Rock ‘n’ roll insurgent Melissa Etheridge has a novel perspective on how girls will navigate the cultural “mishegoss,” as she places it, looming at America’s doorstep. She has been by the fireplace. Actually.
A couple of days earlier than she would depart for six January concert events in Florida, Etheridge spoke by telephone this week from her residence in Los Angeles, which she had evacuated because the Kenneth fireplace exploded within the San Fernando Valley close by. She had been allowed to return the day gone by to search out it, miraculously, intact.
The expertise left her with a brand new appreciation for what’s essential in life.
“There was a second when my spouse [Linda Wallem] and I checked out one another and we knew we needed to get out. We’d lose all the pieces, however we needed to come to peace with that. It’s a cliche, however so long as your loved ones is OK, you’re OK,” Etheridge mentioned.
First-responders confronted flames, wind and lengthy odds in bringing the fireplace underneath management, she mentioned.
“I can’t overemphasize how unimaginable the firefighters are right here,” Etheridge mentioned.
With the liberty to get again to work, the singer is setting off on a mini tour of the Sunshine State, with the highpoint on Tuesday, Jan. 21, when Etheridge would be the first act to carry out within the newly renovated Warfare Memorial Auditorium in downtown Fort Lauderdale’s Vacation Park.
A trendy and state-of-the-art venue, the Warfare Memorial Auditorium and adjoining Baptist Well being IcePlex had been a part of a $65 million Florida Panthers renovation venture that turned the historic art-deco constructing into a contemporary, subtle house that may accommodate 3,400 individuals.
Following Etheridge on the Warfare Memorial leisure schedule up to now are concert events by Wallows on Feb. 24, The Driver Period on March 7 and Dance Gavin Dance on June 6.
Etheridge has heard the excitement surrounding South Florida’s latest live performance corridor.
“It appears like a really huge deal, so I’m actually wanting ahead to it. I like being the primary to sort of set it off,” she mentioned.
Etheridge spent a lot of 2024 on the I’m Not Damaged Tour, which takes its identify from a dwell album recorded in entrance of two,500 girls prisoners on the Topeka Correctional Facility (close to her hometown of Leavenworth, Kansas), additionally captured in a documentary movie.
The 63-year-old singer is about to return to the street with the Indigo Ladies, however as a result of she needed to play a make-up gig in Tampa that had been postponed by Hurricane Helene in September, she determined to start the yr with a half-dozen dates in Florida.
Different performances might be on the 30A Songwriters Competition in Santa Rosa Seashore (Jan. 19), Key West (Jan. 22), Orlando (Jan. 23), Tampa-Clearwater (Jan. 25) and Naples (Jan. 26). Singer-songwriters Lisa Loeb and Maggie Rose will open the reveals.
An Academy Award winner and two-time Grammy winner, Etheridge burst onto the American rock scene in 1988 together with her self-titled debut album, which included the one “Deliver Me Some Water.” Her smoky vocals and uncompromising lyrics dominated the ’90s, with hits together with “I’m the Solely One,” “Come to My Window” and “I Wish to Come Over.”
The songs positioned Etheridge as a task mannequin for a technology of younger girls who watched her converse reality to energy in all varieties. She received the Oscar for Greatest Authentic Track for “I Have to Wake Up” from the 2006 climate-change documentary “An Inconvenient Reality.”
The day earlier than she performs in Fort Lauderdale might be Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Inauguration Day.
Of the previous, Etheridge mentioned, “I actually recognize that we will honor a person who had such a fantastic impact on the world, and such a peaceable impact on the world.” As for the latter: “It’ll be like every other day. I’m simply going to stroll by it, as a result of I’ve a phenomenal, attractive life, I might be in Florida, have fun our democracy and transfer on.”
Etheridge acknowledges that there’s work to do on behalf of girls, minorities, the homosexual group and different teams who might really feel ostracized. And he or she is, sure, hopeful.
“The humanities group, we do very properly underneath strain, that’s what creates actually superb artwork. Going through that battle that lifts individuals up, adjustments individuals’s life in ways in which they hadn’t been capable of see earlier than. That is our factor. That is what drives us in life, to carry individuals. That’s our job proper now,” she says.
Etheridge was a contributor to the documentary “Louder: The Soundtrack of Change,” which premiered on Max in October. Co-produced by singer-actor Selena Gomez and voting-rights activist Stacey Abrams, the movie regarded on the affect of girls on music, tradition and civil rights, from Nina Simone and Chaka Khan to Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton.
She calls them “artists who impressed by strolling honestly.”
‘You need to encourage, which suggests to fill with spirit.’
— Melissa Etheridge
It could be stunning for youthful music followers to see Lynn singing her 1975 tune “The Capsule,” which took a housewife’s perspective to have fun reproductive freedom with the appearance of oral contraceptives. Many radio stations banned the tune from airwaves.
If that sort of express bravery appears to be briefly provide on the pop charts as of late, Etheridge says there are lots of methods to get a message throughout.
“It’s laborious to inform an artist what they need to do. You need to encourage, which suggests to fill with spirit. Generally they’ll say precisely what’s wanted. That was the beauty of Loretta Lynn. She’s saying, ‘I’ve had all these infants and I’m carried out,’” Etheridge mentioned.
“However generally it’s higher to be obtuse. A tune like [Buffalo Springfield’s] ‘For What It’s Price,’ individuals like it, like to sing alongside to it … (she sings: “There’s one thing occurring right here / However what it’s ain’t precisely clear”), even when they actually don’t perceive what it’s about, which was the police riots right here on the Sundown Strip. Generally it’s simpler to be ambiguous,” she mentioned.
Etheridge appreciates the chart-topping affect of feminine performers corresponding to Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Billie Eilish, however mentioned a number of the most influential artists of the longer term are nonetheless to be found in bars and basements across the nation.
“I used to be simply driving with my 18-year-old daughter and he or she had Chappell Roan on. I can’t assist however smile. Technique to go, woman. She’s upfront, sexual, provocative, not a sufferer. And he or she’s received a No. 1 hit with thousands and thousands of performs? Wow,” Etheridge mentioned.
Watching her two daughters (ages 27 and 18) navigate life makes Etheridge optimistic concerning the close to future. They don’t require any recommendation from Mother, she mentioned.
“You realize what? I step out of the best way. They’ve the vitality now, they usually know what must be carried out. They aren’t fooled by the millennials and the Boomers and all their mishegoss,” Etheridge mentioned. “I’m impressed by them. They’re actually educating me that within the subsequent 10 years, there might be superb adjustments. Girls might be listened to and revered.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Melissa Etheridge in live performance, with opening acts Lisa Loeb and Maggie Rose
WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21; doorways open at 6 p.m.
WHERE: Warfare Memorial Auditorium, 800 NE Eighth St., Fort Lauderdale
COST: $37+
INFORMATION: FTLWarMemorial.com
Workers author Ben Crandell might be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Observe on Instagram @BenCrandell and X @BenCrandell.
