Melissa Etheridge was thrilled to collaborate with Chris Stapleton on her track The Other Side of Blue.
The 64-year-old singer is not too keen on doing duets, but she made an exception because of the 47-year-old country star’s “writing, his view and his voice”, and Melissa knew Chris would be the perfect co-singer on the song – which reflects the grief of her son, Beckett, who died from opioid addiction in 2020 aged 21.
Recalling their meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, Melissa – who is also mom to daughter Bailey, 29, and 19-year-old twins Johnnie and Miller – and Chris opened up about their lives, and that enabled the duet to write itself.
She revealed: “I talked about my four [kids] and how I have three now, and I said I’d lost one to opioids.
“And he said, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry.’ And I said, ‘No, no, no, he was my greatest teacher. I’ve learned so much from him.’
“And Chris looked at me and said, ‘Wow, Melissa, you talk in song.’ And that’s the first line of the song, ‘Sometimes I listen when she talks in song.'”
The Other Side of Blue appears on her 17th studio album, Rise.
Melissa added: “The chorus is, ‘Sometimes there’s dreams that won’t come true/But it’s brighter on the other side of blue.’
“You’ve got to keep knowing that there’s better coming; this pain or loss is there to learn and grow from, and you’ll be grateful for it someday. That’s what it’s about.”
The two-time Grammy award-winning rocker said getting older has given her a greater understanding of the world’s struggles, and Melissa wants to use her “wisdom” to inspire others.
She said: “I’m 64 now, and I think I’ve lived a lot of life and I’ve seen things come and go.
“I think I can say I have a bit of wisdom now, and I see a lot of the fear and pain that my world is in, and I want to inspire, because I know how much can inspire.”