(Photo courtesy Ruth Eckerd Hall)
Rock icon Melissa Etheridge isn’t just an Academy and Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter. She’s a living legend.
The LGBTQ+ entertainer skyrocketed to fame in 1988 with the release of her debut and publicly came out just five years later, pioneering representation in mainstream music. She’s been playing hit music worldwide ever since, expanding her catalogue to include nearly 20 studio albums.
Offstage, Etheridge has used her voice as an advocate for cannabis, LGBTQ+ rights and other causes. Her philanthropy has extended to Libby’s Legacy Breast Cancer Foundation in Orlando — where she co-founded its Pink Ribbon Garden Project — and the Etheridge Foundation formed in 2021 after the loss of her son, who died from causes related to opioid addition at 21 years old.
In recent years she also released her memoir “Talking to my Angels,” had a celebrated run on Broadway for her autobiographical show “My Window” and filmed her two-part docuseries “I’m Not Broken,” now streaming on Paramount+. In it, Etheridge performs a concert for incarcerated women.
Her love for music has also kept her on the road this year, co-headlining tours with the Indigo Girls and Jewel. Etheridge and the latter will visit The BayCare Sound at Coachman Park in Tampa Bay Sept. 26 as a part of their summer tour, which Watermark discussed with her ahead of time.
WATERMARK: You’ve recently performed on Broadway, released a docuseries and memoir. What comes most naturally for you?
Oh, none of them. (Laughs.) It’s incredibly outside of my comfort zone and I think it’s made me stronger, because I’m back out on tour and I’m like, “This is so fun and easy!” (Laughs.) I’m really enjoying just singing songs with people because I’ve dug so deep. The Broadway show was so intimate and so draining and the book was that same thing, just longer.
Pulling everything out of yourself, you just want to go, “Okay, I did that. It’s outside of me. I love myself. Let’s go do what I love. Let’s go have some joy.” I loved every single one of those, but wow, it was a big 1-2-3 for me. For the last couple of years, I’ve really been shedding a lot of skin.
Why do you think now was the right time for that?
I think the last couple years — losing my son four years ago — really set my feet on the ground to want to enjoy life. I want to enjoy everything that’s in my life and just fall into bed every day and go, “wow, what a great day.” I know that’s not possible every single day, but I want to do it as much as I can.
You’ve spoken openly about your loss; it must be difficult to share.
Yeah. Yeah, it is. I don’t want to. That’s not natural. It’s really difficult — yet I also didn’t want to ignore it. I didn’t want guilt or shame to build up, because that’s the first place you go as a parent. It’s just awful, and I know that there’s hundreds of thousands of parents out there right now who feel that way, and it’s just so harmful to ourselves and our children would never want us to hurt ourselves over them not understanding life, not being able to find joy in it and being addicted. So yes, it’s hard, but the hard things make really beautiful things later. I really think I’m a better human being now. I’m a better joy farmer. I’m really just seizing every day.
That was evident in the docuseries. How did it come to be?
I grew up in Leavenworth, Kansas and the federal penitentiary has got all these prisons around it, and at seven years old, Johnny Cash came and played. We didn’t get to see him, but he played there, which made me think that prisons were like a great place of entertainment, and then a few years later I actually went into those prisons and brought music in with different programs.
The response I got, seeing how much joy it brought to people who there’s not a whole in their everyday life … it’s always been something that I always wanted to do. It took a few years to finally connect with the penitentiary, and the new warden was very supportive of it, so it opened up. When my son died, I felt more of a connection with this, and the documentary and the crew really got in there and were very gentle and kind with me and able to sort of put it all together.
What’s touring been like so far?
So much fun. It’s been like a ‘90s party, we all sing the crowd’s favorite songs and people are turning out by the thousands. It’s really astounding what’s happening, I think the ‘90s nostalgia is right there now; it’s good to hear women with guitars getting up there singing. People are really loving it and I’m having a blast.
This will be your first stop at the BayCare Sound. Are you excited about the new venue?
I was just at Ruth Eckerd Hall and someone told me there was a new outside part, and I love that I’m able to come right out again this year with Jewel and perform there for the first time. That’s exciting — you guys love your music so much. You’re just rockers. All of you in Florida, Rock ‘n Roll will never die because of Florida.
What are your thoughts on LGBTQ+ representation in music now?
There was no such thing as representation when I came out. It was just unknown, but because I’d been in Hollywood long enough, I certainly knew there was a whole lot of gay people; it was literally “don’t ask, don’t tell.” It built up so much, the music I was writing was so sensual and obvious, and there were questions that everyone was just dancing around and around. It was like, “come on people, of course I’m gay. Let’s just move on.”
Compared to today, oh my word. I was just listening to “Good Luck, Babe” from Chappell Roan and I was like, “That’s a song that I would have said, “Man, I really wish I could sing this” in the early 90s. To hear a woman with those lyrics and everyone is singing along — this is my dream. Thirty years ago, some people would ask me, “what do you think the future’s going to look like?” and I said, “Well, someday an artist is going to come out and sing about women and nobody’s going to care, it’s just going to be good music.” Here it is, I love it.
Florida will vote on the legalization of medical marijuana in November. Do you have any other thoughts you want to share with voters?
We have enough research and data now from states like Colorado and California that have been recreational for many years… by legalizing it, you open the way to make something where the medicine is good for people and there are choices of taking people off alcohol. Good things that can come from it, but also it does so much for the states. I mean, billions of dollars in Colorado, California; it’s good business. It’s nothing to be afraid of: crime hasn’t risen anywhere when it’s been legal, it’s just a bunch of people who would like a choice in how they relax and how they explore their consciousness.
And as for the election goes, I would just say, register to vote. It’s exciting how much your vote matters. It’s very exciting — so feel the power of that, feel the power of Democracy and just go vote.
Melissa Etheridge and Jewel will make their BayCare Sound debut Sept. 26 at 6:30 p.m. in Clearwater. Learn more and buy tickets at RuthEckerdHall.com.
