Archive-Name: MLE_FAQ.HTML
Version: 1.5.6
Last Modified: December 16, 2002
Maintained by the Melissa Etheridge mailing list owner, Glenna Johnson: vinson90@hotmail.com. Created in part by Elaine Naiman. Maintained with help from subscribers of the Melissa Etheridge mailing list.
This file exists to bring you the answers to the most frequently asked questions about Melissa Lou Etheridge. We'll not only focus on those frequent questions but we'll also include some extra information which is just plain interesting.
This file is by no means complete. If you have any suggestions for additions or changes to this file email us at the address listed above.
This is only one of several files about Melissa Etheridge. The other files which are available for your reference include a discography of all official releases and promos that we know of, a list of her videos, a partial list of radio broadcasts in which she has performed or been interviewed, a partial list of TV performances and interviews, a list of songs she has performed that are not recorded on her albums, and more. You might want to refer to these other files for additional info.
NOTE: Throughout this file we refer to and quote various copyrighted articles. We make sure to only take selected parts from these sources so as to leave the bulk of the article for purchase from the publisher.
[This file may be copied freely so long as it is made available free of charge and completely intact, including this notice.]
Use the form at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Etheridge/join
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As of December 16, 2002, there were:
for a total of 1944 subscribers on all formats of the list.
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Get information on the commercial fan club at their website: www.melissaetheridge.com.
A word of caution. MEIN says that they offer the "best seats in the house" through their "preferred seating" and they usually say that they only offer "seats in the first 20 rows." When people pick up the seats that they bought through MEIN, people find that they either got really great seats or really REALLY bad seats for a higher price than the general public paid.
MEIN says that they have a new contract with promoters which will ensure better seats in the future so this warning may no longer be valid.
There have been fewer complaints from members of the list lately. Many people now seem quite satisfied with MEIN's ticket sales.
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MEIN, which is a for-profit organization run by Fan Asylum, is the "official" fan club.
(Check out section 1.9 for information on other ME discussion forums.)
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The Melissa Etheridge discography is available as www.userhome.com/etheridge/lists/discography.htm
The latest list of tour dates is available at www.melissaetheridge.com/melissa/road/index.html.
If you want to know where Melissa has ever played, it's listed at www.angelfire.com/jazz/peter/concerts.html
The official list home page is available at www.userhome.com/etheridge/
If you don't have web access, send a message to Etheridge-owner@yahoogroups.com and we'll send you the files you want (within reason, of course). Please do try the website before the request address, though.
There are other compilations that we and other list members have created. Check out our List of Lists for links to them.
We are always trying to add to those lists so please send us any information about bootlegs, special CDs, video tapes, or other interesting stuff that you know of. Be as specific as possible when giving me any information. You should also send the information to the keepers of the lists.
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Bootlegs (non-sanctioned recordings) are available from several sources - dealers (they advertise in magazines such as "Goldmine" and "Discoveries"), collectibles shows or you can trade for them (if you have no material to offer in trade, offer to send blank tapes and postage). There are likely to be specialty stores in your city that sell them.
You may find that many people on the mailing list will be quite happy to make tape trades.
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Any upcoming concert dates will be available at www.melissaetheridge.com/melissa/road/index.html, and are usually announced on the Etheridge mailing list, in your local paper and on the radio. You can also write to Etheridge-owner@yahoogroups.com to request a copy of the list.
We are trying to compile a comprehensive tour listing since 1988; if anybody has any info (even just the dates/city/venue where you saw her) that isn't in the concerts.html file, please send to: Etheridge-owner@yahoogroups.com
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Melissa gets many requests for her to release live material and so she often puts live tracks on the CD singles. She also has plans to put together a live album.
Live tracks are often placed on promotional CDs for the radio stations, which helped her career to really take off in some areas, as well as on the CD singles, although some live tracks are only available on the promotional CDs. Also, a German live 4-track EP was released in 1989. Often different live tracks are placed on the U.S. and the various European singles so you might want to keep a look out for imports.
Melissa also just released a live concert DVD. Check it out at Amazon.com.
See the discography for all of the details.
