Melissa Etheridge Writes Song About Orlando Massacre

Melissa Etheridge sat down with Rolling Stoneto discuss a new song she wrote in response to the Orlando tragedy.

"I'm at the saturation point now of all of those things, all these mass shootings. It was like all our fears just exploded in Orlando. Is it Muslim terrorism? Is it a gay attack? It was just too much, it really pushed everything over the top."

The new song is currently titled "Pulse," after the name of the nightclub in Orlando where at least 49 LGBT people were murdered this weekend. Etheridge explains that the song is still in a "raw" draft.

"There's just something very poetic and very meaningful about the name of the club, Pulse. You just start thinking about your own pulse. You come up with: 'Everybody's got a pulse/Love will always win because underneath the skin, everybody's got a pulse.' It's the way I've always felt about the gay movement, the gay issue. Here we are - people who are loving; we are fighting for who we want to love."

Etheridge also issued a reminder that terror cannot prevail.

"Who knows what [the shooter] was going through? Who knows his own pain and his own reason for hating and fearing? Homophobia is hideous. It's the ultimate hating of yourself, so you got to take out other people. We can't; we can't; we can't. We have to show up. We have to bring a friend to Pride this weekend. We have to. We have to be more. Love has to be stronger than hate, which is just fear. The opposite of love is not hate, it's fear - and that's exactly what this is. We have to. For generations to come, we have to be the generation that showed up. That kept getting on the frontlines. The frontlines are clubs, are parades... They're being out and living. We have to keep doing it."