Life crisis after the death of her son These songs comforted rock star Melissa Etheridge
Melissa Etheridge celebrated great success at the end of the 80s with songs such as "Like the Way I Do". But when her son succumbed to his drug addiction four years ago, other songs helped the rock singer come to terms with her grief.
27.07.2024, 22:25
28.07.2024, 10:24
dpa
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- The American rock musician Melissa Etheridge became famous in Europe at the end of the 1980s with the song "Like the Way I Do", among others.
- When her son Beckett died of drug addiction in 2020, however, other songs helped the 63-year-old come to terms with her grief.
- Beckett came from the lesbian rock musician's previous relationship with filmmaker Julie Cypher in the 1990s.
- Cypher gave birth to daughter Bailey Jean in 1997 and Beckett a year later.
Singer-songwriter and rock musician Melissa Etheridge made her international breakthrough at the end of the 1980s with hits such as "Like the Way I Do".
However, when her son Beckett died of drug addiction in 2020, the 63-year-old singer found completely different songs to help her cope with her grief. "I wrote my last album 'The Medicine Show' when Beckett was already having problems," she says in an interview with Bunte.de.
She continues: "There are some songs on it that deal with his addiction. These are songs in which I tried to understand the subject of addiction, even though it was never a part of my own life."
Melissa Etheridge: "This is incredibly healing for me"
After the death of 21-year-old Beckett four years ago, it was these songs that gave her strength and hope. "Singing these songs, especially 'Shadow Of A Black Crow', for other people now is incredibly healing for me."
The track "The Shadow of a Black Crow" can already be heard on the 2012 album "4th Street Feeling".
Most recently, Melissa Etheridge released the live album "I'm Not Broken", which was recorded during a performance in a US women's prison. She also played "The Shadow of a Black Crow" on this occasion.
"My heart is broken"
The rock musician announced the death of her son on her Facebook page in May 2020. At the time, she wrote that Beckett had battled his opiate addiction and ultimately lost: "My heart is broken."
She agonized over the question of what else she could have done to help her son.
Beckett came from the lesbian rocker's previous relationship with filmmaker Julie Cypher in the 1990s. Cypher gave birth to daughter Bailey Jean in 1997 and Beckett a year later.
The sperm donor was a close friend of the couple, veteran rocker David Crosby of Crosby, Stills and Nash, who died in 2023.
