didn't exist in my world until today.
So I really did kind of invent you.
melissa etheridge
Yes.
joe rogan
And you invented me.
melissa etheridge
Yes, and I'm glad we did that.
joe rogan
So we all live in invented universes, and they all parallel coexist with each other.
melissa etheridge
Yes, so take charge of your life.
unidentified
Do it.
joe rogan
Get your shit together, bitches.
Melissa Etheridge, just drop some pseudoscience on your ass.
But wonderfully empowering pseudoscience, right?
That attitude is one that's espoused by some of the happiest people I know, that you create your own reality.
I don't know.
I try to be, and I get accused of not being really open-minded, but I really do try to be as much as humanly possible.
I try to, especially since doing this podcast, I try to look at every point of every aspect of things and not really make opinions on a lot of shit.
Just go, I don't know enough.
I don't like getting into those conversations with people with the claim they do know enough to just refute things.
I think people enjoy refuting things as well.
unidentified
Yeah.
melissa etheridge
Because they believe very...
It's all...
If I just look at everyone with belief, you are free to believe what you believe.
It's wonderful.
joe rogan
Have you always been an artist?
Have you always been a...
melissa etheridge
Yeah, I can't do anything else.
I'm just hopeless anywhere else.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
When did you, what did you start with?
Was it always music?
unidentified
Guitar, yeah.
joe rogan
Always, always music.
melissa etheridge
Yeah, when I was eight years old, my, well, I just, the transistor radio was the 70s, or 60s.
And I was, you know, listening to the Beatles, and my sister was a little older, and she had a lot of music.
My father bought her a guitar, and I was eight years old, going, please, I want to play it.
They said, no, you're too young, it'll hurt your fingers.
I'm like, please, please.
And the teacher's like, well, let her come.
She won't come back, because it's too hard.
And of course, I played, and my fingers bled, and I was like, I want to do it, and I kept doing it.
Wow.
joe rogan
See, I never had a desire to do it, but I was always fascinated by it.
It never pulled me towards a career, but when I was a little kid, I was probably like seven, and my sister was six, and we had a little record player, you know, play like 45s, and we had only a couple of records, and one of them was The Things We Do For Love.
You know that song?
Remember that?
melissa etheridge
Yeah, The Things We Do For Love.
joe rogan
10 CC. And I was amazed.
Because it was really the only time I'd ever have access to music that I could start and stop.
I could just decide, ready, go.
And then it starts.
And I was like, now I can really pay attention to it.
As opposed to walking into a store and music is playing, or going into a restaurant and the music is playing.
This was my first experience where I actually could turn on the music and turn off the music.
And realize, oh, this is crazy.
This is coming out of this fucking disc.
What is going on here?
Someone's figured out I'm going to make this flat, black, plastic disc.
And then I put this needle-y thing on it, and it spins around, and it plays me crazy songs.
melissa etheridge
It holds the vibration.
You can do the science right there.
That's vibration on the vinyl.
And the diamonds are like rocks and quartz.
That's why all the quartz, crazy stuff.
That picks up a vibration, and you hear it, which is just vibrations on your ear.
joe rogan
I think it's one of the reasons why I became a stand-up comedian.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Because listening to that, I started asking questions.
And I remember, I really remember this from being seven years old, that no one had any answers to why they or how they could put that music on a record.
No one around me.
I was seven years old.
I asked my mom.
She didn't have any fucking idea.
I asked my dad.
No idea.
No one had any idea.
Yet, there were records all over the place.
I was like, damn, this is weird.
Why wouldn't you guys ask how they make this?
Isn't this freaky to you that there's something around you?
Aren't you curious?
And I was amazed at how many people just actually weren't curious.
And that sort of started me along that path of looking at all these adults With a slanted eye.
unidentified
I don't trust you.
melissa etheridge
You don't know everything.
joe rogan
Motherfuckers might be crazy.
You don't even know how records are made.
You're just living your whole life.
Meanwhile, I'm 45. I don't know how records are made.
I don't give a fuck.
But back then, when I was a kid, I thought these people were ridiculous.
But if my kid asked me, I would at least research it.
I would go, let's find out.
I want to know.
melissa etheridge
You can go on YouTube and you can see how it's made instantly.
joe rogan
Instantaneously, you could know.
melissa etheridge
That's the thing.
Instantaneous information.
joe rogan
It's changing our world.
That is changing our world, isn't it?
Do you embrace it?
You're on Twitter, right?
I see you actually respond to people on Twitter.
You actually...
melissa etheridge
Someone does, yes.
joe rogan
Do I? It's not you?
melissa etheridge
It's not me, no.
Oh, it's a fake.
brian redban
You don't do any blogs or anything like that, right?
melissa etheridge
No, you can't win.
You just can't win.
I missed it.
I missed the whole time, and I don't have time to do that.
I have four children, and I choose not to spend the time.
I have a fan club.
I have a whole group of people that work for me that do that.
So I stay in that arena, but no, I can't.
joe rogan
But do people think that it's you?
melissa etheridge
I don't know.
joe rogan
Because you have a verified account.
melissa etheridge
I always tell them that it's not me.
joe rogan
Oh, okay.
melissa etheridge
It's definitely my people.
I can make a statement.
I will go to my Twitter, and I will go to my website, and I will go this, and you can count on that.
If it says, Melissa Etheridge said this, you can count that that's what it is, that I did say it.
joe rogan
See, the only problem that I would say is that on your Twitter, when you go there, it looks like you're responding to things, responding to people, because someone is doing it Through your verified Twitter and they're not saying, hey, this isn't Melissa.
brian redban
Yeah, like a lot of Britney Spears and stuff like that do the same thing, but when every time they actually do it, they do like dash BS, you know, meaning like it's her.
joe rogan
Yeah, they'll write like team someone or another is doing this.
melissa etheridge
Well, I think I'll have to go to my team and say, hey, let's do that.
joe rogan
Which I found on a really unsuccessful comedian's page, and I was very offended by it.
