Melissa Etheridge Recalls Meeting Where They Asked 'What Are We Going to Do About the Gay Thing?'

Melissa Etheridge is looking back at the early days of her career — when she was asked to keep her sexuality under wraps.

On Tuesday, the rocker appeared on the second installment of SPIN and FIRE's video series Free Speech + Other Dirty Words to discuss how censorship played a role in her career.

"There was a moment when I was signed by Island Records, right before the album came out that there was a meeting at the offices," Etheridge, 61, told host Ryan J. Downey.

"Some said, "So, what are we doing to do about the gay thing?' And I was like, 'What do you mean?' I'm not going to pretend I'm something else," she said.

She also assured the label that she wasn't going to "go off and find a guy to take pictures with and pretend like he's my boyfriend."

"I'm going to be me," Etheridge said.

The "It Will Be Me" singer then said that she was told it was fine so long as she didn't "flag-wave."

"That was of course before we had a rainbow flag... but four years later I was flag-waving," she said.

Free Speech + Other Dirty Words airs on SPIN.com and the FIRE YouTube channel.

The singer-songwriter made headlines when she came out at the Triangle Ball, which was part of President Bill Clinton's inaugural celebration on Jan. 20, 1993.

Etheridge is married to wife Linda Wallem, whom she wed in May 2014.

In 2015, Wallem opened up to PEOPLE about their marriage.

"Even though we've been friends all these years, she will still grab me in the kitchen and we'll slow dance to whatever's playing," she said at the time.

"And if there's no music playing," she added, "she will sing into my ear, and it will make me feel like the luckiest girl."