Margaret Cho Explores the Dark Side of Country Music

Comedian Margaret Cho is crossing over to the music world once again with the release of her upcoming album, 'Cho Dependent.' Collaborating with numerous singer-songwriters including Patty Griffin and Fiona Apple, the album mixes Cho's acerbic comedy with a wide array of musical genres. There's even a country song -- but it wasn't inspired by one of Cho's comedy routines.

'I'm Sorry,' (not to be confused with Brenda Lee's classic hit of the 1960's) is a murder ballad -- something of a country-music tradition, to be sure -- which came about because of an incident in Cho's life which began while she was doing the TV show 'All American Girl.'

"I really fell in love with one of the writers on the show and he did not like me back," she tells the Huffington Post. "It was not a good thing, it was an awful situation like when you have a crush on somebody and they don't care, and it's horrible."

Carrying a torch for 17 years, she finally looked him up online one day and discovered that things were actually worse than she thought -- a lot worse. In 2007, the man for whom she'd been pining away had been convicted of murdering his wife. Writing the song, she says, was incredibly cathartic after facing the ugly truth and the "what-if's" that she began to ponder.

"The song turned out to be very much a kind of classic murder ballad," says Cho. "It's a very sort of Americana staple of country music. I'm proud of the song, something that came out of it that was creative and helped me deal with the very complicated emotions that I had towards this person and this situation."

She says she called the song 'I'm Sorry,' "... because he never said he was sorry. Because all these people do not say that they're sorry when they commit these crimes and commit them in the name of loving somebody, it's really just disgusting to me."

'Cho Dependent' will be released August 24.