Howard Dean’s support rallies have been slowly metamorphosing into rock concerts. With an army of roadies, a strong stage performance and thousands of screaming fans, he has all the right trappings for a rock star. Now Dean can round out his political rallies/concerts with the necessary ingredient: an opening act.

The opener? Melissa Etheridge.

The Grammy award-winning pop artist has cast her support behind the Dean campaign. Etheridge will perform for Dean’s political events, and her first rally will occur in Des Moines prior to the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner Saturday.

This isn’t Etheridge’s inaugural run as a presidential supporter. Her first gig as an opening act was for Bill Clinton in 1992. She then went on tour with U.S Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.). She recently opened for California Gov. Gray Davis.

Etheridge says she supports Dean because his assertiveness and experience make him the most qualified Democrat to challenge Bush for the White House.

She says after speaking with the man, she realized she had never met somebody so up-front who would answer her completely.

“I was overwhelmed by that,” Etheridge says.

However, the issue in Dean’s campaign she feels the strongest about is his plan for expanding civil rights for gays and lesbians. Etheridge, who is openly gay, says Dean has walked his talk as governor of Vermont, signing into law legislation granting homosexual couples the right to enter into civil unions.

This law, the first of its kind in the United States, guaranteed lesbian and gay couples the right to inherit property, obtain child custody, visit a partner in the hospital and control a partner’s affairs upon death. Etheridge says Dean is taking gay rights into uncharted waters.

“Wow, it’s so crazy to find myself as a gay person in a world where this issue is front and center,” Etheridge says. “Gay and marriage were two words I would not have put together ten years ago. As an adult, I’ve been denied a civil right in my family to have the same rights I don’t have, such as filling income taxes, hospital visitations.”

Etheridge says she’ll sing rally songs during her performance, which is a challenge for her because most of her songs center around love and sex. She says she doesn’t feel it proper to bring that into the political realm, so she’ll sing a cover during the rally.

“I’ll open with a cover of the Beatles’ ‘Revolution,'” she says. “That song encapsulates Gov. Dean’s personality.”

If Dean wins the nomination for Democratic presidential candidate, Etheridge will continue to support him on the campaign trail.

If he doesn’t gain the nomination, she says she’ll support whichever Democrat does.

Etheridge has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide. She won a Grammy for Best Female Vocalist in 1995, but subsequent releases failed to capture her earlier success.