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Other than the bounce and digest formats of the Melissa Etheridge Mailing List, which can reach all other services, you can find online discussion of Melissa on one of Prodigy's boards and on America On Line (AOL) "in the Rocklink section under Permanent Folders and one in the Gay & Lesbian Forum under the Arts and Entertainment section." Also on AOL there is a "Sunday chatroom at 9pm EST every week."
(AOL info from Taylor95@AOL.com)
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May 29, 1961
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Leavenworth, KS
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Her father, who died in 1991, was born in St. Louis and was a teacher and basketball coach at Leavenworth High School; her mother was a computer specialist in the Army. Melissa's older sister, Jenny, taunted her. "She and my cousin, Mona-Jane, wouldn't let me play with them. I used to say, 'You're gonna be real sorry one day, because I'm going to be famous.'" They're now allowed to come to her concerts.
(Quoted in part from OUT magazine, Dec/Jan 1994)
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(Quoted in part from OUT DEC/JAN 1993 and BAM Dec 3, 1993)
Melissa was interested in music by age three. "Being a singer was my dream." Fascinated with her family's portable Philco 45, the young Melissa came alive, dancing and clapping, whenever it was turned on.
She formed a band with her neighbourhood pals, strumming a badminton racket as they banged away on pots and pans. By the time Melissa was eight, her father realized she was serious. He bought her a six-string guitar, and soon she was taking lessons from the jazz guitarist with missing fingers who ran Leavenworth's only music store. "He was real strict about timing," says Etheridge of her stern teacher, Don Raymond. "He tapped his foot really loud on an old wooden board. He's the reason I have really good rhythm."
She wrote her first song at age 10 and was a part-time member of a local country-western band by age 12. The group regularly performed at Parents Without Partners dances and at bars, where she would play the first hour, then go home to bed. Etheridge's father generously offered to take his daughter to gigs, including churches. Raised a Methodist ("religion lite"), Etheridge says, "I knew it was all just a big story."
At age 11 Melissa won a local talent contest and as a teenager she would bring along her guitar when she accompanied her father to his National Education Association teachers' conventions. Soon she had become a fixture in Leavenworth at supermarket openings, bowling alleys, even playing at the Leavenworth prison. "Prisons have the most enthusiastic audiences," she says. "It's like playing for 2,000 people who all want to be entertained." Weekends found her onstage in bars and lodges, her proud father looking over her shoulder.
Outside of music, Etheridge was a jock in junior high. By then she was also playing drums, saxophone, piano, clarinet, and a 12-string guitar she preferred because of its bigger sound. She loved Soul Train and American Bandstand. She abhorred the Partridge Family: "They faked their music and that bugged the hell out of me." To earn extra money she worked as a packer at the Kentucky Fried Chicken. "Needless to say," she says, "I don't eat chicken any more."
In the fall of 1979, after Melissa graduated from Leavenworth High, she moved to Boston, where she enrolled at the Berklee College of Music where she majored in guitar.
After her first year at Berklee, Melissa dropped out. "I wasn't in the frame of mind to learn about music, I wanted to play."
While Melissa looked for work as a singer -- she once even played 12-string acoustic rock in the Park Place subway station where she earned $7 an hour -- she found part-time work as a security guard at Boston's Deaconess hospital.
In 1981 Melissa returned home to Kansas where she worked "for almost a year singing and playing guitar and piano in bars" to raise money to go to L.A.
When she reached Los Angeles, she crashed on her aunt's sofa. "My first music job in LA was playing at the Candy Store on the east end of the Sunset Strip. It's now a rock club called the Coconut Teaszer. I went down to their showcase night, not knowing that (it) was a black club. But I was accepted OK. They asked me back, and I played there for a few weeks -- anything from Janis Joplin to Fleetwood Mac."
She then headed to Long Beach after finding it hard to make money playing LA clubs. "I was out at a women's bar in Long Beach and, noticing a piano in the corner, talked myself into a gig, playing from 5 to 9, before the disco started. It worked into a situation where people were coming in to see me."
She found work singing at women's bars, earning $100 nightly, in such cities as Long Beach, Pomona, and Altadena. She had already sent tapes to many labels without success and she knew that "women's music" was not for her.
