One Belief Got Her Through Fame, Grief and Cancer | Melissa Etheridge

Before Melissa Etheridge became a Grammy-winning rock legend and an icon of resilience, she was a Kansas kid with a wild dream and a father who never told her she couldn't do it. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, the multi-platinum singer-songwriter sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of John Etheridge, the man who believed in her when belief was the only thing she had.

Melissa opens up about growing up in Leavenworth, Kansas, with a father who came from nothing. A migrant farmer's son who served in the Korean War, earned a teaching credential on a sports scholarship, and became a coach who spent weekends driving his daughter to rehearsals, gigs, and bars filled with grown men so she could play guitar. He never gushed. He never overreacted. He just showed up. And when she sat him down in 1980 to tell him she was gay, he said the words that changed everything: Is that it? Just be happy.

There's also a raw reflection on what it means to lose a child, how stress can eat you alive if you let it, and why Melissa had to learn to love her music before anyone else would. She talks about the 2005 Grammys, walking out bald after radiation to sing Piece of My Heart, and why that moment became one of the most powerful of her career. She shares what it felt like to be nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, why her new album Rise is about falling to the earth and tasting the dirt, and how a heroic cannabis overdose sent her on a journey to understand consciousness, plant medicine, and what it means to truly be alive.

Melissa talks about her wife Linda, who makes her laugh every single day, why she calls herself a dad mom, and how the Etheridge Foundation is working to bring psychedelic research into the fight against opioid addiction in honor of her son Beckett. She reflects on why life doesn't happen to you, it happens from you, and why the greatest gift her father gave her was the freedom to believe in herself when no one else did.

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Chapters ☀️

Chapters

• 00:00:00 Intro: The Girl from Leavenworth and Her Dad
• 00:02:49 The Soldier Who Became a Teacher: John Etheridge's Story
• 00:05:13 He Just Showed Up: A Father's Quiet Belief
• 00:07:16 Learning Metaphor from Neil Diamond: Music Lessons with Dad
• 00:11:57 Is That It? Coming Out to Her Father in 1980
• 00:15:46 Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Navigating Fame While Gay in the 90s
• 00:25:45 The Grammy Performance That Changed Everything
• 00:29:21 The Heroic Overdose: A Cannabis Journey That Changed Her Life
• 00:36:43 Losing Beckett: The Son Who Taught Her the Hardest Lessons
• 00:42:47 Life is Happening FOR Me: A New Philosophy After Cancer
• 00:46:32 Rise: Writing Anthems from the Dirt
• 00:51:50 The Dad Mom: Parenting Like John Etheridge
• 01:10:57 If I Could Call Him Today: A Final Thank You

ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question.

David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.

Host: David Begnaud

Guest: Melissa Etheridge

Executive Producer: Olivier Delfosse

Associate Producer: Jonah Johnson

Booker: Sully Bloch

Director of Photography: Foster Parks

Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)

Director of Social: Mariah Maull

Theme Music: Slipstream

Post-Production: Longwave Digital

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