By Selena Haynes & Lauren Means • Images (Submitted) Courtesy Elizabeth Miranda
Legendary rock icon Melissa Etheridge is coming to Nashville right off the heels of her latest album, “One Way Out,” which was released in September 2021. Etheridge will be making a stop at the Ryman Auditorium as a part of her “One Way Out” Tour with her full band and guests can expect to hear both old and new songs.
“One Way Out” is a collection of songs Etheridge wrote in the late ’80s and early ’90s that never made it to the final album cuts. With this album, fans will get a deeper view of who Melissa was in her earlier years that formed the rockstar we have today.
CRUSHING IT
Etheridge burst onto the rock scene in the late 1980s with her self-titled debut album which led to her first Grammy nod for the single “Bring Me Some Water.”
From there, she went on to release 16 more albums, garner 14 additional Grammy nominations, earn two
Grammy wins for “Ain’t It Heavy” and “Come to My Window,” and amass a slew of other nominations and awards for her work.
Etheridge has always been unabashedly true to herself and the celebrity didn’t change this. While she came out to the media in January 1993 at the Triangle Ball — an LGBTQ-focused celebration of President Bill Clinton’s inauguration — she says her fans and followers have always known she was a lesbian. “They discovered me in lesbian bars. Everyone knew that I was gay.”
She says her “coming out” just came into being. “When I was wanting to be a rockstar in my teenage years and early adulthood, coming out wasn’t something you did. You could be out in your community and at the club but there were no ‘out’ people. It wasn’t an option. It wasn’t something to think about.”
Because there wasn’t a platform for LGBTQ+ artists at that time, she just did what she knew was best for her. She said she asked herself, “How am I going to walk through this and be as truthful as I can?” For about four years Etheridge said she was herself but people would make assumptions about her and her private life. “I would be misquoted and people would say ‘Oh she said this about her boyfriend’ and I was like no I didn’t — I didn’t say that!” laughed Etheridge.
“It was for my own sanity,” Etheridge says with respect to being open about her sexuality. She said, “If people stop listening to me that’s just weird and weird for them.” Her success actually grew after this. “I can’t say it hurt me at all,” noted Etheridge.
In fact, her highest-charting album, “Your Little Secret,” was released in 1995 — two years after her public acknowledgment of her sexual orientation.
ADVOCATE
Putting her celebrity to use, Etheridge has never shied away from standing up for LGBTQ+ equality. In 1993, she boycotted playing shows in Colorado after the passage of Amendment 2. Amendment 2 was a ballot initiative passed by Colorado voters in 1992 that prohibited the state from enacting anti-discrimination protections for gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
She performed at benefit shows along with other performers, including k.d. Lang, for HIV organizations like Lifebeat out of New York and L.A. Shanti out of California. She was even honored by VH-1 in 1994 for
her work with L.A. Shanti.
In November 2008, in response to California’s passage of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state, Etheridge announced that she would not pay her state taxes in protest. She told the Daily Beast that since she is being treated as a second-class citizen, she should not have to pay the same taxes as a citizen who has the right to marry. “I mean that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books,” Etheridge said in the interview. “Gay people are born every day. You will never legislate that away,” she noted.
Etheridge is also a strong proponent of environmental and conservation issues. She wrote “I Need to Wake Up” for the film documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” which told the story of former Vice President Al Gore’s campaign to educate people about global warming. This song won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 2006. Also in 2006, Etheridge toured the United States and Canada using biodiesel.
ENTREPRENEUR
As a way to stay close to fans during the COVID pandemic, Etheridge launched EtheridgeTV in June 2020. This live streaming subscription allows listeners access to concerts and shows in the comfort of their homes. She plays five unique shows each week. In 2020, she completed over 200 live streams. “It was birthed out of necessity and it just became this big thing to reach our fans,” she said.
Another new venture Etheridge has rolled out is Etheridge Island. These destination ventures started with cruises a few years ago but the ecological impact was too much and she wanted to pivot to a more environmentally aware setup.
This first-ever resort festival boasts six days filled with incredible music and endless fun in the sun. Taking place in Playa Mujeres, Mexico from August 30 through September 5, there will be three unique sets from Ethridge and many guest performances including Wynonna, Ani DiFranco, and Larkin Poe just to name a few. “It’s known for great musicians and all are welcome,” said Etheridge.
Festival-goers will also find health-forward activities like yoga and sound baths available. “My wife and I are both more into health and wellness now,” she stated. “If you don’t have that, you have nothing.” Her goal for the event is simple, “You go and when you come back you just feel better.”
Part of the reason she has taken on a more healthy life is due to her battle with breast cancer, which was diagnosed in October 2004. “Going through that really focused in on how important it is to take care of myself,” she emphasized. “[As] women, we often just put others as our priority. We tend to keep putting [others] first and put our mental health, our own health and wellness aside and then it breaks down.”
Something she really had to put in her head was taking care of herself and making sure she was happy. “If you’re not happy, if you’re not finding joy, it’s all going to crumble. Stress will kill you. The best thing I can do for everyone I love is to take care of myself and put myself first,” Etheridge said.
While she was receiving chemotherapy for her breast cancer, she also began using medical marijuana. She
discussed this in a 2005 interview with Dateline NBC’s Stone Phillips where she said, “I decided instead of signing up for the drugs that— well, there’s the drug that you take for the pain. But that constipates you. So, you have to take the constipation drug. But then that actually gives you diarrhea. So, you need a
little diarrhea drug. Instead of taking five or six of the prescriptions, I decided to go a natural route and smoke marijuana.”
In 2014 she partnered with a California medical marijuana dispensary to make cannabis-infused wine. Etheridge now has her own line of herbal hemp liquid extracts called Etheridge Organics.
INSPIRATION
In everything she does, she does it with love. That is also the advice she gives to anyone looking to break into the music industry — especially LGBTQ+ artists. “The most absolute important thing is to do what you love. Do what you love. Whatever anyone else’s opinion is, if it doesn’t make you feel good, go the other way,” advised Etheridge. She says it’s all about how you feel and you aren’t going to make good art if you aren’t happy.
As for Etheridge, while her life plan was to be a rockstar, she didn’t imagine it being what it is today. “I always wanted to do this all my life [but] what a rockstar looked like in 1978 is different than what a rockstar looks like now. I love this new future. I love this world of being able to reach my fans directly. I love being out and open. I love the world now. I could never imagine what it was going to be, but I love this, I really do.”
CONNECT
If you are going to the show, know her whole intention is for you to feel better than when you came and to lift you up and just make you feel good. You can expect to hear the songs you know and love along with some new content. Learn more about Melissa Etheridge and her many ventures at melissaetheridge.com.
Get your tickets for her show at the Ryman HERE.