She sent a demo to Olivia records "and they weren't interested. I played some women's music festivals, but I was always rock-n-roll whereas their music was always quieter, more folky. (...) I never did write any songs that were specifically about women -- I wanted the big picture, singing about passion and desire, and love of any kind."
Melissa decided to keep playing these relatively remote locations since her manager found it surprisingly easy to get label reps to drive to these places.
Don Zimmerman, of Capital records, financed a few demos and John Carter produced them but the label didn't sign her. A&M also passed over her. Lance Freed, president of A&M's publishing operation, offered her a staff writing job. Freed paid her a weekly salary to write songs.
In 1984 Melissa auditioned for the TV series FAME. The producers thought that she was terrific but they hired Janet Jackson instead.
Freed arranged for her to write songs for various films including "Weeds" with Nick Nolte (who she had to teach to sing), as well as "Scenes From the Goldmine."
Everything changed in 1986 when a producer convinced Island Records' founder Chris Blackwell, discoverer of such musical greats as Bob Marley, to see Etheridge perform at a Long Beach bar, Que Sera Sera, where he was very surprised to find that he and his companion were the only men -- it just happened to be a lesbian bar. Blackwell liked what he heard. After just four songs he told Etheridge he wanted to sign her. "He's been totally supportive ever since," says Etheridge. "He lets me be a strong, independent woman. He doesn't try to change me. The harder I rock, the happier he is."
Chris took her to Europe to play with English bands and to fine tune her talent.
The first attempt at recording her debut was rejected by Chris who said, "It was terrible. (...) I didn't want a group image -- I just wanted to hear her." Blackwell taped the album cover photo to the wall of the studio and told her to "make the album that goes with that picture." Freed thought that the first attempt had been too "pop."
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Formerly the core component of her band consisted of:
Kevin McCormack - bass
Fritz Lewak - drums
These musicians had been with her for several years. Kevin helped in the writing of several songs and co-produced a couple of albums with Melissa. Guitarists and keyboards players changed with each tour.
The 1994 band was:
John Shanks - guitar, keyboards
Mark Brown - bass
David Beyer - drums
For the US leg of the Your Little Secret tour, David Beyer was replaced by Kenny Aronoff
See credits.html for more info.
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W.F. Leopold Management
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Songs:
- Shriner's Park, I Could Have Been You, and I Really Like You (to play live)
- Sleep While I Drive
Album: Your Little Secret
Video: Nowhere To Go ("directed by my significant other, Julie Cypher")
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She used to have a pet shark but it died while she was on tour.
She has two dogs (named Angel and Bingo), a cockatoo named Boo, "because she's frightened of everything," a cat named Gwendolyn and one named Gabrielle, after Gabrielle in Interview With A Vampire - the Anne Rice novels. It has been stated that she once owned a Siberian Husky named Luka.
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In 1989, at her 10th high school reunion, she was given an award for being the person from her graduating class to have the most appearances on David Letterman.
In 1990, she won the Canadian Juno award for best international artist of the year.
In 1993, after 4 nominations, she won the Grammy award for female rock vocalist of the year for "Ain't it Heavy."
In March 1995, she won the Grammy award for female rock vocalist of the year for "Come To My Window."
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From an article in Acoustic Guitar's March 1996 issue: (posted to the mailing list by Robyn S Wright robynsue@JUNO.COM
" .... Melissa Etheridge has played Ovation guitars since long before she released her first album, and their sound is integral to her style. Her current acoustics are Adamas models that are custom built by Don Johnson at Ovation. They are smaller in all dimensions (neck and body) than the standard models and include a cutaway, which doesn't usually come in the deep bowl version. Most of the time she plays a 12-string Adamas, but she also has a six string that she uses occasionally.
Recently, Etheridge has been playing more electric guitar, primarily a paisley Fender Telecaster. Trace Foster, her guitar tech, estimates that she's currently playing electric on about 40% of the tunes in her show, particularly since the electric figures prominently on her new album Your Little Secret. Other electrics in her collection include an Anderson Strat(ocaster) and a Rickenbacker 12-string (soon to be replaced by a Jerry Jones 12-string, Foster says.)
