DONNA SUMMER is releasing Crayons, her first album of all-new material in 17 years, on May 20, and the legendary former disco queen sat down exclusively with our own MARY HART in the music studio to deliver the 411!

The "Hot Stuff" and "Last Dance" singer -- who will perform live on the ET stage on Tuesday, May 20 -- gets candid about her private problems early in her career, struggling with "severe depression" and admitting to a suicide attempt in the late '70s.

"It sort of snuck up on me," the multiple-Grammy winner tells Mary. "I had my daughter, and during that period my marriage broke up, and I was alone. I was staying up at night, and I would go out and work, and I was up with her and maybe getting two or three hours of sleep a day -- it was scary. I just couldn't deal with another minute of it. I was on my way out the window and got caught in the curtain. The maid opened the door at exactly that time. Thank God that lady came because I would be gone today."

Living in New York during the 9/11 tragedy in 2001 did not help ease her on-and-off depression, however, as Donna explains, "I was a mile or two up the street from where it happened. I was there for months, and it was horrific, and I went through a terrible depression."

Still, the grandmother of three says she did not turn to drugs or medication, saying, "I didn't want to become dependant on something else and then have another problem, so I was just going through it [the natural way]."

With those dark days behind her, Donna is ready to hit the road to promote Crayons, featuring all-new up-tempo tunes and ballads. "Stamp Your Feet" is the first single from the album.

"I was sitting at home on the couch eating potato chips, fast becoming a desperate housewife," she says, "and I thought, you know, 'Is this going to be the rest of my life? Is this all there is? I can't do this forever. I'll be this big and that wide and I've go to find a day job.'"

The album title comes from her idea of "a menagerie of colors and styles, with hints of different ethnic traditions and sounds" that also remind her of the childhood joy of that first pack of crayons.