Etheridge, Melissa

▪ 2009

Melissa Lou Etheridge 

born May 29, 1961, Leavenworth, Kan.

      Following the release of her album The Awakening (2007), an audio autobiography of her career in music, singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge staged a concert tour in 2008 that was similarly designed to tell the story of her life through a progression of highly personal songs. That sort of forthrightness was not unusual for the veteran raspy-voiced rock and roller. She had come to be known for her willingness to lead a very public life, baring her soul through music, while her private affairs sometimes made headlines.

      Etheridge began playing the guitar at age 8, and by age 11 she was writing songs. She honed her skills playing in local bands throughout her teens (emulating influences such as Bruce Springsteen and Pete Townshend of the Who) and briefly attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston before returning to Kansas. On her 21st birthday, Etheridge left home for Los Angeles, where she played in clubs and bars until 1986, when Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records, signed her to a recording contract. Her first album, Melissa Etheridge (1988), with its hit single “Bring Me Some Water,” earned her a Grammy Award nomination. Success continued with the release of Brave and Crazy (1989) and Never Enough (1992), which garnered a Grammy for the single “Ain't It Heavy.”

      In early 1993, at the gay-and-lesbian Triangle Ball during the celebration of the inauguration of Pres. Bill Clinton, Etheridge announced to the crowd what many of her most devoted fans had assumed: she was a lesbian. The album Yes I Am followed later that year, with the hit singles “Come to My Window” (another Grammy winner) and “I'm the Only One.” Soon Etheridge's relationship with director Julie Cypher became a matter of public record. The couple, who had been together since 1990, appeared on the cover of Newsweek magazine in 1996, and in 2000 they revealed in an article in Rolling Stone that musician David Crosby had supplied the sperm for the two children Cypher had borne. When she separated from Cypher later that same year, Etheridge chronicled the details of their relationship and breakup in her memoir, The Truth Is…My Life in Love and Music, and on her album Skin, both released in 2001. (Two years later Etheridge exchanged vows in a very public ceremony with actress Tammy Lynn Michaels, who gave birth to twins in 2006.)

      In 2004 Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer, and after undergoing treatment, she made a memorable appearance during the 2005 Grammy Awards ceremonies. Still bald from chemotherapy treatments, Etheridge sang a characteristically heartfelt rendition of Janis Joplin's “Piece of My Heart,” bringing many in the audience to tears. Etheridge returned to touring the following year. She also wrote and performed the Academy Award-winning song “I Need to Wake Up” for the 2006 Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

Anthony G. Craine

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