It’s been widely believed that Melissa Etheridge used her 1993 album title Yes I Am to confirm longstanding rumors that she was a lesbian, but that’s folklore.

“One hundred percent truthfully, I had written the song ‘Yes I Am’ originally for the album before that, and it’s a love song. It’s about saying positively, ‘Yes, I am that lover,’" the singer tells Billboard. “So, I thought it would be a great song to name an album after. Then, I realized when I came out right before the album came out ... ‘Oh, that is going to be interesting. That is going to be really interesting.’”

That doesn’t mean she wasn’t amused by the media attention: “Oh, it made for great headlines -- ‘Yes, She Is’ or whatever. People just assumed that I called it that because of my coming out and they still do. I did not do it because of that. I did realize when I came out that the album title would seem clever, but it’s all good.”

Read the full article on Billboard HERE