Many thanks to Alana for the transcript
Curve Magazine
August 2001
Melissa's Second Coming:
....
Off the set just a bit sat another Oxygen newcomer, Lucy Lawless, whose show Xena: Warrior Princess found a home in syndication on the multiculti women's network. Watching from the sidelines, Lawless looked comfortable, casual and without a care in the world, her wild, electrified hair set off by piercing blue eyes and everything else set off by a skintight outfit.
Chatting before her cue to go onstage and introduce Etheridge, Lawless admitted she's still struggling to relax into her new free time-filled schedule "I feel drunk all the time", she laughs. "I've been basically institutionalized for six years, but now I'm [released] and I'm freakin' out!" Lawless confesses that she's not even looking for a new gig yet: "I've had such a wonderful opportunity. What character can I love as much? What character is going to give me that depth and that scope and that breadth? That was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." Part of her free-agent fun is taking advantage of opportunities like the one that brought her here, leg casually swung over her chair, relatively oblivious to the buzz around her while waiting to guest-host for her favorite rocker.Lawless, an Etheridge fan from way back, leans forward to rave, "She rocks out!" in a teenage-girl-in-the cornfields version of her sultry, down-under accent. She recalls sharing a tiny, one-bedroom flat years agon in Auckland, New Xealand, when she first heard Etheridge's sultry, gritty, down-home sound on television. "Melissa just exploded on my screen," says
Lawless, erupting into an infectious giggle. "I went right out and bought the album." Lawless' excitement is mirrored by the mostly-female crowd that begins to flow into the studio."Later in the article:
"She [Etheridge] continues, guiding the audience through the emotional roller-coaster ride of the show by singing classic torch songs like "Ain't that Enough" with the kind of starving heartbreak that rips through your chest. Lawless and [Tipper] Gore sing along with the audience; it seems
everyone knows the words to these trademark songs."With plaintive lyrics that, as Lawless says, "make you feel," Etheridge confirms she's still not afraid to show her vulnerable side."