Melissa Etheridge plays at the Newport Yachting Center on Sunday night.

AP / Matt Sayles

Melissa Etheridge has been laying it on the line for decades now. Her no-nonsense, rock-inspired musical approach and full-throated vocal delivery have always been grounded in a direct, personal songwriting focus, and she’s only intensified that in recent years.

In 1993, with rumors about her sexuality swirling, she answered the questions with the album Yes I Am. A painful breakup was the backdrop of 2001’s Skin, while a new romance brought about 2004’s Lucky.

A breast-cancer diagnosis that same year led to chemotherapy and a dramatic, bald-headed rendition of “Another Piece of My Heart” at the 2005 Grammys. That was followed by last year’s The Awakening, in which Etheridge takes stock of her life and her place in the world, including songs such as the reminiscences “California” and “Message to Myself,” as well as issue-oriented songs such as “Imagine That,” about the courageous Iraq-war protests of Cindy Sheehan.

Having cancer changed everything, Etheridge says, even her art.

Shortly after her recovery, she was approached by the Ford Motor Company to write a song to serve as an anthem in the fight against breast cancer. The result was the charity single “I Run for Life.” It was an important moment, and it helped pave the way for The Awakening.

“After the cancer and the treatment, I wrote the song ‘I Run for Life,’ and I thought ‘Oh, that’s kind of a nice direction, very truthful and honest,’ and when Al Gore called and I wrote ‘I Need to Wake Up’ (for the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth), I thought, I’m starting to write more on this social/political/spiritual level. And that started to excite me. And I thought, what if my next album is in this direction, and the things that were happening in my personal awakening just led to it.”

No one sets out to write a collection of songs that encompasses and sums up her whole life, and Etheridge says she was no exception.

“When it was coming out of me, it was different stuff here and there, and I realized, ‘Oh, this is what I’m doing!’ and I started to fill in the pieces. You open yourself up to inspiration and take what comes, and that’s how it happened. …

“I felt I needed to do what I do best, and that’s to be personal. To filter it though my perception and sing about it. And so, to then go all the way and tackle the [political stuff] and stay very personal, and not be preachy, was my challenge.”

Doesn’t it require a different head to write about the intimately personal and the anthem-like political?

“Same head, different time points,” Etheridge says. “The same girl who can be crazy about California is the same one who can look and say ‘Oh my gosh, there’s this huge change coming and this is what we need to rise up as people and do.’ Just a little more wise.”

Etheridge says the structure of The Awakening has led to a change in the structure of her stage show.

“It means changing up the usual set list, where you start off with one from the new album, then your third-biggest hit, then a couple of rockers, then a ballad, then another from the new album … “And you save your big hits for the end, yeah. And I used to do that; our last three songs were ‘Bring Me Some Water’ and ‘I’m the Only One’ and ‘Like the Way I Do.’ Now, ‘Bring Me Some Water’ is like the sixth song. It brings a different flow, and the last 20 minutes is just The Awakening. …

“Instead of coming out and saying ‘Hey everybody; how’re you doing? (sings) I’m the only one’ and you sing the songs and say ‘Thank you very much; good night!’ I’m telling my story. And the songs take on a little new meaning. It takes away the ‘we’re going to jump up and down and worship the rock star on stage’ to ‘This is a human experience.’ ”

That can be a pretty lengthy human experience — Etheridge says the first show on this tour was 3 hours, 15 minutes. She’s got it down to 2 hours 45. “I’ve streamlined some of the (between-song) talk parts, so that a little bell goes off in my head and I think ‘OK, 20 more seconds and you’ve got to get to the song now’.”

The show tears away at “this rock-star façade,” she says; “There’s more me on stage,” whereas in the early days, “I think my fear came across as something cool.”

It can be “a little scary,” she says. “Instead of being divided between the me on stage and the me at home, I’m trying to incorporate it. And by doing that, I become very vulnerable. This is what I really think, and if you don’t like it, that’s OK, yet I’m vulnerable to that. Because you want people to like you. Yet there has been enough positive feedback to it that I’m OK.”

Doesn’t she sometimes just feel like playing “Wild Thing” for 45 minutes? “Yeah,” she says, laughing. “Yet I’m so grateful to be known for anything. And it seems like that’s when I’ve been the most rewarded, when I’ve stuck with the personal aspect, and it’s what I do best.”

Nowadays, ask about Etheridge’s health and she’ll tell you that she’s just kicked a cold, her first in several years. “Other than that, cancer-free and healthier than I’ve ever been, actually.”

She learned how to take care of herself by doing her own research. “Cancer is merely a symptom of a life out of balance. And that balance comes from the things that we put in our bodies, and stress. Stress is the big thing.

“When I first went into that cancer world, every doctor would start by saying, ‘Cancer starts when cells go bad,’ and start talking about what happens after that. And I would ask, ‘Well, why do cells go bad? Hello?’ And nobody had an answer.”

According to her research, she says, they go bad because of acid: Acidic foods, acidic behaviors such as smoking and lack of sleep. “Our existence is not serving us well at all.”

Etheridge credits bringing her own chef on the road and getting plenty of sleep. Eating and sleeping well on tour are usually major challenges, and asked how she manages it, Etheridge simply says, “Priorities.”

She says she was approached by several breast-cancer groups to make benefit appearances and the like, and complied with what she could, but when Ford asked for a song, she thought, “Well, there’s something I can do. … It gave me a platform to speak about my experience, and my connection with those who have experience.

“And I hear it on the commercial, and I think ‘That’s nice.’ And I hear stories about women who sing it at the end of a race, and I think, ‘That’s what I wanted. To give women who have been through this some strength — who have been through this.’ And the Oscar (for “I Need to Wake Up,” from An Inconvenient Truth) — who could ask for anything more?”

Now she has confidence in the future both politically (“Oh God, we better make a change. I mean, really. … I have huge faith”) and personally.

Life after cancer, she says, is “clearer, fuller. I am much healthier than I ever was. It’s delicious. I wish I would have gotten this 20 years ago, but now is fine. I’m fine.”

Melissa Etheridge plays at the Newport Yachting Center, on America’s Cup Avenue, on Sunday night as part of the Snapple Sunset Music Series. The show starts at 6 p.m. with Becky Chace and Mark Cutler opening. Tickets are $95 in advance, $105 the day of the show. Call (401) 846-1600, ext. 3 or go to www.newportfestivals.com.