Melissa Etheridge is a two-time Grammy Award winner, an Academy Award winner, and massively influential rock musician whose songwriting has touched the lives of many over her four decade career. Ahead of her performance on Mountain Stage at the Clay Theater on Wednesday, April 16, Program Director Max Clark and Music Director Mason Deel welcomed Melissa on the phone lines during their M and M in the Morning in the Afternoon show on March 24th.
Here’s what she had to say about her new music, what to expect at her show, and her continued advocacy for criminal justice reform alongside her new docu-series, Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken.
Max Clark: Melissa Etheridge, welcome to U92. Thank you for joining us. Melissa Etheridge: Hey, thank you so much, Max. Pleasure to be here.
MC: Yeah, I mean, we're so glad to have you on. And I appreciate you taking the time. We want to take a little bit of a second here, because the documentary came out last year and it follows you working with and sharing the experiences of women from the Topeka Correctional Facility. But you've been an outspoken advocate for social issues, pretty much your whole life. I'm wondering where the decision was to start being an advocate? Where does, where do you start becoming a voice for people who can't speak up?
Etheridge: So funny, I never, that wasn't part of my plan. When I was very young, I wasn't like, I'm going to be an activist. But I would, I wanted to be a rock star. I wanted to be rich and famous. That was it. And as I go out there and, and work toward my dream, life happens. And I would say the first thing that I realized when I, when I first like made my first album and kind of got into the public sphere was, was women's rights. This was, you know, the 80s. There was a lot of backlash coming off the 70s. And that was kind of the first thing where I did some benefits and kind of hung out with that crowd, that Jackson Brown and Bonnie Raitt and these people that really, that was a big part of their lives. And I just sort of went with that. And then coming out about my sexuality was the next big step and it just seems so natural because I didn't want to hide any, I didn't, it wasn't, it was something I was very comfortable with. So I didn't, so I just crossed that line with the publicity and said it out loud. And then, so that was coming out. And, and once I did that, it was like, why would I ever hide anything anymore? Because it's so, it's so rewarding on so many levels. I get to be just myself. And then I still constantly, I mean, I've been out for 30 years now and I constantly meet people who say how much it meant to them. And, and that means a lot to me.
MC: And would you say that, I mean, your writing and your songwriting has typically taken a very, very personal impression, drawing from experience or how you feel. Do you think that your authenticity to yourself and consistently, you know, being you has helped that flow better?
Etheridge: Yes. All that, all that works together. I think that what people like about my music is they can relate to it on that personal level, even though I'm being very personal, that's something that they relate to. And so I have, I have kept doing that in my work. I get the inspiration from what's inside me, what I'm feeling, thinking, desiring, hoping, you know, the pain, the joy, all of that and, and creating from that. And, and I think that's my best work. So I still keep trying to do it.
MC: Now, Melissa, working with the women of the Topeka correctional facility, hearing their experience and starting to get letters from them, does working with them and incorporating their experiences, meshing with yours, does that become a new breed of writing a song when you're incorporating someone else's experience into [your own work]?
Etheridge: Yes. And I really love it. I do. ‘Cause I can, I can do the same thing I do with myself. I can go inside the situation. I can think about the feelings, the, the, the hopes and desires and, and pains and all the same thing. And then create as truthfully as I can about them. That's what I did for “Burning Woman”. I wanted to make it be uplifting, you know, I'm not broken. I'm not broken. If I could get these women to just sing that back to me, I'm not broken. I'm worth it. That was very rewarding.
MC: And the decision to call the song, “A Burning Woman”, what they are, as opposed to what they're not, or, I mean, is that an active choice that you're making? You're thinking?
Etheridge: Absolutely. I have found there's so much more power in stating what you are, stating what you want. If you give your energy and your attention to what you don't want, then you're just looking at what you don't want. You're just going to get more of that. So I'm very very mindful about keeping it in the positive. And yes, I'm, I'm not broken. I'm, I'm worth it.
That's very important.
MC: Excellent. Awesome. And working with these women, how did that experience sort of begin? I mean, you began receiving letters from, from people at the Topeka correctional facility. How did that start?
Etheridge: It started a long, long time ago. It started when I was a child and I grew up in Leavenworth, Kansas. Now Leavenworth is known for its prisons. We have a big federal penitentiary there. We have the army penitentiary. We have the state, both men's and women's correctional facilities. And it's just all within 20 miles of my home. So prisons were a part of my
life. And a part of my fun, there was these, (fun that's weird), but, you know, there was these entertaining groups, these talent, sort of, variety shows that would go into these prisons and provide entertainment. And it was the first time I saw such enthusiasm from a... they were so excited to be having anyone entertaining them. And it really stuck with me. And also when I was very small, when I was about eight years old, Johnny Cash came to the federal penitentiary. We did not get to see him, but they did. And at that time, eight years old, I thought, gosh, prisons must be a place of fine entertainment. So I always thought in my mind, boy, when I make it, if I make it, I want to come back and do a show at the prison again, because I just, I have a connection and it took many years. I've been trying for many years to make this happen. And finally, when the warden of the Topeka Correctional Facility, when she agreed, and then we started exchanging letters, that's when everything [started], it took a couple of years. We were just coming out of the pandemic when we started putting this together.
