Melissa Etheridge on love and loss, new music and Chris Stapleton: ‘I’m so grateful’

“How are you?”

It’s a standard greeting, one offered more as a casual informality than a serious inquiry. The replies are usually just as perfunctory, even if they aren’t fully reflective of one’s actual demeanor: “Good,” “Fine” and the more graciously amended, “Fine, thanks.”

When a phone conversation commenced last week with Melissa Etheridge, the first words out of my mouth fell right in line with this ritual.

“Hi, Melissa. How are you?”

Without a beat, the double Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, activist and rock ‘n’ champion delivered a reply as if fireworks were exploding.

“I’m fan-tastic.”

Such immediacy and jubilance are career trademarks for Etheridge. In the 38 years since the release of her self-titled debut album, she has come to define resilience, strength and joy in the world of modern rock.

Melissa Etheridge will be at the Norton Center in Danville. She has a new album, “Rise,” that includes a song co-written and performed with Kentucky musician Chris Stapleton. Candice Lawler

She has ridden the waves of extraordinary commercial success with such rock-soul infused ’90s hits as “Come to My Window,” “I’m the Only One” and “I Want to Come Over.” With that came activist roles for LGBTQ+ rights, environmental issues and numerous other causes. Capping it all have been avenues for expressing her music and life story that have led Etheridge far outside conventional rock touring circuits — specifically, The New York Times Best Sellers list (for three books, not recordings) as well as Broadway (the 2023 run of her autobiographical music and storytelling show “My Window.”)

But the hard times woven between those triumphs have been brutal. Etheridge, during the numerous heights of her career, has confronted breast cancer, a high-profile domestic split that triggered a lengthy child custody battle and the opioid-related death of her son Beckett.

“Life has happened to me, yeah,” said Etheridge, who returns to Central Kentucky for an April 22 concert at the Norton Center for the Arts in Danville. “But you’re going to find me one of the most grateful people on earth. I’m so grateful, I’m so alive because of all of that has happened. I truly believe that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

It seems natural, then, that Etheridge’s newly released 17th studio album is titled “Rise.” It abounds with the rockish fortification that has long surrounded her best music. The record lands a few electric jabs to remind you of her tireless rock ‘n’ spirit, simmers for slices of more personal reflection and offers a sense of almost anthemic renewal.

“You’re gonna fall to the earth sometimes,” Etheridge sings in the title song to “Rise.” “You’re gonna taste the dirt sometimes. Then you’re gonna rise.”

“I made an effort with this record to say, ‘I’m just going to concentrate solely on the songs.’ I want these songs to be singable for people. I want them to convey emotions of loss and love and hope and passion and desire and inspiration. My intention was so direct and so understanding in that what I do is write these songs, record them and then perform them for the rest of my life. I wanted to write songs that could stand there next to ‘Come to My Window,’ that could entertain and inspire like my older songs did.”

Etheridge’s chief compadre in assembling the “Rise” album was Shooter Jennings. The son of outlaw country maverick Waylon Jennings, Shooter has become, in addition to making his own music, one of the most sought-after record producers in any genre. His client list runs from Brandi Carlile to Marilyn Manson.

“I’m sort of genre-less now,” Etheridge said. “I’m sort of outside of genres because rock ‘n’ roll … I mean, what is rock ‘n’ roll anymore? Even the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame even has trouble with that. My full focus on this album was I wanted the album to be California rock. That’s why I came to California in the first place over 40 years ago. I was following the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac and Jackson Browne. I wanted that feeling, so I looked around at producers and artists that I know and artists that have worked with Shooter, and I was like, ‘This is the guy right here. This is the guy that’s really making and supporting that kind of music. And, boy, was he perfect. He was just so clever, so inspirational. He just let the music happen.”

Etheridge credits the Broadway run of “My Window” for making her “comfortable with uncomfortable subjects.” On “Rise,” that helped lead her to write “Call You,’ a song that addresses — directly, but gracefully — the death of her son.

“Having lived as long as I have now, to experience so many things, I can see that life is full of loss. There is a lot of that. But it’s what we do after that, it’s the choices we make after that, that really form our life. I realized soon after my son passed away that I could either drown in guilt and shame and just wake up with this pain every day, or I could share it. I could choose to honor his memory and respect and know that, yes, it’s sad that he’s gone, but he’s in a better place. He’s out of pain. He would not want me to be in pain or stop my life or become unhappy for any reason. That is not anything he wanted for the choices that he made.”

Etheridge penned 10 of the 11 songs for “Rise” on her own. For the one exception, “The Other Side of Blue,” she sought out a very specific artist to write and then record the tune with — Eastern Kentucky country roots hero Chris Stapleton.

“For 10 years, I’ve been like, ‘I would love to sing with him.’ So, I told myself I was going to shoot my shot with this album.

“I had never met Chris. I never had the opportunity until we got together to write. I went to Nashville for a day. I had a few hours with him. It was casual conversation for about 10 minutes. When we started sharing about our children, I told him I had three beautiful children and that I had lost one, the fourth. He said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ I said, ‘No, he was my greatest teacher. I really learned a lot by the experience of him, of having him and then losing him.’ He said, ‘My goodness, Melissa. You talk in song.’ That wound up as the first line of ‘The Other Side of Blue’ (“Sometimes I listen when she talks in song”) and we just started writing. Chris is so very special. His heart, his emotional mind — he’s just an incredibly talented man and I’m so grateful to have created this song with him.”

Is the song another snapshot of the energy that fuels and inspires Etheridge after four decades of making music? A better summation might be that the vigor and drive of her music also informs the way Etheridge lives her life — each empowering the other.

“I was built for this. I was made for this. I love nothing more than to show my own emotional catharsis and then instantly see it affect another person, to have that energy exchange. I would rather share that emotion in a rock ‘n’ roll celebration than sit around and talk about it or just feel bad about it. I want to, physically and emotionally, get it out.”