At present, Etheridge is travelling with nine guitars - five acoustics and four electrics. One acoustic is tuned down half a step --(transcriber's note: MLE usually plays in the standard tuning E A D G B E)-- and another is tuned to E A D E A E for the song 'I Could Have Been You' (the tuning came from Etheridge's guitarist John Shanks, who wrote the music). Foster changes the strings on each guitar every day; if he doesn't, he says, she inevitably breaks a string. The Adamas guitars are set up with Adamas strings (with guages of .010 to .047), which she hits hard with D'Addario light-medium picks.
Etheridge's amplification system for the acoustics is remarkably simple. The Adamas guitars have the stock OP-24 pickup and preamp system, and the signal travels through a Neve 950 wireless system to a rack DI off stage. Her sound had virtually no effects - maybe a little bit of compression in the house sound (not in the monitors) and a tiny trace of reverb. The same type of setup is used in the studio: she records the guitar direct, with the addition of only a powered DI to boost the signal. Foster says that her Adamas guitars have very few problems with feedback on stage; only occasionally when the bass player hits the same note as Etheridge is there a little howl, which is easily handled."
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According to a story on Extratv.com, they met in March 2001.
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On Monday, February 10, 1997, at 1:35 a.m., Julie Cypher, Melissa's former significant other, gave birth to their daughter, Bailey Jean (8lbs, 10oz).
On Wednesday, November 18, 1998, at 10:27 a.m., Julie gave birth to their son, Beckett (9 lbs., 5 oz.).
David Crosby (of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) is the biological father of both children.
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On Entertainment Tonight, she showed her spiral notebook in which she scribbles ideas. As with everything, different songs were written different ways. "Occasionally" was written on the steering wheel of her car. "Royal Station 4/16" was written in a small hotel room in the UK next to a train station.
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(Melissa as quoted from an interview by Diane Bailey, Copyright 1993, London, England. E-mail: dbailey@cix.compulink.co.uk)
"That's in 'Brave and Crazy,' the 'No Souvenirs' song, and what it was was that I was having sort of a long distance relationship, an affair -- it was not even a relationship, it was merely an affair -- and I remembered making a phone call on a pay-phone machine, and it reminded me of slipping the money in... And this was a call by which it would either go on, or the affair would be over. And it was like gambling to me, it was like I was putting in my money and I was going to pull the handle and it was either going to come up or it wasn't. To me it was like a jackpot, a one armed bandit, a slot machine."
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The song was written for Lou Diamond Phillips who was, and still is, a good friend of Melissa's. When Melissa met Julie Cypher, who directed several of her videos, she was married to Lou. Melissa had "a huge crush" on her. Julie and Melissa, at first, respected each other's relationships and Julie tried hard to make her marriage work but eventually Melissa and Julie decided that they wanted to be together. It was at this point that Melissa and Lou's friendship "was very strained." "It's a song about his trying to, you know, reconcile the loss of his marriage, the loss of his friendship with me, you know, the loss of his wife to another woman, and the whole idea. And it's just all about him and my feeling toward him. That's the truth."
(Quotes are from an interview by Diane Bailey, Copyright 1993, London, England. E-mail: dbailey@cix.compulink.co.uk)
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This song was written after Melissa's bus driver told her about a father who threw his 14 year-old daughter out of the house after he caught her having sex with her "black boyfriend."
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From: Carolyn Andre/Chgo 72207.2637@CompuServe.COM
Barbara In Nashville is RhythmFest producer Barb Savage. There's a photo of her & Melissa in the 1992 "Women's Music Plus" directory of resources in women's music & culture, put out by the same people who put out Hot Wire, the women's music magazine.
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She wrote this song while she was staying in Newcastle England. The hotel's name was Royal Station and she was staying in a very small room. Her room was right next to a train station and the trains went by "all day and all night" so she decided to write a "train song." The 4/16 stands for the date, April 16, the day she wrote it.
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Melissa wrote songs for the movies "Weeds" (only a part of one, not performed by her, appears on the soundtrack) and "Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael" (one of these songs, "I Will Never Be the Same," appears on "Yes I Am" although it is a different version). She submitted songs for the James L. Brooks' film, "I'll Do Anything" which was intended to be a musical but after screen tests, lost its songs. She wrote the music for "Teresa's Tattoo," directed by Julie Cypher. Previously recorded songs were used in "Where the Day Takes You."