I was like, what do you got a team for, bitch?
You ain't got no team.
You can't respond on your Twitter to actual people yet.
For a comedian, Twitter is, like, super important.
melissa etheridge
Oh, yeah.
Well, you can keep sharp.
joe rogan
Yeah.
It's fun.
It's fun to write, like, little things that aren't 40 characters, but it's also important to be able to keep in contact with people like that.
You don't do anything like that.
No?
It's too much?
melissa etheridge
I just don't want to spend the time to do it.
I just don't...
joe rogan
It's just not in your...
melissa etheridge
It's not in my wheel, but, yeah, I don't want people to know that much about me.
They know way too much anyway.
joe rogan
Isn't it weird that they just want to find so much about you?
Just want to...
melissa etheridge
I'm not that interesting.
I am so not as interested.
joe rogan
It's not even that.
It's just they fixate.
They just decide.
melissa etheridge
Well, because they don't want to look at themselves.
joe rogan
Yeah.
brian redban
What was your Woodstock performance like?
That was one of my favorite shows.
Yeah, 94. And that was one of my favorites of Woodstock.
melissa etheridge
Oh, thank you.
brian redban
What was that like being in that situation?
melissa etheridge
I've got to tell you, it was a crazy one because it was the 25th anniversary and they hadn't got back together to do this.
And I remember being – we took a car to a bus that drove to the secret house somewhere that then put us on a boat that took us up a river to a van that took us to the backstage.
It was crazy.
unidentified
Wow.
melissa etheridge
And I remember Joe Cocker opening the day that I played and I was on stage and I was getting by with a little help from my friends.
I was like, oh, this is awesome.
And it was really, really wonderful.
They put me in between Henry Rollins and Nine Inch Nails.
brian redban
That's crazy.
melissa etheridge
And it rained during Henry Rollins.
So my show, The Sun Came Out, it was beautiful.
joe rogan
You manifested that.
You manifested that and Henry Rollins fucked up.
He got all negative.
melissa etheridge
I am a liar!
I am not going to blame him!
unidentified
I am a liar!
joe rogan
I'm not going to blame him!
I know you're not going to blame him.
That's why I'm here to blame him.
And I like him.
I like Henry Rollins.
He's badass.
I like a lot of what that guy is.
melissa etheridge
So I got to play, and the audience was great.
There was a bit of moshing going on in front of me that kind of scared me.
joe rogan
Uh-oh.
melissa etheridge
Oh, look at that.
Yeah.
It was great.
By my last song, I played Like the Way I Do...
Yeah, there's the mud people.
They started because it had just rained, and I could see this patch of...
Of grey, brown, way far away.
I mean, I couldn't see the end of the audience.
And so I'm looking and all of a sudden that patch kind of turns into a snake and they all start coming toward the stage and everyone's like moving out of the way because it's all these completely muddy people from head to toe.
joe rogan
Brian, show that again.
That's a real first world problem.
A bunch of white people...
unidentified
Muddy.
joe rogan
All muddy.
White people are so silly in their decisions to get muddy.
melissa etheridge
Yes.
joe rogan
Because if that was black people, that fucking concert's canceled, bitch.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
It's money, no way!
Oh, I'm out of here.
They're not going to go mosh.
If it was all black girls, how many black girls do you think would be there?
melissa etheridge
They're going to mess up their hair.
joe rogan
Their hair did, and fucking high heels, and stepping in the mud.
Bitch, that show's over.
It takes dopey white people to be slamming into each other.
melissa etheridge
That's us.
joe rogan
Yeah, white people will get muddy.
They get crazy.
And the whole moshing thing, the mosh pit thing is so bananas.
When did that start?
melissa etheridge
Serious pain.
joe rogan
What happened to just enjoying the music or dancing?
Why are you slamming into each other, you crazy assholes?
melissa etheridge
I had one guy jump up on my stage and go to dive off and everyone just moved and he just went slam!
Bam!
unidentified
Right on the floor.
melissa etheridge
I'm like, oh, dude.
joe rogan
Yeah, that must have been bad.
unidentified
Ouch, yes.
joe rogan
Did he get knocked unconscious?
melissa etheridge
He kind of just walked off, really.
joe rogan
Oh, my God.
melissa etheridge
You're going to get thrown out if you do that.
joe rogan
Oh, he must have been fucked up.
unidentified
Yeah, he was.
joe rogan
Diving off a stage and everybody scatters.
Why would you think that they would catch you?
That you'd need to hurt catching somebody, you know?
melissa etheridge
Yes, yes, you would.
joe rogan
Oh, why would you just risk that?
unidentified
Alcohol.
joe rogan
See?
melissa etheridge
Gets you all brave.
joe rogan
But it was also his choice.
His choice to be a dickwad.
The universe is trying to end him.
The universe is sending him bad signals.
Like, go ahead, jump.
Jump, dummy.
We're tired of your bullshit.
unidentified
No?
joe rogan
Never.
Never.
No judgment whatsoever from you.
melissa etheridge
None.
joe rogan
How do you feel, though, when you see a horrible tragedy, like Connecticut shootings?
melissa etheridge
Yes, that is definitely the hardest.
And I'm not telling you it's easy that I just go, oh, you know, that's the balance.
I understand that through this horrific act...
That the outpouring of goodwill, the outpouring of, wait a minute, we have to do something.
I mean, I'm not going to get in the gun control thing.
I think it's beyond that to the people, the person.
A person that can be in so much pain that they can walk in and do that.
That's a lot of pain.
Let's look at what leads our human beings of our society to that sort of pain without anyone noticing.
joe rogan
Right, but wouldn't you have to say that he asked for that?
I mean, with your philosophy, he created that?
melissa etheridge
Yes, I imagine his pain was so great that the only way to unload it was to spray that much pain around.
