Naturally, we asked the Grammy- and Oscar-winning singer, whose new album, “Fearless Love,” is just out, how she felt about the “Idol” treatment, whether she remembers meeting a wide-eyed Crystal and her thoughts on the current season, especially all those acoustic guitars! Read on for the Idol Tracker Q&A …

You met the Top 6 recently. What impression did they leave on you?

Some of them seemed like deer in the headlights. I can’t imagine; the whole thing is insane. Then some of them seem like they have their feet on the ground and they know that they’ll be using the show as a springboard. You can actually make a career out of it, if you’re willing to do the work.
You also sent flowers to Crystal Bowersox last month, what inspired you to do that?

I like her. I don’t watch television at all, and I keep my kids off the TV all week, but I allow them to record “American Idol.” So they were watching it one weekend, and they come running into the kitchen and said, “Come here.” They had stopped it on her guitar and said, “Is that your signature?” And I said, “Well, yes it is.” And they said, “She’s really good, you should listen to her.” So whenever Crystal would come on, they’d call me in to watch. So I basically just know her. But I appreciate her as an artist and it makes me feel good that this is basically a karaoke TV show that’s produced a couple of artists — I enjoyed Adam Lambert last year, I don’t know what he’s doing this year — but this artist [Crystal] is real, organic, has a style that’s not like everything else being thrown out in the pop world now, and she’s doing well. She’s talented and America is responding to it.

So I watched her and found out that she is quite a fan, and I met her last week when I was doing “Dancing with the Stars” … I got to pull her aside, we talked in the corner for a minute, and she said she met me in August 2008 at the Chicago Theater. She knew Bill Ludwig, who knew my drummer. They came backstage, I met her and she had this picture of me that I signed.

Do you remember her?
I do now. I’m, like, yeah of course! Even though I met her for only a couple minutes and I didn’t put it together at all.

There are so many singer-songwriter types playing acoustic guitars this season. What does that say about the show and today’s musical climate?

I think it says more about America — that with the artists coming up, our interest never gets too far away from the music experience of the troubadour, someone who’s a mirror to our society. I think we go through these phases, like we just went through an ‘80s phase again — that pop, fast food type of music — and now it’s, like, let’s get back to that real, organic stuff … It makes me think maybe they’re ready to listen to me again.

Usher recently reportedly said that talent shows are killing the music business. What do you think about that?

I see these talent shows as just big huge marketing machines. You can’t blame the companies for asking, “Do you like this or do you like that?” Then going, “OK, we’ll market that.” But I still think that the real artist — not to say that these people aren’t real — as you grow, mature and want to translate these emotions and thoughts to be experienced by the public, that is an art form. Standing up and singing like somebody else, that’s a different type of entertainment, but I think the art form never goes away. People will always be drawn to it because it serves a part of our soul. So I’m not going to complain about the talent shows; they are what they are, and I also believe that art lives on and always survives these thin times.

One of your songs was performed on each of the first five seasons of “Idol.” Do any stick out in your mind?
Some of them were more painful than others. [Laughs.] When they pick “I’m the Only One,” I’m, like, “Kids, that’s a hard one to sing!” Even I’ve gotta save it till the end of the show. When I see them trying to do it, step up in one hit, I’m like, “Ow.” But Kellie Pickler I think did a great job, Kimberly Caldwell — I loved her “Come to My Window.” Some of them have been very wonderful, others …

If one of your kids wanted to try out for ‘Idol,’ would would you say?
I’d say no. I wouldn’t let them. [Laughs.] Once they’re 18, I’d say go do whatever you want to do — good luck. No, they know better than that. They get it — I think “American Idol” is for people that really believe in that “Idol” dream — that if you get famous, you have no troubles and you’ll reach that “there,” and my kids know that there’s no “there.” They see my life, they see the work that goes into it, they have a real appreciation for the art, and “American Idol” is just entertainment.

More on Melissa Etheridge’s new album, which includes the stinging “Miss California,” and her time on “Dancing With the Stars” after the jump …

Speaking of entertainment, how was performing on “Dancing With the Stars”?

When my people came to me with it, they said, “Sit down,” and I asked, “Is it ‘Dancing With the Stars?’ Are you crazy?” I said no for a long time, and then they kept coming back — 20 million viewers! No. 1 show! So I agreed because my theme for this album is fearlessness. What am I afraid of? That people are going to think I’m a different kind of artist? No, I need to be confident of my song and myself, and I said, “All right. Give me my sequins, let’s go!”

What’s it like to look down on all these super-animated dancers right in front of you?
You have no idea. When I came to rehearsal, they were all there in their skin — they basically don’t wear much any day of the week, and they don’t have to, they’re beautiful — and I did “Come to My Window.” When the couple came out to do the dance, I was doing it to track in the rehearsal — I did it live on the show — so I wasn’t really playing and kind of just standing up there for camera blocking, all this stuff. And he lifts the girl, who doesn’t have anything on, up over his head, and I busted a guitar string just as this happened. It was completely embarrassing. I thought, “How am I going to get through this?” But it was beautiful, they were all completely delightful, and it was a great opportunity.

There’s a song on your new album called “Miss California.” Can you tell us about it?

Well, I decided I have to go into the whole Prop. 8 thing, and I wanted to address it in song. Since this album had everything to do with my rock ‘n’ roll influences, I decided to write a political song. Remember “American Woman”? When I was a kid, I thought, “He’s singing about a woman,” until my dad informed me as I got a little bit older, “No, he’s actually singing about America” — “Don’t want your war machines, and your ghetto scenes …” I thought, I want to sing a song about California like a woman: “Ow, that hurt, you done me wrong …” So I approached it in that way.

You wrote a blog post shortly after Proposition 8’s passage declaring that the government “can forget my taxes.” What’s the latest on your personal form of protest?

I wrote it literally right afterward, and people took it to mean I wasn’t going to pay my taxes, and that’s not true. The IRS doesn’t care if I’m gay, they’re gonna come throw me in jail. I was just trying to make a point that it doesn’t make any sense that I would have to pay as much taxes as I do every year and not get all the benefits or all the rights and the coverage. But I am paying my taxes.