<\/p>\n
Music legend Melissa Etheridge<\/a><\/strong> recently brought up Taylor Swift<\/a><\/strong> during one of her interviews, and fans of both artists are loving the reason why.<\/p>\n After Etheridge was recently announced as a nominee<\/a> for the 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame<\/a> class earlier this week, she was asked in an interview who she would want to induct her if she is selected for the honor, prompting her to name-drop none other than the “Opalite” songstress.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfacSIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/strong><\/a>\ud83c\udfac<\/p>\n “The first thing that comes to my mind is Taylor Swift,” Etheridge, 64, told ABC Audio<\/a> in an article published Thursday<\/a>, Feb. 26. “Because when I met Taylor, she did tell me that when she was 11 years old her parents took her to my concert. And that’s where, after that, she wanted to play guitar.”<\/p>\n “So I know I’ve been an inspiration,” Etheridge added.<\/p>\n Swift, 36, is also mentioned in Etheridge’s biography page on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website<\/a>, which states that the her influence is “heard in artists like Sheryl Crow<\/a><\/strong>, Brandi Carlile<\/a><\/strong>, Taylor Swift, and the countless others she continues to inspire.”<\/p>\n But Swift isn’t the only artist that Etheridge mentioned as a potential presenter if she is inducted this year, as she also revealed that Bono<\/a><\/strong> previously said he’d be up for the task if given the opportunity.<\/p>\n “Years ago…we were performing something and Bono was there, and Bono actually said…he wanted to induct me,” she added. “So, you know, I have no idea.”<\/p>\n This year, Etheridge is among a number of impressive artists also on the 2026 ballot, including The Black Crowes, Jeff Buckley<\/a><\/strong>, Phil Collins<\/a><\/strong>,Mariah Carey<\/a><\/strong>, Lauryn Hill<\/a><\/strong>, Billy Idol<\/a><\/strong>, INXS, Iron Maiden, Joy Division\/New Order, New Edition, Oasis, P!nk<\/a>, Sade, Shakira<\/a><\/strong>, Luther Vandross<\/a><\/strong> and Wu-Tang Clan<\/a>.<\/p>\n The final inductees for 2026 are expected to be announced in April.<\/p>\n Related: Phil Collins Could Make History If Selected For Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2026 Class<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This story was originally published by Parade<\/a> on Feb 28, 2026, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.aol.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Music legend Melissa Etheridge recently brought up Taylor Swift during one of her interviews, and fans of both artists are loving the reason why. After Etheridge was recently announced as a nominee for the 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class earlier this week, she was asked in an interview who she would want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2305619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[344976,393512,338281,23084],"class_list":["post-2305618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-celebrity-interviews","tag-melissa-etheridge","tag-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame","tag-taylor-swift"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/90s-Rock-Icon-Melissa-Etheridge-Unexpectedly-Name-Drops-Taylor-Swift-During.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2305618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2305618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2305618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2305620,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2305618\/revisions\/2305620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2305619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2305618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2305618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2305618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}