Melissa Etheridge

• Born: May 29, 1961
• Place of Birth: Leavenworth, Kansas

AMERICAN ROCK AND COUNTRY SINGER, SONGWRITER, AND GUITARIST

• Etheridge is a rock singer-songwriter known for her raspy renditions of songs with soul-baring, passionate lyrics.

The Life

Melissa Lou Etheridge (ETH-rihj) was born to schoolteacher John Etheridge and his wife Elizabeth in Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1961. She describes her family as supportive but not warm or loving. As a teenager, she performed with various cover bands in Kansas, often in bars, chaperoned by her father. After high school she enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston, but she soon returned home to earn enough money to move to Los Angeles. She headed to Southern California in 1982, and over the next several years she developed a following by playing at women’s bars. Longtime manager Bill Leopold discovered Etheridge at Vermie’s bar in Pasadena, and after Island Records owner Chris Blackwell heard her sing at Que Sera in Long Beach, Etheridge signed a contract with the label.

Etheridge publicly came out as a lesbian at the Triangle Ball following President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. Her public announcement brought her relationship with longtime partner Julie Cypher to the forefront. The pair met in 1988, when Cypher was the assistant director for Etheridge’s first music video and still married to actor Lou Diamond Phillips. Cypher and Etheridge split in 2000, but they had two children, daughter Bailey (b. 1997) and son Beckett (b. 1998), fathered by singer David Crosby through artificial insemination. In 2001 Etheridge became romantically involved with actress Tammy Lynn Michaels, who gave birth to twins in 2006 (Miller Steven and Johnnie Rose), fathered by an anonymous sperm donor through artificial insemination. In October 2004, Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer, which she successfully battled with chemotherapy, and she began performing again in 2005. Etheridge's relationship with Michaels dissolved in 2010. Shortly afterward, Etheridge became romantically involved with Linda Wallem, whom she wed in May 2014.

While on chemotherapy, Etheridge began using medicinal marijuana daily, which she credits with her recovery and inspired her to pursue opportunities in the cannabis industry. She began working at a dispensary around 2011 and launched her own California-grown cannabis product line in 2017. Etheridge was arrested, detained briefly, and fined for possession in October 2017. In May 2020, Etheridge announced that her son Beckett had died at the age of twenty-one from causes related to opioid addiction. Etheridge served as a featured speaker at ICON 2024 in honor of her late son. ICON is an organization that brings together those in public relations and communications to network.

The Music

Etheridge’s personal life is tied inextricably to her music, which has often—but not always—worked to her benefit. From an early age, she used music as an emotional outlet from her stifled family life, retreating to the basement to write songs. As Etheridge says in her autobiography, “a string of nonmonogamous relationships” led to a “bunch of really good songs.” Etheridge’s first five albums—Melissa Etheridge (1988), Brave and Crazy, Never Enough, Yes I Am, and Your Little Secret—went platinum or multiplatinum. Etheridge’s self-titled debut album featured the singles “Like the Way I Do,” “Similar Features,” and the Grammy Award–nominated hit “Bring Me Some Water.” The last song centers on an infectious, bluesy guitar riff, with Etheridge singing that she is “burning alive” with jealousy. Although the Grammy Award went to Tina Turner, Etheridge’s live performance at the awards show led to a huge increase in her visibility and her record sales, and her follow-up album, Brave and Crazy (1989), was also well received. Her next album, Never Enough (1992), incorporated some dance music, and in general it was more tightly produced than its somewhat raw predecessors. The techno sound of “2001” and the mellow pop of ”Dance Without Sleeping” offer glimpses of these new sounds, and Etheridge won her first Grammy Award for “Ain’t It Heavy,” an empowering, guitar-driven rock anthem more true to her roots. Although the title track to Etheridge’s wildly popular 1993 album, Yes I Am was not specifically about her sexuality, the bold statement became synonymous with her coming out as a lesbian earlier that year. The album featured songs that became huge hits: “If I Wanted To,” “I’m the Only One,” and “Come to My Window,” the last of which earned a Grammy Award and catapulted her into superstardom. “Come to My Window” is a haunting rock ballad about a woman desperately trying to reach her lover. Etheridge’s autobiography indicates that the song relates to a difficult time in her relationship with Cypher, yet the universal theme mirrors many listeners’ experiences. Etheridge’s follow-up album, Your Little Secret (1995), was also a hit, but Yes I Am stood as a definitive statement.

