It’s low-hanging fruit, perhaps, but when Melissa Etheridge is asked if she’s a Rock And Roll Hall of Fame nominee, she can now say — wait for it — Yes, I am.
The singer, songwriter, guitarist and activist — whose 1993 album Yes I Am was a six-times platinum breakthrough — is one of 10 first-time nominees for the Rock Hall’s class of 2026, 23 years after she first became eligible. Etheridge is no stranger to the institution, however; she performed at the opening Concert For the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Sept. 2, 1995 in Cleveland and inducted both Janis Joplin (1995) and Bonnie Raitt (2000).
Now, she tells Billboard via Zoom from her home near Los Angeles, “It’s great to finally be in the room, and the rest is up to the voters. I think it means a lot more to my friends and family around me, ’cause they’ve been kind of going, ‘What’s wrong with these people?!’ for a long time. But it’s really nice to be seen. As a musician you hope that your work has a lasting impression and you hope that you’re still actively participating on rocking people. So it feels really good.”
Etheridge has fond memories of her Rock Hall-related experiences — even being part of the disastrous opening concert finale of “Rock and Roll Music” with Chuck Berry, backed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and others. “I remember Bruce going, ‘Hey, you want to sing with Chuck Berry,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah!’ Then Chuck did his famous tell the band one key and the rest of us another key. It was horrible! Why’d he do that?’ It was like a fever dream.”
The native of Leavenworth, Kan. moved to Los Angeles during the early ’80s after attending Berklee College of Music in Boston. She was signed by Island Records, initially to a publishing deal, and released her self-titled first album in 1988, scoring a hit, as well as her first Grammy Award nomination, with “Bring Me Some Water.” She’s gone on to record 16 more albums — including Rise, which comes out March 27 — and win two Grammys as well as an Academy Award for “I Need to Wake Up” from the 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth and a star on the Hollywood Walk of fame in 2011.
A breast cancer survivor, Etheridge has also written a pair of books and even did a brief turn as St. Jimmy in Green Day’s Broadway musical American Idiot during 2011.
“I love being part of rock ‘n’ roll, the rock ‘n’ roll community,” she says. “In my corner is women in rock, which always has a different flavor to it than any other kind. I also am women singing about women and for women, but also enjoyed by many men, so I’m very grateful for that. And then I can comfortably fit into the folk-rock category, the country-rock category, California rock, Midwestern rock, heartland rock, singer-songwriter…I can slip into any of those shoes, all of those things, and it would be my corner.”
She has also long-waved a flag for gay rights, pride, identity and inclusion since her high-profile (if not necessarily surprising) coming out at the Triangle Ball during President Bill Clinton’s Inauguration celebration in January of 1993. It was headline-making at the time, but Etheridge rightly feels that her efforts have paid off during the ensuing years.
“In the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, being gay was really different than it is now,” Etheridge says. “I remember 35 years ago somebody spoke of gay marriage, and I said, ‘I hope someday it can be (legal) and we have that.’ I think we`ve come so far. There are gay artists that are gay from the get-go and are massive pop stars. That’s huge. That was unheard of. I’m so grateful that’s the case.”
As Rock Hall voting, professional and public, goes on, Etheridge is preparing for the release of Rise, which she co-produced with Shooter Jennings at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. Its 11 tracks include a writing and duet collaboration with Chris Stapleton on “The Other Side of Blue,” and “Call You,” which she wrote for her son Beckett, who passed away during May of 2020. She’ll begin a tour to promote it on March 26 in Detroit. And she expects to celebrate the Rock Hall nomination, at least a bit, with her fans at those shows.
“It kind of raises one’s visibility in the big wash of music right now,” Etheridge acknowledges. “And I do have the new album coming out, so that’s lovely synchronicity. I think I’m very blessed with that. Hopefully it will help with the new album, which I think is very grounded in what people call country-rock now — that’s the name of what ’90s rock ‘n’ roll used to sound like. It’s very in that vein. I want it to become a real part of the Etheridge repertoire.”
In addition to Etheridge, first-time Rock Hall nominees this year include Jeff Buckley, Phil Collins, Lauryn Hill, INXS, New Edition, P!nk, Shakira, Luther Vandross and Wu-Tang Clan. Previous nominees the Black Crowes, Mariah Carey, Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Joy Division/New Order, Oasis and Sade are also on the ballot.
The Rock Hall has opened public fan voting via rockhall.com and at the museum in Cleveland. Inductees are slated to be announced during late April, with the ceremony taking place this fall at a date and location yet to be announced.
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