Melissa is openly gay. Starting in 2001, she was in a relationship with Tammy Lynn Michaels, an actress who appeared on the television show Popular. Michaels gave birth to twins in 2006, but the couple split up in 2010. In 2014, Etheridge married the TV writer/producer Linda Wallem, who has credits on That '70s Show and Nurse Jackie.
Etheridge was signed by Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records. He also signed U2 and Bob Marley.
She defended Eminem back in the '90s when he was rapping antigay lyrics as part of his Slim Shady persona; Etheridge said she appreciated him as an artist. She has also claimed to be a Britney Spears fan.
Etheridge starting seeing the director Julie Cypher in the late '80s, and they were a couple throughout the '90s. Cypher birthed two children during this time: daughter Bailey Jean (born in 1997) and son Beckett (born in 1998). They were both fathered by David Crosby, a friend of the couple.
Cypher was married to actor Lou Diamond Phillips before leaving him for Etheridge. When Cypher and Etheridge split in 2000, they bought houses with adjoining backyards so the kids could easily visit both parents.
On May 13, 2020, Etheridge announced the death of Beckett following his struggles with opioid addiction.
She got her first guitar at 8 years old and was performing in bands by the time she was 12, but she didn't release her debut album until 1988 when she was 26. Looking back, she's thankful that she had time to mature before putting out the album and being thrust into the public eye.
Melissa attended the Berklee College of Music, but dropped out after a year and a half because the structured environment didn't suit her - she instead headed to Los Angeles to pursue her passion. There are no hard feelings at the institution: Etheridge gave the commencement address at the school in 2006.
The first Melissa Etheridge release was a song called "I Wanna Go Home" on the soundtrack to a little-seen 1987 movie called Weeds, starring Nick Nolte.
Born and raised in Kansas, she came out to her family when she left home at 18 - they weren't surprised. She moved to Los Angeles and took gigs playing lesbian bars - the only ones that would pay. When she signed with Island Records, her sexual orientation wasn't an issue but she kept it under wraps and no interviewers broached the subject. She came out officially along with Janis Ian and k.d. lang at one of Bill Clinton's inaugural balls in 1993 - the
Triangle Ball. By this time, she had released three albums; her fourth was titled
Yes I Am, a reference to her coming out.
Etheridge was one of the few rock singers to emerge in the '80s and have a big impact on the charts. Most of her peers like Pat Benatar, Stevie Nicks, Joan Jett, Ann Wilson and Chrissie Hynde got their starts in the '70s.
Etheridge is from Leavenworth, Kansas, where she established a scholarship for performing arts at her Leavenworth High School. She's a big Kansas City Chiefs football fan.
In 1995, she teamed up with VH1 in a deal where the network sold tickets to her shows on the air as part of the VH1 Tickets First: Melissa Etheridge special. She made $1.8 million by selling 40,000 tickets in two-and-a-half hours.
In
her Songfacts interview, she revealed her songwriting inspirations: Joan Armatrading, Peter Gabriel, Rickie Lee Jones, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, and Joni Mitchell.
She has had surprisingly little success in the UK, which she attributes to being a "loud, noisy, sweaty American girl."
When Brad Pitt was starting out in Los Angeles in the mid-'80s, he slept on Melissa Etheridge's sofa.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. At the Grammy Awards in 2005, she performed with Joss Stone in a tribute to Janis Joplin while still undergoing treatment. Etheridge made a full recovery and adjusted her outlook on life. She says she let a lot of things bother her before but has learned to let them go.
Before her cancer diagnosis in 2004, Melissa Etheridge was
slated to star in an ABC sitcom playing a gay woman who lives with a strait man who is her best friend - a reverse
Will & Grace. The series, which never materialized, was the brainchild of Linda Wallem, whom Etheridge married 10 years later.
