Grammy Award winning singer Melissa Etheridge tragically lost her son, Beckett, in May 2020.
The beloved artist opened up about dealing with her grief through music nearly six years after his passing.
“I lost my son about five years ago,” Etheridge told Kelly Clarkson during an episode of her talk show on Wednesday, April 8. “It was opioid addiction.”
Melissa Etheridge Wrote a Song For Her Late Son
During Etheridge’s appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” she spoke about her collab with Chris Stapleton, “The Other Side of Blue,” which is featured on her latest album, “Rise.”
“I started talking to Chris [Stapleton] when I first met him, and sat down like this, and we started talking family,” she recalled. “He’s got five kids. I said, ‘You know, I had four, but I have three now.’ And he goes, ‘Oh, I’m sorry.'”
According to Etheridge — who famously performed a duet with season 20 “American Idol” winner Noah Thompson — she responded, “Well, no, he was my greatest teacher. I’ve learned the most from having that experience.”
Melissa Etheridge’s New Album, ‘Rise’
“Rise” — which was released in March — contains one song that’s deeply personal to Etheridge.
“When I sat down to write this new album, ‘Rise,’ I knew there was a song I had to write. I had to write about my son. I had to get that out,” she told Clarkson. “It was the first emotional thing, and I had to be able to put the foundation of my writing, the other songs, on that, so I wrote a song called ‘I Can’t Call You Anymore.'”
She added, “That’s how I approached it on this album, was since I can’t call you anymore, I’m gonna go in my garden, I’m gonna plant, you know, I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna keep living.”
“Me stopping my life because he made that choice, one, doesn’t serve his memory at all. He’s out of pain now, he wants me to be happy, you know, and so it’s about moving through grief and shame.”
Beckett was just 21 years old when he succumbed to his addiction.
“You’ve got the light in the dark and the positive and the negative and the good and the bad. Yet it’s all one thing, and that one thing is love,” she said during a 2023 appearance on “Today.”
In addition to Beckett, Etheridge is also mother to daughter Bailey Jean, whom she shares with ex Julie Cypher, and twins Johnnie Rose and Miller Steven, whom she shares with ex Tammy Lynn Michaels.
