An Inconvenient Truth - Music

Music

An Inconvenient Truth was scored by Michael Brook with an accompanying theme song played during the end credits by Melissa Etheridge. Brook explained that he wanted to bring out the emotion expressed in the film: "...in Inconvenient Truth, there's a lot of information and it's kind of a lecture, in a way, and very well organized and very well presented, but it's a lot to absorb. And the director, Guggenheim, wanted to have – sort of give people a little break every once in a while and say, okay, you don't have to absorb this information, you can just sort of – and it was more the personal side of Al Gore's life or how it connected to the theme of the film. And that's when there's music."

Etheridge agreed to write An Inconvenient Truth's theme song, "I Need to Wake Up" after viewing Gore's slide show. "I was so honored he would ask me to contribute to a project that is so powerful and so important, I felt such a huge responsibility," she said. "Then I went, 'What am I going to write? What am I going to say?' " Etheridge's former partner, Tammy Lynn Michaels, told her: "Write what you feel, because that's what people are going to feel." Of Etheridge's commitment to the project, Gore said, "Melissa is a rare soul who gives a lot of time and effort to causes in which she strongly believes." Etheridge received the 2006 Academy Award for Best Original Song for "I Need to Wake Up." Upon receiving the award, she noted in her acceptance speech:

Mostly I have to thank Al Gore, for inspiring us, for inspiring me, showing that caring about the Earth is not Republican or Democrat; it's not red or blue, it's all green.