And the pain becomes all-encompassing and of course you just fall into it and of course you're just gonna end your own life.
It's like game over.
It's like tilt.
joe rogan
But how do you factor in like psychosis and things along those lines like real mental issues?
melissa etheridge
Real mental issues.
It depends on how you look at what, just because something is not the way you and I perceive, okay, this is sane and that's crazy.
Real mental issues, where's the line?
Draw me the line where your thoughts become psychosis.
joe rogan
Right.
Is it a spectrum?
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
joe rogan
Is it broad?
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
It's been vibrating that much more, and so you are so far out of it that we call it psychosis.
joe rogan
But there are some people that do not have an emotional connection to other people.
They don't feel remorse.
melissa etheridge
Indeed.
You look at that and go, what is their intention here?
What do they need to draw?
I mean, who knows what they are intending?
And creating, given that, it's like, okay, you're going to go back into the biosphere called Earth, you're going to go in there, and this is your handicap.
You can't feel a thing.
Because...
Now, now, work through that.
joe rogan
How do you work through that if you don't have any feelings?
I mean the idea of not having any feelings and lashing out is a big difference between the idea of just not having any feelings without the need for inflicting pain on other people.
It seems to be a dual issue.
It seems to be an issue of not being able to feel it for some of them and also the anger.
The desire to hurt.
melissa etheridge
The belief that if they don't hurt something, they're going to hurt more.
joe rogan
It seems like with this way of thinking that if you got more people to sort of look at it that way, do you think that that would be like an empowering thing?
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
It's the point in which you see that peace is, okay, I need to...
Okay, you might have thrown the last rock.
You might have shot the last bullet.
But I need to be willing to go, oh, okay, I'm not going to shoot back.
I'm going to start a different reaction.
So if you get enough people who believe that, and believe that if I take care of myself, that nothing What bad is going to happen to me that I can't handle.
Because I'm not saying the world is all good.
It's about understanding your balance and what you ask for and walking through it.
If I can hold that and not blame anybody else, and nobody else is going to blame me, then we start walking, we start moving to a future that is, all of a sudden you don't need prisons.
All of a sudden you don't need, all of a sudden the way we govern ourselves.
Completely changes.
joe rogan
But you gotta catch people at a very, very, very early age and sort of manifest this type of behavior.
You have to get them when they're young, expose them to nothing but love and curiosity and fulfilling curiosity with joy.
unidentified
My kids think I'm crazy.
joe rogan
Why do they think you're crazy?
melissa etheridge
Well, because I talk all that voodoo talk, because it is different.
That's when they say, oh, mom, stop that voodoo stuff.
But they will believe it when it...
joe rogan
They call it voodoo?
melissa etheridge
Yeah, they do.
That voodoo stuff.
joe rogan
How long have you been talking voodoo?
melissa etheridge
Oh, it's been about eight years now.
joe rogan
Eight years.
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
But I can constantly go, okay, you saw that choice you made.
This is the result of that choice.
This is not anybody else.
It's not anybody who's doing anything to you.
joe rogan
So there is no randomness, you think?
So people that are in, like, the tower when the plane hits, they made a choice somehow in the world to be in that spot.
melissa etheridge
If you can look at it without blame, if you can look at that they, that that was what they signed up for, they wanted to be in it for that long, you know, I can't tell this to someone who lost their loved one.
That's not going to sound.
Yet, my belief is founded on that I can't blame anybody else for anything.
joe rogan
But it's also founded on the idea that you're creating this sort of reality that you exist in.
And that everybody's creating their own reality.
melissa etheridge
So if I work, if I make my little hologram, my little fractal of the hologram, if I work making that the best I can, fill it with as much love and as little fear as possible, then I help the whole picture because the whole picture has me in it.
joe rogan
I look at it as a, I don't have an opinion one way or another, but I do look at it often that it's a combination of that and scientific reality.
I think that if the super volcano goes, we're all fucked no matter what you believe.
I do believe that.
But I do believe that there's also a real possibility that your thoughts are creating a good portion of your reality.
And your thoughts interacting with other people are actually responsible for culture in the first place.
That's how decisions get made.
Conversations have taken place.
Letters get written.
Books get written.
That's how it all happens.
It happens through your mind.
Interacting with other people and literally changing things in a very physical form that everybody agrees on.
But I think that Even besides that, I think there's other issues going on.
I think it's a lot more ethereal than we give it credit for.
It's very strange.
melissa etheridge
I'm just trying to walk every day.
Just walk.
joe rogan
But asteroids will fuck your world up, and that shit is real as ice cream.
They come down, and that's a wrap, son, and there's nothing you can do about it, and there's a lot of them out there.
I think that, too.
I think you create your reality, but I also think that there's some random shit that I didn't sign up for.
If it was up to me, there would be no asteroids.
Okay?
I would work that out.
I'd figure it out.
I'd be like, that has got to be one fucked up way to go.
There's a big light in the sky for three days until finally, boom!
melissa etheridge
It's just over.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I'm not really into that.
melissa etheridge
All right.
joe rogan
That was not my idea.
I'm pretty sure.
But I could be wrong.
Maybe I was a real mess.
melissa etheridge
You weren't thinking about it, though.
joe rogan
Yes.
Well, I guess.
I mean, if you're correct, then I do live in this world that's really nutty and asteroids are there to keep you honest.
melissa etheridge
Or you could say, I'm really grateful that there were no asteroids, that it was a perfectly uneventful day.
joe rogan
What other kind of crazy out there ideas do you have in your head?
Do you believe in alien contact?
Do you believe in anything like that?
melissa etheridge
I don't think that there's like a whole race of people that are like, you know, I'm from another planet, blah, blah, blah.
I do believe in multidimensional reality and I believe that there are other spiritual beings.
That live on...
That exist.
I wouldn't say live.
That exist on different planes and that that is where my spirit goes to when this biological body dies.
joe rogan
I've tried to pretend they're watching me all the time.
unidentified
They are.
joe rogan
It keeps me on steady.
