"I wanted every word to have purpose," Melissa Etheridge says of her sixth and newest album, Breakdown. While the singer-guitarist has been making music for well over a decade, it wasn't until she became a mother that her songwriting became topical.

"I am affected personally," says Etheridge, who has a daughter, Bailey, 2 1/2, and son, Beckett, 10 months, with partner Julie. "There's something about the urgency of the world all of a sudden when you have children. I'm going to leave this earth, but my children will live on and now I know life goes on and on. You can't be here and check out. We have to do something to make it better.

From the baby murdered in the microwave to the Columbine shooting, Etheridge says now more than ever the atrocities in this world affect her. "The actions of everyone affect me and we all affect each other. As corny as it sounds, it really comes home when you realise the infiniteness of life, and yeah, that affects me personally. Maybe, that's one of the reasons I wrote 'Scarecrow.' I really hadn't written a topical song before that."

"Scarecrow", set to a drum 'n' bass rhythm, is an ode to Matthew Shepard, the young gay murder victim in Wyoming. Etheridge wrote it as much for herself as she did for his family.

"People ask me, 'Did I send the song to his parents?' 'No.' This wasn't a I-wrote-this-song-for-your-son song. This song is for the world. This song is for me, actually. It's really me struggling with understanding, forgiveness, a place to deal with my own rage about it, my own hatred, and how to stop that cycle. I believe we did let them know that I was writing a song about his death," she adds.

Having sold over 25 million albums, the accomplished songwriter through maturity and being comfortable in her skin, any subject is fair game and she is more honest and personal in her lyrics.