BY KAREN BOSSICK

Toni Childs was a big hit at the Sun Valley Wellness Conference on two occasions, reminding festivalgoers “Because You’re Beautiful,” even as Graves’ disease was laying her low.

“It took more than a decade out of my life. It was 19 years between albums,” she said.

Now, healed, Childs says she is starting all over again. She’s making her first performing tour across the United States since retiring for a couple decades while on the island of Kauai. And on Saturday her second concert on that tour will bring her to Sun Valley.

Toni Childs uses her creative imagination for more than music.

The Emmy winner and three-time Grammy -nominated artist will present “A Retrospective” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18, at The Argyros in Ketchum.

The two-hour performance celebrates her life’s musical work in song and story as she performs hits from such albums as “Union,” “House of Hope,” “The Woman’s Boat” and Keep the Faith.” She will offer a sampling of new music from three productions--“It’s All a Beautiful Noise,” “Reef 360” and “Citizens of the Planet”—during the second hour.

“I’ll be the love pollinator—and, boy, do we need it right now,” said Childs, whose hits include “Don’t Walk Away,” “Walk and Talk Like Angels,” “Zimbabwe” and “Many Rivers to Cross.” The music I’ve created has got swagger. It’s super positive. We need more love to offset the darkness creeping across the world.”

Childs was forced to dismantle her life for two years because doctor said she needed to get “really, really quiet” as Graves’ disease set in.

Toni Childs says she’s ready to love up her Sun Valley audience.

“I was writing an album that would be called ‘Bear’ and I had all these different plans. I was on heart inhibitors, my eyes were bulging out of my head. I was manic. And I was grieving because I thought this was going to be the state of my life.”

Finally, she said, she realized that perhaps what was going on with her was due to adverse environmental impact.

“I found out there was mercury in the drinking water and, while I was taking medication to get rid of symptoms for two years, I was continuing to poison myself with water and chlorine and sulfites and toothpastes and shampoos to which I was allergic.”

Childs was born into a strict religious home in Orange, Calif., her parents refusing to allow her and her brothers to listen to pop music or go to the moves. She ran away from home at 15 to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter after seeing Pink Floyd in concert.

She performed with Berlin and she played in a band with Jack Sherman who went on to become a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

And she searched for her niche, finally signing a song publishing deal that financed her move to London where she swept floors and dusted consoles in exchange for rent in the office of a recording studio. In 1985, after returning to Los Angeles, she signed with A&M Records and began to work on the soundtrack of “Echo Park.”

She recorded a debut album--“Union”--that fused rock and world music with African percussion. She was nominated for two Grammy s in 1991 for Best New Artist and Best Rock Vocal Performance. Her title track to “House of Hope” was featured on the “Thelma & Louise” soundtrack, even as it covered such dark material as domestic and sexual abuse, addiction and even death.

“That album was coming to terms with the healing I needed to do in certain areas of my life where I had been wounded as a child,” she said. “People really grabbed on that album and it gave them solace. It was a very personal album to show how I could survive and grow beyond my wounds.”

Child’s next album “The Woman’s Boat” focused on femininity and womanhood. And, even while dealing with Graves’ disease, she wrote “Because You’re Beautiful”--an anthem for Eve Ensler’s documentary “V-Day: Until the Violence Stops.” The song won the 2004 Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.

“As I was dealing with my disease, I kept writing because I always write. But I wasn’t thinking I would have a career again,” Childs said. “But then Eve Ensler came to Kauai where we were raising money for a sexual assault treatment center. She said, ‘I want you to write an anthem that will inspire people to end violence against women and girls.’ Sometimes, the mountain comes to Mohammed—that’s kind of where my road back started.”

As she recovered, Childs slowly began making a few sporadic concert appearances. She recorded the album “Keep the Faith.” And her album, “The Very Best of Toni Childs,” became the fifth biggest selling album of the year in Australia where she eventually became an Australian citizen.

Childs said she is focusing on smaller cities in her current swing through the United States and Europe.

“I grew up in small desert small towns where nothing cool ever came to our town. I realize that people in regional towns need to be loved up--when you’re in the middle of nowhere, you’re thinking maybe people are forgetting about you. I’m saying to the audience, ‘I’m investing in you because you matter and you need to know you matter.’ ”

Childs says she hopes her concerts will also offer a reset for Americans who have been feeling down because of the discord in Washington, D.C. Americans don’t have the advantages of those in Australia who enjoy a $25 minimum wage, universal health care and mandatory voting so no one has to worry about their vote being taken away, she added.

“People are needing to be lifted up everywhere, and I realize I have a super power. My concert is super positive and now, I feel, people need that more than ever. I tell people: If you need a reset: Come and get loved up. I am coming and I’m going to love you up.”

Tickets for Toni Childs’ concrt on Saturday, Oct. 18, are available at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35937/performance/11689735.

There is also a VIP Meet and Greet Package for $190 that includes a concert ticket on the first row, a digital copy of Toni Childs Greatest Hits double album set and a drink backstage before the concert with Childs.