Melissa Etheridge's Little Secrets

Melissa Etheridge has never been one to hide her feelings. Her songwriting is personal and her performances are passionate. She's been openly gay for the past eight years and her fans have been as interested in Melissa's private life as her music.

Now, VH-1's Rebecca Rankin reports for CBS News, a tell-all book aims to satisfy those curious minds.

Etheridge reveals the details of her childhood, love life and her alterna-family with David Crosby in her new autobiography "The Truth Is... My Life In Love And Music."

The new book exposes her personal life like never before. There is open honest writing about her sexuality, her sometimes painful childhood, and more recently, her decision to have Crosby father her children as well as her breakup with Julie Cypher.

"People go in and they find these things about you and they turn them into these little sound bytes and it's like wait, that's like 10 years of my life. There's so much more to it," Etheridge said on her decision to write an autobiography. "Being able to tell the story, having control over the truth in it and how it's presented meant a lot to me."

Setting the record straight is the motivation behind the new book. She began writing it before her breakup with Cypher. However, the split soon became a major focal point of the autobiography.

"Now people are going to be buying the book to figure out that and find out that. So it became more of a confessional or something then I had intended."

However, Etheridge has no regrets, "It also became very healing for me to bring out my past look at it, really examine it, really be truthful with it."

The book is also extremely personal, touching on subjects that are often taboo.

"I don't know how the world is going to respond. I don't know if they're going to go 'oh, I didn't need to know that.' And it can be kind of too much, in that it's not in an artful form," Melissa confesses, concerned about audience reaction. "It's just my voice. Just there, I am telling you about it."

The book and a new album ,"Skin," will both hit stores July 10.

© MMI Viacom Internet Services Inc. All Rights Reserved