It keeps me on the straight and narrow.
unidentified
Yeah.
melissa etheridge
But no, I'm not a...
You can...
I think everything's metaphor, so...
joe rogan
I lost a lot of interest in aliens once I had psychedelic experiences.
melissa etheridge
Yes.
joe rogan
The first DMT trip I had, I really checked out the whole alien culture.
I was like, you guys are missing the whole thing.
melissa etheridge
Yeah, that's also what I... It's not out there, it's in here.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I'm trying to explain that to someone, that if a UFO landed on the White House law...
The White House lawn got out, aliens got out, met the president, gave him some new supercomputer.
It would be way less crazier than DMT. DMT is infinitely crazier than that, and it's real.
melissa etheridge
It pushes you to see what are you believing.
What's beyond this thing that you are so dead certain is reality.
joe rogan
The deer head just fell over.
That's his reality.
That's fine.
melissa etheridge
Powerful stuff.
joe rogan
Yeah, no kidding.
You got so excited, you were pounding on wood.
You're going nutty.
melissa etheridge
Oh my gosh.
There you go.
joe rogan
There we go.
melissa etheridge
Dude, your bladder must be huge.
I've been sitting here talking to you, and all I need to do is just go.
joe rogan
Go, go, go.
melissa etheridge
Use the restroom.
I'll be right back, everyone.
unidentified
Don't worry about it.
joe rogan
I can take it.
melissa etheridge
Okay.
joe rogan
My co-host on the UFC has a real problem.
That's not the bathroom.
To that door to the right.
Melissa Etheridge is cool as fuck.
brian redban
Yeah.
joe rogan
I didn't think she was going to be so crazy hippie.
brian redban
She's super crazy hippie, right?
joe rogan
Yeah.
Neil deGrasse Tyson would be having fucking...
He would be flipping out.
You know who would be really flipping out?
Cara.
Cara Santa Maria?
brian redban
Yeah.
joe rogan
That bitch would be going crazy right now.
That's like non-scientific crazy talk.
brian redban
Vegas was a lot of fun this weekend, man.
Thanks a lot for everything, except for the peeing on my pillow part.
joe rogan
Yeah, Brian got so drunk, I left him at a certain point in the night.
Oh, after the show.
I went and played pool, because this guy Stevie Moore was in town, who's this world-famous professional pool player, and he wanted to play with me.
For me, that's like a golfer who gets a chance to go play with Jack Nicklaus.
brian redban
How bad did he kick your ass?
joe rogan
Oh, he tortured me.
brian redban
Did you win any games?
joe rogan
Yeah, I won a couple games.
Yeah, I mean, he misses every now and again, but he's amazing.
So I did that, and Brian went out and got fucking blasted to the point where he almost died, and he went back home to his bedroom.
brian redban
I'm learning more new things, by the way.
I have this alert thing on Google.
If anyone uses Redband, it goes, hey, you're being talked about on this message board.
joe rogan
Someone sounds needy.
brian redban
No, no, it's just kind of a way to kind of track things.
Well, somebody was like, hey, just met Red Band in the elevator.
He came back to our room and we smoked weed.
I went to some dude's room and smoked weed in Vegas, like a stranger's...
joe rogan
Or somebody just made that up.
brian redban
No, I slightly remember it.
joe rogan
Really?
brian redban
Yeah, and then I guess I went back to my room and I had to go to the bathroom so bad that I woke up and peed on my pillow...
And then put a blanket on my pillow, then slept back on it, and then woke up in the morning.
I was like, why is my pillow wet?
unidentified
Oh, Jesus!
melissa etheridge
Oh, I'm back.
Sorry.
joe rogan
No, no worries.
Perfect timing.
Back for a recap of Brian's weekend.
We have Ari Shafir coming with us tomorrow, who I watched scream and yell at the TSA agents.
brian redban
Oh no.
Did he do it again on the way back?
joe rogan
He's doing it constantly.
That's what he does now.
He yells at the TSA. He won't take off his shoes.
He won't take off his shoes.
He goes through a screening thing and he's like, you guys are all corrupt.
This is stupid.
Tomorrow we'll talk about it.
It was amazing.
I got a picture of it.
I tweeted the picture when it went down.
I put it on my Instagram.
But it was hilarious.
I'm like, why are you creating all those problems?
unidentified
He's like, this is stupid.
It's corruption.
joe rogan
We didn't ask for this.
I go, yeah, but all you have to do is just take your shoes off and walk through that little thing and show them your junk and then you go.
Everyone's going to be fine.
Those naked scanners, what are you afraid of, man?
For real?
melissa etheridge
Oh, I don't go through them just for the radiation aspect.
joe rogan
Some of them, the new ones, when you stand up and you hold your hand up like that, it's not radiation.
It's some sort of a radio wave.
Yeah, that's what they say.
melissa etheridge
I just stay out of it just general.
But I don't yell at them.
joe rogan
There's more of an issue with the radiation of space, actually, scientifically.
That is, if we believe what the numbers are that they say that those things, those scanners give off.
But they say those are real...
Risk of radiation is actually flying.
Just flying.
Just being up in the air that high, it's a lot of radiation.
melissa etheridge
You know, there's a lot of stuff we, again, can be afraid of.
I just believe I'm going to do the best I can.
I'm going to stay in the best possible shape I can be in.
joe rogan
Well, that argument, you know, that way of looking at things is what I've always argued was a good aspect of religion.
With religion and putting things in the faith of God and having this belief that it's all going to work out, even though It's sort of like, in my opinion, I believe, you know, people always say, are you an atheist or an agnostic?
I believe people are full of shit, first and foremost.
And that's always an issue whenever I hear a story.
So I look at every religion as a collection of stories.
Every religion is either a collection of stories or a collection of rules that came down from those collections of stories.
Everybody's stories are bullshit, okay?