Etheridge's later albums Breakdown (1999), Skin (2001), and Lucky (2004) did not reach the same success as her previous albums. She came back, however, to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2007 for the rock anthem “I Need to Wake Up,” written for Al Gore’s documentary about global warming, An Inconvenient Truth (2006). The Oscar-winning song is included on a 2007 rerelease of Etheridge’s 2005 album Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled. The Awakening, recorded after her recovery from breast cancer, showed Etheridge at a creative peak, exploring life from a new, hard-won perspective. Although The Awakening is a more relaxed, mature effort than her earlier work, she delivers it with her trademark passion, conviction, and humor. The 2010 album Fearless Love was well received, reminding critics of her early work, with anthems on lust for a married woman and on California's proposition against same-sex marriage. Etheridge followed that up with Icon (2011) and 4th Street Feeling (2012), an upbeat yet restrained retrospective named for a street in her hometown. Also in 2011, Etheridge made her theater debut as St. Jimmy in a handful of performances of Green Day’s Broadway rock opera, American Idiot.

In 2014, she released This Is M.E. through her own label, and it made the top five on the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart. For the well-received 2016 LP Memphis Rock and Soul, released on Concord's Stax Records imprint, Etheridge recorded covers of 1960s rhythm and blues and soul music. In addition to recording, Etheridge continued to give performances on tour. Etheridge's sixteenth album came in 2019. Titled The Medicine Show, the album was preceded by the single "Faded by Design."

Etheridge released her next album, One Way Out, in September 2021. The album featured re-recordings and live recordings of many of Etheridge's previous works. In 2023, Etheridge launched her one-woman live show, Melissa Etheridge: My Window—A Journey Through Life, in New York City. That same year, the musician released her memoir, Talking to My Angels. Also in 2024, the singer released the two-part docuseries Melissa Etheridge: I'm Not Broken on Paramount+ along with an accompanying live album, recorded at the Topeka Correctional Facility.

Musical Legacy

While rarely described as musically innovative, Etheridge made music that exemplifies her rock-and-roll roots, and she remained committed to it in the face of divergent popular trends. Her willingness to bare her soul and share her personal journey makes her compelling to her fans. In September 2011, she was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In addition to her music, Etheridge supports many causes—breast cancer research, human rights, gay rights, and environmental issues in particular—making her an important role model. For instance, one week after the June 2016 Pulse gay nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, Etheridge released a single of the same name to raise funds for LGBT civil rights organizations in Florida.

Principal Recordings

ALBUMS: Melissa Etheridge, 1988; Brave and Crazy, 1989; Never Enough, 1992; Yes I Am, 1993; Your Little Secret, 1995; Breakdown, 1999; Skin, 2001; Lucky, 2004; The Awakening, 2007; Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled, 2007; Fearless Love, 2010; 4th Street Feeling, 2012; This Is M.E., 2014; Memphis Rock and Soul, 2016; The Medicine Show, 2019; One Way Out, 2021; I'm Not Broken, 2024.

Bibliography

Dunn, Jancee. “Melissa Etheridge Takes the Long Hard Road from the Heartland to Hollywood.” Rolling Stone 709 (1995): 38-45.

Dunn, Jancee. “Melissa’s Secret.” Rolling Stone 833 (2002): 40-45.

Etheridge, Melissa. "Melissa Etheridge Discusses Owning Her Own Cannabis Business." Interview by Hugh McIntyre. Forbes, 15 Aug. 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2017/08/15/melissa-etheridge-discusses-owning-her-own-cannabis-business. Accessed 15 Oct. 2024.

Etheridge, Melissa. "Melissa Etheridge on What Stax Taught Her, Why Hip-Hop Is the New Rock." Interview by Jonathan Bernstein. Rolling Stone, 3 Oct. 2016, www.rollingstone.com/music/features/melissa-etheridge-on-new-stax-lp-covering-otis-redding-w443013. Accessed 15 Oct. 2024.

Etheridge, Melissa, with Laura Morton. The Truth Is . . .: My Life in Love and Music. New York: Random House, 2001.

Luck, Joyce. Melissa Etheridge: Our Little Secret. Toronto, Ont.: ECW Press, 1997.

"Melissa Etheridge's 'First Love' as a Reader Was Poetry." The New York Times, 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/08/31/books/review/melissa-etheridge-interview.html. Accessed 15 Oct. 2024.

Udovitch, Mim. “How Do You Mend a Broken Heart?” Rolling Stone 872 (2001): 62-64.