With more than 20 years in the business, American singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge reckons she has nothing left to prove with her upcoming tenth album, Fearless Love.

The 49-year-old singer songwriter, a popular advocate for gay rights, says her new album (the follow-up to 2007’s The Awakening) is a much tougher affair than her last few discs – perhaps even a return to the raw rock of early hits like “Bring Me Some Water”. Released in  late April, Fearless Love sees the singer re-teaming with producer/collaborator John Shanks, who recorded Etheridge’s early LPs, Breakdown (1999) and Lucky (2004).

“On my journey of doing this – recording, rock star, whatever all this stuff is that I do – there was always this feeling that there’s more, there’s a place that I have to get to,” Etheridge confessed to music industry mag Billboard. “You come to realise the ones who are finding satisfaction in their work and enjoying the art that they’re making are the ones that have laid down that burden of having something to prove. You start enjoying the work that you do. And that’s what this album is for me.”

Having successfully recovered from breast cancer, Etheridge is set to head out on the road in Europe in June before criss-crossing the US, with no plans at this stage for an Australian visit. “We’ll tour for a long time on this record,” Etheridge says. “A lot of these songs have great ‘live’ energy, and I’m excited to play them.”