So let's just put that out there.
Now, I also believe that you believing In those stories, and you believing in God's love, and you believing in doing God's will, and you believing in being a good, God-fearing person, in the same way that I believe it's, you know, I pretend that the interdimensional beings are watching me, so it keeps me on the straight and narrow, I think there's a benefit to that.
There's a benefit to that.
I don't think it's a correct way of approaching it, rationally, because I think whatever merit is in the ancient texts, whether it was actually the Word of God, it very well could be.
The huge issue is Reading it at face value, using it for like a framework for how you behave and act in this life when it's written thousands of years ago by people with very limited access to information and all of it is ridiculous.
It's all ridiculous.
melissa etheridge
Yes, and the desire to do good.
joe rogan
Yes.
melissa etheridge
Is a natural human state.
And to corrupt it with fear is unfortunate when religion and that we're the only one that's right and you're not.
joe rogan
Control is when someone has power.
It's really simple.
It's very similar to what we were talking about with actors losing their mind when they became really famous.
It's almost similar.
It's like they have crazy outfits on and they control the Vatican.
And so they are used to everyone being terrified of them and freaking out in their presence.
melissa etheridge
It works.
joe rogan
So they think they deserve it.
Like if I could get the Pope on a podcast and the Pope's book English, it would be the most hilarious conversation ever.
He would never do it.
He would leave.
The moment we started talking about pedophilia, he would probably run out the door.
But the idea that this guy is so completely sheltered We're good to go.
And the real God, whatever, stop saying the word or say it if you like.
melissa etheridge
The universe or the creator or the intelligent being, whatever it is.
joe rogan
Do you know who Alex Gray is?
melissa etheridge
Yes.
joe rogan
The visionary artist?
melissa etheridge
Yes.
joe rogan
Brilliant, brilliant man and a beautiful human being.
He came in and did the podcast and he was just amazing.
But he uses that word God all the time.
He's like, we have to take that word back.
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
joe rogan
You know, he's like, stop connecting it.
Everyone's connecting it to It represents the idea of the perfection that is possible.
It represents love.
His really beautiful point of view on it really opened me up to that.
I don't use it that often because people misinterpret it and people automatically cookie-cutter it.
They shove it into that framework of predetermined patterns of behavior that have been adopted from religions.
But I think the heart of everything, good, the heart of all good feelings, is that love thing, the thing that pulls us all together, the thing that makes us interact well.
That's something.
melissa etheridge
Yeah, if you take the teachings of Jesus, of Muhammad, of Buddha, of Martin Luther, of Gandhi, they are all based in the love each other, love your neighbor as yourself.
joe rogan
Right.
melissa etheridge
And that's what I'm saying.
joe rogan
Yes.
melissa etheridge
You can't blame anybody.
And then love the Lord your God or whatever with all your might and your heart.
And so it's about infusing love.
And if you can walk with those, really, and to completely take it away from religion, because I certainly, being the big homosexual I am, I didn't fit into religion at all.
So it's yet...
God, I believe in that.
I'm with you on taking that back.
joe rogan
I think there was a huge mistake in keeping homosexuals out of the church.
What a dumb move.
Because by doing that, by alienating that aspect of the population, you missed out on a whole bunch of other people you can control, stupid.
And now they're all against you.
melissa etheridge
And we dress better.
joe rogan
Yeah, that was such a shitty chess move.
They should have embraced the gay people, said that that's just another aspect of life.
melissa etheridge
Come on, there you go.
joe rogan
It's the same, just as beautiful as a male-woman relationship.
melissa etheridge
We'll just follow right along with you.
joe rogan
Do whatever you want to do.
And then people have been like, oh, there's lesbians in our church today.
And no one would have cared.
It would have been fine.
You would have had more people in your church, stupid.
But you blew it.
Why alienate gay people, too?
That, to me, is...
That's a weird one.
I've never understood that one.
melissa etheridge
Fear.
joe rogan
Yeah.
But fear of what?
melissa etheridge
Fear of your own sexuality?
Yes.
Your own fear of sex.
It depends on where you grew up.
If you grew up and your parents – if when you were three years old and running around without a diaper on, if you were touching your genitalia – I just said genitalia.
That's fine.
If you're touching yourself and your mother goes, don't do that, that starts your whole – wait a minute, there's something wrong with that.
I'm not supposed to do that.
And that grows and then depends on all the other parts of your experience.
Any things that naturally happen to us, when they put that fear on it, then that will mess you up.
joe rogan
It's not a coincidence that the most suppressive aspect of our accepted culture is catheterism.
Catholic priests.
I mean, they're not allowed to have sex.
They're always involved in scandals that are sexual.
melissa etheridge
It's like, come on, we are sexual beings.
It's part of connection with the God.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, how do you explain those dumb monks that are up there that are not having sex with anybody either?
They've got a good thing, though.
At least they're monitoring their mind to a point where they're controlling their physicality, but I still think that shit's ridiculous.
melissa etheridge
It's true.
You don't have to go be a monk.
Don't worry about it.
joe rogan
It's so not necessary.
melissa etheridge
You'd never make it.
joe rogan
Have you had any experience in the isolation tank?
melissa etheridge
I have not.
I really want to do that, though.
joe rogan
I am consistently amazed at how many amazing, interesting people haven't tried that out yet.
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
I just...
I haven't...
Where do you do that?
joe rogan
I can get you in.
You want to try it?
There's a place in...
Well, the best place in the world, actually, is in Venice.
melissa etheridge
Oh, really?
joe rogan
Yeah.
Venice...
I don't know if that's close to you, but it's a...
There's a place called Soothing Solutions in Burbank.
But the issue of the Burbank place, as opposed to the Venice place, though, is the tanks...
Burbank Place is fine.
If you're close to that, definitely go.
And the lady who runs it is super cool.
The difference is what that guy at the float lab has done.
The float lab is the place in Venice.