MC: Is that when your correspondence with some of the inmates also began just around that COVID, when you were starting to put together the concert?
Etheridge: Yeah. Yeah.
MC: Very cool. And the docu-series touches on a lot of this process of putting together the concert as well as the letters and the experiences of these women, but with you, you're also pivoting to the larger picture about being more educated on criminal justice reform and the likelihood of reoffending rehabilitation. Do you have any future plans about action you're taking for education or criminal justice reform stuff that you want people to keep an eye out for or an ear open for?
Etheridge: Yes. Well, a lot of my energy about that actually goes into the Etheridge Foundation, which is a foundation that I put together Etheridgefoundation.org. You can find it. I put it together about four years ago and we raise money and provide grants to research opioid addiction because so much of what they're going through, what these people end up in prison [for], it starts with drug habits and then they have to do crime to provide for that. But even before that, it's the early childhood trauma that leads them down a road of: I need to numb my pain. So this, the Etheridge Foundation, we provide hundreds of thousands of dollars of grants and research to look into that. So maybe we can stop this, this chain of pain that keeps going on.
MC: That's wonderful. And along with that, I mean, you've said to be open, to continue learning, and that's the big kicker there to continue to pick up knowledge and do what you can. Along with the docuseries, the live album, I'm Not Broken: Live from Topeka Correctional Facility, also came out and is streaming wherever music is. But I have to ask a little bit about the music that might be coming to Morgantown in April. Are there any songs from that that we might be able
to, I guess, expect? I know it's some of your past discography, some of your favorites, some of your biggest hits. Are we expecting any surprises?
Etheridge: Yeah, I'll be doing, I'll be definitely doing the hits. I love to, there's nothing more that I love to see everyone up screaming, hollering to “Come To My Window” and “Bring Me Some Water” and “I'm The Only One”, all those songs. So I do the hits every night. And then we go deeper and I will, I'll pull out a couple of the deep tracks from I'm Not Broken because I really enjoy those. And I'll just, I like to play songs that I didn't play the last time I came through. I just made a new album, so I might be actually premiering a new song. You never know. Depends on the mood.
MC: Ooh. That's fun. Like a little, just a little sneak peek, just a little tease.
Etheridge: Oh, there might be. Just a little.
MC: Melissa, thank you so so much for joining us here on U92 The Moose.
Etheridge: It is my pleasure.
MC: Wednesday, April 16th is when Melissa is going to be here in Morgantown, West Virginia at the Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre for Mountain Stage. Tickets are on sale now. You can get them at wvuccam.universitytickets.com. The I'm Not Broken docuseries is two episodes. It's on streaming on Paramount Plus currently and the I'm Not Broken: Live from Topeka Correctional Facility album is out now on all streaming platforms. But as we conclude, Melissa, we have one, we tend to have one lighter question that we like to ask a bunch of our guests. Mason, what's that question for Melissa?
Mason Deel: Yeah, the question is, I don't know if Max has told you before, but our station student name is U92 The Moose. And all the different acts and artists and bands that we've had come through, we like to ask them, because everybody gives us a different answer on, this question. And I want to hear your thoughts. What do you think the plural of moose should be?
Etheridge: I'm not going to say meese. I don't think it should be that. I think the plural, and it's, I don't think it's mooses. I think moose is one of those words that is a single and a plural. I think you are looking at a herd of moose or one moose.
MD: Yeah, that is, that's technically correct. I think that is, like, the grammatical truth, but we've heard so many random, we've heard so many random answers that that's what we like to finish off with because we had one band...
Etheridge: Sorry, I was just reasonable.
MD: Yeah, fair. And no, we appreciate it because we've had a lot of people just say moose, a lot of meese, meeses. One guy said mouse, which I'm still a big fan of.
MC: Well, thank you. Melissa Etheridge has been joining us live from the West Coast on U92 The Moose. Melissa, again, thank you so much for being here with us on air.
Etheridge: Thank you. See you soon, in a few weeks. MC: See you in a few weeks.
Tickets for Melissa’s appearance at Mountain Stage on Wednesday, April 16 in the Clay Theater can be purchased at the CAC box office or online at wvuccam.universitytickets.com. You can also access tickets through Melissa’s website. Her latest album “I’m Not Broken: Live from Topeka Correctional Facility” is streaming wherever music is available and the docu-series “Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken” is available to stream on Paramount +.
Photo sourced from @melissa_etheridge on instagram.