A new song, "I Take You With Me," was written for "Boys on the Side" which was released in early '95.
See misc.txt for more details.
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At least for the first 3 albums, Melissa recorded more songs than appeared on the album. She recorded "Meet Me in the Back" for each of the first 3 but didn't release it until "Never Enough." "Yes I Am" was originally recorded for "Never Enough" as was "Change" and several others that haven't officially been released. In fact, "Change" was the original title for her third album. "Change" and an early song called "Ready to Love" are sometimes performed in concert. It isn't known whether she will ever record them.
(It has been mentioned on the list that Melissa gave "Change" to Bette Midler. This is unconfirmed but was apparently mentioned at a concert.)
Before her debut album she recorded several songs for various demo tapes which never made it onto any of her albums. Some of these include a very different version of "All American Girl," "A Lot Like You," "Somewhere in the City," "Dancing in the Fire," "You and I Know," "No Guarantee," "Whispers in my Heart," and "Out of My Mind." (Some song titles are not known for certain.)
See misc.txt for more details.
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From: Lori Westermeier LBAshley@AOL.COM
A message ME recorded for the info network hotline said that the Unplugged won't be released as a CD anytime soon, but that work is being done on a live album as well as a video (not sure if it's live or a compilation).
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From: Michael Bunch Mrbcom@AOL.COM
At the taping of VH-1 Storytellers, she said that:
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The person playing her boyfriend/husband/father is Lou Diamond Phillips. The video was directed by Phillips's wife of the time, Julie Cypher. There is also an appearance by friend, Kathleen.
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(Melissa as quoted from an interview by Diane Bailey, Copyright 1993, London, England. E-mail: dbailey@cix.compulink.co.uk)
"They first asked me to censor it, by taking out... There were these flash cards that were on for like a sixth of a second; just boom, came on and off. And one said "Protect Choice." And they said that we must take that out. I was... I was floored. I mean, here was this supposedly liberal rock and roll station telling me to take out "Protect Choice." Not even, you know, "Abortion"... It wasn't even "Abortion Rights." It was just "Protect Choice." And I had to remove it. In the time that it took to take it back and remove it and everything, they just ignored it and they never played it, even after we... We removed it and put in "Stop Censorship," so I don't know if they appreciated that."
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No, there isn't. It is one of things that people always request from her and she will, at some point, work on a compilation.
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The person playing the mental patient is Juliette Lewis.
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On the first 3 albums there is talking before or after some songs. The tape was left running after the take and apparently somebody decided it would be "neat" to leave it on the album. There's probably no significance to anybody who wasn't there at the recording session.
"Melissa Etheridge." At the beginning of "Late September Dogs" she says, "Kevin, play me something like you were just playing." She said that after hearing Kevin play something she really liked and she wanted him to play it again for the "The Late September Dogs."
"Brave and Crazy." At the end of "Brave and Crazy" she says, "So much for that!"
"Never Enough." After "Must Be Crazy For Me," she says, "I didn't say it. I didn't. I meant it. You know I meant it."
After every take of this song, Melissa would say something (what she said, we don't know.) After this particular take, she didn't
say it.
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From: Cate McCoy Catemccoy@AOL.COM
The recent MEIN newsletter had a question and answer section with an interesting one regarding her powerful insignia.
"Is your insignia purely a simple design or a mixture of many meanings? Did you come up with the design or was it inspired from all that it symbolizes?"
ME's answer - "When I was meeting with the graphic artist that did the work on the Yes I Am album, Margaret Chase, I told her I wanted some sort of symbol - something that brings meaning in things together - something strong because the title, "Yes I Am" is very strong, the album is very strong. And she came back with many different ones and we decided that this one was simple and straight forward in its meaning. It is the mixture of my initials and the woman's symbol. And that's very straight forward, sort of a strong female which is what I like to be."
She goes on to say they'll probably use the symbol again, with some modifications, on the next album.
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END of the Melissa Etheridge FAQ and Never Enough Information file.
Created by David and Glenna Johnson.