He's taking floating to a completely different place.
He's a super genius, this guy.
He's nuts.
And he creates these unbelievably solid, amazing, huge tanks.
that are so regulated and they pump oxygen into them he's got it down to such a science that when you're in that I mean it's it's just so if the environment is so perfect completely soundproof you don't feel anything you're floating through space your body is just like the water is the same temperature as your skin so as you float there you literally don't feel the water you're released of massive amounts of tension just a physical feeling alright it's amazingly recharging just physically and then If you
go in there with brownies, you get to meet aliens.
melissa etheridge
I believe that.
Absolutely.
Because all you have to do is just get past your belief that this is what's in front of me so I can't possibly see aliens.
But if you remove all that, absolutely.
And we say aliens just as in other spiritual dimensions.
joe rogan
I'm just being silly.
Something that talks back.
That's what I like to talk to.
melissa etheridge
That's when you realize.
Because some people think, oh, the way that I believe is very lonely.
No, no.
It opens you up to the heart.
We are anything but alone.
joe rogan
It makes me very thankful whenever I come out of there.
That's probably been the biggest tool for developing my own personality, my own view of reality.
Because it's a real reset.
It's a real time off when everything's shut off.
And when I get out, I just want to call my friends and tell them I love them.
I just want to pet my dog.
I get really thankful.
melissa etheridge
How long do you stay in it?
joe rogan
A couple hours.
I like to do two hours.
I just think it's another thing that I would like to see spread.
And I know some people are doing it.
My friend Scotty from OnTheMat.com, he's got a tank center that he's looking into opening in California or in LA rather.
And then I know the Float Lab is going to open up another place in Hollywood too.
And there's plenty of business out there.
If more people did it, a lot of people want to know about this.
And a lot of people would benefit massively.
Like if you enjoy getting a massage every now and then, you enjoy taking a yoga class, this is that times a hundred.
It's really incredible.
melissa etheridge
I will do that.
Thank you.
joe rogan
You should totally do that.
melissa etheridge
What's wrong with me?
joe rogan
I bet it would.
Your music.
I bet you would come up with some crazy shit from in there, too.
melissa etheridge
That much space?
Wow.
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Just being complete, floating around in there.
How do you write?
Do you sit down with a guitar or do you sit down with a piece of paper?
Do you both?
melissa etheridge
Well, it always starts with inspiration.
So that can be me sitting here going, oh, wait a minute.
Maybe you just said something that sounds rhythmic, that sounds like, oh, I want to write about that.
joe rogan
Do you just go run out of the room and write it down?
melissa etheridge
No.
Actually, I use the iPhone a lot to just make notes to myself or if I hear a rhythm or sing a melody or something, I'll put it on the voice memo.
joe rogan
Oh.
melissa etheridge
Yeah, I do that a lot.
And then when I have time, when I make time, I try to make, you know, two, three, four hours, and I can sit down and really just work something out and see if I can get it out.
joe rogan
You know what's amazing?
I don't know if you've ever used it on the iPhone.
It has this little icon.
Apparently, the Android phones have this now as well for the notes.
If you press it, you press this little microphone icon next to the space bar, and you can talk into it, and it does it in real time.
It's amazing.
Check this out.
Watch.
Melissa Etheridge is a bad motherfucker.
Watch this.
Bam.
Look at that.
Look how quick that is.
melissa etheridge
Oh, it typed it out!
joe rogan
It typed it out perfectly.
Whoa, now I've got to see if I have this.
I have a lot of stuff that I wrote in my little notepad, but I'm not as fast with my thumbs as that is.
And sometimes, for me, a new idea for a joke is so slippery.
It's like a fish that I can't hold onto.
And I've got to write it down and say, how does that go again?
And someone's still talking to me, like, please stop, stop talking for a second!
I gotta hold on to this.
What is this?
How do I write this down?
But if I could just say it, it would be way better.
I could get the idea completely.
Because sometimes my ideas are so ridiculous.
I have to go back and read them two or three times to figure out even what the hell I was saying.
But these new little icon, these new little note features where you could do that with just the microphone, it's amazing.
These new cell phones are just, what you can do with them is just unbelievable.
It's so crazy.
So you write things down just when you have this idea or you record like the melody, like you hum it or something like that into your voice memos?
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
Yeah, it depends.
Or I'll play, if it's a piece of guitar thing, I'll play that or piano or whatever it is.
It always comes from different places and then I'll give the time to work it out and do whatever it's going to be.
joe rogan
I love when people still keep creating.
They just never stop.
They just keep pumping stuff out.
melissa etheridge
I love it.
joe rogan
I love it.
It's so fun.
It's so fun to be a part of this crazy world that we live in now and see all the stuff that's coming out too.
We have more access to great information, great music, great movies, great everything.
We have so much access to inspiration.
We have so much access to art.
It's an amazing time.
melissa etheridge
Yeah.
joe rogan
And to see people embracing the internet and using the internet as a method of spreading all this stuff, too, it's just, I think, we just live in just very, very rare times.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
That's another thing to be really, really happy for and really appreciative of, this time, this strange, strange time that we exist in.
Do you write and create as just a matter of...
I mean, you're so successful now.
You just must do it as a desire.
Whenever you feel like it, you do it every day.
Like, this is my gig.
How do you treat it?
melissa etheridge
Nowadays, my life is so full and so blessed that when it's time for me to create something, it's like I'm thinking about a musical.
I would really love to have a musical, but that's a big, huge undertaking.
So I just...
Give myself, say, okay, these few weeks I'm going to give myself from Monday to Friday from 10 to 2 every day.
That's when I'm going to work.
And then when I'm done with that, then I'll give myself some time off and then I'll say, okay, I'll gather the pieces, the notes, the stuff, and then I'll make another album I'll give myself.
I'll actually work.
I'll make a time every day to work.
joe rogan
And when you do that and you put together an album, do you say, okay, you know what?
