Melissa Etheridge was a keynote speaker at PRSA ICON 2024 in Anaheim, Calif., last month.
Before her onstage conversation with PR and crisis communication strategist Molly McPherson, APR, the Grammy-Award-winning artist sat down with PRsay for an interview. Here, she discusses her career as a singer-songwriter, her advocacy work with The Melissa Etheridge Foundation, and her focus on storytelling, authenticity and creating a sense of community.
With so much happening in your life and career, do you have any downtime?
I like to give myself downtime during football season, because I’m such a football fan. I like to take winter off… I live in Southern California.
I grow a little restless at home, so I want to get back out [on tour], and that’s what happens. I go out spring, summer, fall; then I want to come home. It’s a nice flow that I have.
Where do you do your best work? Do you have to adapt to where you are?
There’s no place better than any other. It doesn’t matter the number of people; it doesn’t matter the place. There are people all over the world that want to be moved by music [who] have memories in my songs [and] don’t know me but want to be entertained and are delighted. It’s a way of riding this wonderful wave of entertainment that I get to do as a living. It’s amazing.
The Melissa Etheridge Foundation addresses Opioid Use Disorder, a cause close to your heart. How do you use your platform to raise awareness and advocate for change?
I keep my stage show sacred. I think the most I’ve ever done is just to say, “Vote.” I keep everything else aside from it, because that’s pure. Some artists will make their music part of the advocacy. I believe my life is advocacy. If I walk my walk, talk my talk, people can see that. Then, if they are interested, they will look. Before the show, we’ll give a QR code if you want more information.
So many families have been affected by Opioid Use Disorder. Losing loved ones and seeing loved ones suffer, a family suffers. It’s an unspoken tragedy that’s happening all over the world.
I think the answer is in plant medicine. It’s not in more pharmaceuticals. It’s in this natural relief that we’ve been given for thousands of years that, for some reason, we outlawed. It’s not for everyone, but just to bring that option back in. I try to be there when people are curious about it and [they] ask me because they know my history and how it has affected me.
How has the Melissa Etheridge Foundation evolved since its inception, and what impact has it had so far?
We started it in early 2021. It was just three of us, with my manager and my good friend. [I thought], “I want to do something. This hurts so much, and I feel like we’re all just helpless here.”
I had already had my own experience in plant medicine, a spiritual awakening, and my own feelings about that. I wanted to start something where I could raise money for research. The circular reasoning that they have is, “It’s illegal, so we can’t research it, but we can’t reschedule [the medicines] because there’s no research.” We need to find better ways to research plant medicines.
We’re about to partner with a university medical center. We have gone from just getting donations from my fans to worldwide — hundreds of thousands of dollars now — and looking to expand every year. Unfortunately, [there are] lots of people [that the issue of opioid addiction] resonates with, and they want to be part of an answer.
How do you hope to continue reducing that stigma through your platform and outreach? How can you flip the script and change the story around?
We just have to speak our truth. I’ve gone through a couple of different things that were taboo at first. Being gay, what gave us the strength and power is coming out, speaking about it — you just knew someone.
And [it was] the same when I had cancer. Back then, there were no purple ribbons, no pink ribbons — you just knew someone whose family had breast cancer. And this is the next thing. It’s addiction. It’s Opioid Use Disorder. As a parent, you feel like you failed to raise them correctly. As a sibling, you feel like you weren’t there for them. You think you could save them. And that’s not true.
There’s so much information that people don’t know is out there for them. Education and information to change hearts and minds is the best thing.
From your experiences with music and advocacy, what advice can you share for communicators regarding storytelling and being your authentic self?
Understand [the importance of] being truthful, being your authentic self, really connecting with who you are, not who you want people to think you are — which in the entertainment business is tricky.
To be your authentic self, to have people around you that support you being your authentic self, that’s a journey through life. That comes with experience. You can’t teach it. You can only learn it.
So, [being your authentic self is about having] patience and understanding that everything changes and supporting someone. If someone says, “I can’t do this anymore,” believe them, even though they’re making millions and millions of dollars, believe them.
Here, Etheridge discusses where she finds inspiration:
Here, Etheridge talks about the journey to being your most authentic self:
Amy Jacques is the managing editor of Strategies & Tactics at PRSA.
[Jim Cowsert/Grapevine Photo]