Let's take this bitch on the road and see what's up.
melissa etheridge
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
That's the best part.
It's great to create out of nothing and make music.
I love it.
I would do it all the time for nothing.
And then when I get to take that and share it with 1,000, 2,000 people a night, and here they are, and they love that music, and I'm singing it, and it's an energy exchange.
Then it's just beyond.
That's just wonderful.
joe rogan
Yeah, the live energy exchange.
Isn't it amazing?
When they're your fans, and they came out, they're Melissa Etheridge fans, and you hit them with one of the clowns.
Classics and you see their eyes light up and they scream.
melissa etheridge
There's nothing like starting a song that people know.
joe rogan
It's really nice.
Oh, it must be an amazing feeling.
unidentified
It's wonderful.
joe rogan
It's an amazing feeling to be an audience member and a song that you love comes on like that.
But to be able to do it, that must be crazy.
You're a weird conduit.
melissa etheridge
Yes, I am.
joe rogan
And that's what it really boils down to.
melissa etheridge
Absolutely.
You move the energy through you right out.
joe rogan
Yeah, people that think that's hippie crazy, like, there's something happening.
Why am I getting goosebumps?
There must be some...
Actually, somebody just sent me that the other day.
There's some sort of a scientific explanation for why music gives you goosebumps.
But I say, that's horseshit.
You don't know what the fuck that means.
How come it gives me goosebumps and not you?
Why am I responding to it, but to another person, it's not the right music, you know?
melissa etheridge
Your belief.
joe rogan
That's what's really important, too, to recognize that in a lot of people, it takes them a long time to figure this out.
Is that everybody likes different stuff.
They just do.
And there are some people that are not tuned into it for whatever reason.
melissa etheridge
It's a weird thing when you are a performer and you are beholden to people buying your records in that chart position or that certain position, that number.
And you think, oh my gosh, I want everyone to like me.
And it's just not possible.
joe rogan
It's not possible.
melissa etheridge
And that's a good thing.
Everybody.
And that's why you can't.
Then it helps in my belief when I say, oh, I believe that those who resonate with the music I make will come to it.
And it will just be fine.
Everybody else.
I'm not blaming you.
unidentified
Judge.
melissa etheridge
And it's just that's what you are.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I mean, there's billions of people.
The people that they'll only love you for who you are if you are who you are.
And if you try to be a bunch of different people and a bunch of different things...
melissa etheridge
Well, we see that over and over.
We see these people just lose it because they have created a certain persona in the public eye.
And then they feel...
You start feeling like that persona, that's not you.
So any accolades that that persona gets is not you.
And then you're just miserable.
You start drinking.
joe rogan
Oh, you're fucking crazy.
You're on pills.
You're driving fast.
melissa etheridge
And they're taking your picture.
joe rogan
How do you avoid crazy rock star cliches like that?
melissa etheridge
Well, I figured I... I have two ex-wives, you know, two baby mamas.
I figure I fall into the rock and roll.
joe rogan
Two ex-wives.
melissa etheridge
Wow.
I know.
joe rogan
What is that like?
Do you stay in contact?
melissa etheridge
Oh, I have to.
I have two children with each of them.
joe rogan
Wow.
melissa etheridge
I know.
And I have to send them the check.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's hilarious.
It's the same cliche.
It appears in the male-female world.
unidentified
It is.
joe rogan
The female-female world.
melissa etheridge
You gotta pay for it no matter what.
That's what they're saying.
joe rogan
Nobody rides for free.
unidentified
Right?
melissa etheridge
Oh, so, you know what?
But I do.
We actually, because when it comes to the kids, we get along.
Okay, you know, I don't have to socialize with them.
joe rogan
Right.
melissa etheridge
And that's fine.
But for the kids, they need a happy, not happy, but they need a cohesive unit that they go back and forth from.
joe rogan
Right.
melissa etheridge
And so I'm determined to do that.
joe rogan
That's awesome.
The lesbian relationship dynamic, is it often like the male-female heterosexual dynamic?
melissa etheridge
It depends on who you are.
It depends on what you are.
joe rogan
Are there power couples where there's two Melissa Etheridge's and they're both badasses and they're together?
melissa etheridge
Wouldn't that be nice?
My partner now, her name is Linda, and she is a television producer, writer, director.
She did Nurse Jackie.
joe rogan
So she's successful.
unidentified
Yes.
Great show.
melissa etheridge
Is that a great show?
brian redban
Great show.
melissa etheridge
Oh my gosh.
joe rogan
So this badass is living together.
melissa etheridge
Exactly.
And that, it actually, because I believe, because I finally started believing in myself a few years ago, okay, I'm a badass, I'm a badass, then I'm going to draw, but that's what you got to do.
Then you've got to draw.
Then you will draw a badass to you because you are vibrating that.
That's the only way.
If you're sitting there going, I need someone to fix me, I need someone to come and be, then you're going to think yourself as broken and broken people will come to you.
joe rogan
Yeah, this is something that is driving scientists crazy right now.
They're hearing this and they're going this, damn Melissa Etheridge!
melissa etheridge
Yeah, I wouldn't be the first.
joe rogan
Nonsense!
What are you saying?
Show me the studies!
Show me peer-reviewed papers!
Or shut it!
I think there's a lot of merit to what you're saying.
I don't know if it's right, but I do believe that believing in it is very powerful.
And I think it's empowering.
And I think you're obviously a living embodiment of that.
And also a person who's experienced the ups and downs of not being aware of the body and then changing it and becoming aware and becoming much happier.
melissa etheridge
And I do not do it perfect every day.
Again, this is a practice.
I make my choices.
I live.
I go up and down.
But that's life.
joe rogan
Especially when you're busy.
It's hard.
It's hard to manage it all and keep cool and treat everybody as if it's you living another life.
melissa etheridge
Yes, it is.
unidentified
It's difficult, though.
melissa etheridge
It's not easy.
joe rogan
Well, listen, just you being on here was a huge treat.
It was an honor, and it was weird, you know, because it was like, I kept telling people, dude, most athletes are just coming on here.
I told them, like, why?
melissa etheridge
It seems make-believe.
Aw, what's you?
joe rogan
Well, to us, to Brian and I, we started doing this in my living room on a laptop as a goof.
You know, it was just...
melissa etheridge
See?
joe rogan
Yeah.
melissa etheridge
But you believed, you loved it.
That's another thing.
Things that you love will grow.
joe rogan
Well, it became something somewhere along the line.
I don't know how it happened, but it just did, and we're just sort of riding it.
melissa etheridge
Well, I figured you would ask me the questions that I want to be asked.
I'm always available to talk like this, but most often than not, they'll ask me the same ten questions over and over.
joe rogan
Well, it's very obvious that this way of thinking is important to you.
You want to express it.
And you're very courageous in expressing it because it sounds fucking crazy.
melissa etheridge
Well, and why not?
What have I got to lose?
joe rogan
And I'm not saying it sounds crazy to me.
It does sound crazy to me.
It also sounds possible to me.
I think there's a lot of weirdness to the way we perceive the world.
There's a lot of strange...
melissa etheridge
If you can even start from that, as maybe that which I think is so definite is not.
If you can start from that, then you're on a journey.
joe rogan
I think having these conversations are very, very important.
I think having these conversations publicly and just the consideration it takes to not necessarily accept the idea, but just to consider the points of it.
As I said, I believe that that is possible, but I also believe in asteroids.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
I believe that if you're in the wrong place, a tiger will eat your ass.
And it doesn't mean you're a bad person.
unidentified
It means you live in India.
No, no.
melissa etheridge
I'm not saying there's nothing bad.
Yeah.
Exactly.
joe rogan
It's a beautiful way of looking at the world.
And again, you might be right.
There's a lot of flexibility to this thing that we exist in.
And it doesn't seem like...
We are operating on a long history of people's work where they've really figured it out.
It seems like, as a culture, we've been doing crazy barbaric shit to each other since the jump.
And we're now, just in this period of abundance, starting to go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
Let's Google that.
You know?
melissa etheridge
Yes!
joe rogan
Is that true?
Are you sure that's true?
What are we doing here exactly?
Where's the oil?
Who's got the oil?
Is that a real UFO? What the fuck is Bigfoot?
melissa etheridge
Right.
joe rogan
That's all happening right now.
Thank you very much, Melissa.
It was beautiful talking to you.
melissa etheridge
My pleasure.
joe rogan
A real pleasure and an honor.
melissa etheridge
And you too.
Thank you so much.
joe rogan
And your new CD, I have it here.
melissa etheridge
Oh yeah.
It's got some of this in it.
I do put that in my music too, you know.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's 4th Street Feeling.
And is it out everywhere?
Amazon?
melissa etheridge
iTunes, all that stuff.
You can find it.
brian redban
That's a nice package.
joe rogan
You talking to me?
Yeah.
Unlike a lot of CDs, there's a lot of artwork put into the actual cover, which I really miss.
I mean, I'm not old enough to really remember too many records, but when I was a little kid, I had a Cheech and Chong record, and it was Big Bamboo.
And I opened it up, and it was like...
I didn't even know what Smokin' Pie was back then.
I was like eight.
I probably knew what it was, but I wasn't into it.
But it's not why.
I bought it because it was funny.
But their album cover was this big rolling paper thing.
And you would open it up, and there was so much work put into it.
melissa etheridge
Yeah, really an art form that I do miss.
Yeah, the deluxe version.
My record company's great.
They'll put out the regular version, which has the...
I think there's 11 songs on there, 12 maybe.
And this is the deluxe version that I have a lot of fans that really appreciate the extra artwork and the extra songs and so we put that on it.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's great photography.
Whoever did that, they really sort of captured like the tone of a lot of the music on here.
It's really awesome.
What is that car?
melissa etheridge
That is a replica.
It is a 64 Chevy Impala.
I asked them to get it because that's the first car I had when I was a kid.
That was the first car I ever bought when I was 15. I got it.
joe rogan
Wow, that's a tank.
melissa etheridge
Yeah, that's what I said with the big bench seats in the back and the front.
brian redban
It was awesome.
joe rogan
It's amazing that people drove those with no seatbelts.
melissa etheridge
They had babies in them!
I don't know how we survived.
joe rogan
How did we survive?
We didn't have baby seats.
Nobody had figured that out.
melissa etheridge
We had no helmets.
We had no seatbelts.
joe rogan
Yeah, when you fall down you got fucked up when I was a kid.
brian redban
And everybody's parents smoked with their windows open.
I remember just sitting there in a cloud of smoke.
unidentified
Horrible.
joe rogan
Yeah, strange times.
All right, go get it, you freaks.
Fourth Street Feeling.
Melissa, thank you very much.
melissa etheridge
Thank you so much, Joe.
Everybody, thank you.
joe rogan
It was awesome.
It was a lot of fun.
And don't think that if Melissa talks to you on Twitter that it's really Melissa, all right?
Now you know.
It's Team Melissa, unless she says it.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
All right, you fucks.
Thank you very much for tuning in.
Thank you to Ting.
Go to rogan.ting.com and save 25 bucks off of Thanks to Onnit.com All right,
we will see you tomorrow with the great Ari Shaffir, where he would talk about his hate for the TSA and the great story of what happened this weekend.
And I really wish I filmed it because it's going to be...
brian redban
Shut up.
joe rogan
I couldn't film it because I think you'd go to jail for doing that or something.
Patriot Act type shit.
Alright, fucks.
We'll see you tomorrow.
We love you always, even though you are an illusion that I've created in my own mind.
It's a good one.
No, I'm an illusion that you've created in your mind.
Or both.
But it's awesome.
Alright, see you soon.
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