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Melissa Etheridge didn’t intend to include a collaboration on her newest record; however, she found herself unable to turn down a duet with Chris Stapleton.
Etheridge shared the story behind the duet during an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show on Wednesday (April 8). The legendary rocker, a first-time nominee for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year, included the collaboration on Rise, the 11-track studio album that released on March 27. Etheridge and Stapleton wrote “The Other Side Of Blue.” Etheridge produced the duet with Shooter Jennings.
“Chris Stapleton is exactly what you would think he is. He’s amazingly talented, wildly, wildly unique, and he’s so kind. So kind,” Etheridge told Kelly Clarkson. “I didn’t really wanna duet with anybody, but I was like, “(if) Chris Stapleton wants to do something, I’d love to.’”
The two powerhouse artists expertly blend their raspy, soulful voices so well that Etheridge said she sometimes wonders, “is that me or him?” She told Clarkson that when she first met Stapleton, the pair began talking about their families. “He’s got five kids. …I said ‘I had four, but I have three now,’” she shared. Etheridge lost her son, Beckett Cypher, in May 2020. He was 21. “He [Stapleton] goes, ‘oh, I’m sorry.’ I said, ‘well, no, he was my greatest teacher,’ you know. I’ve learned the most from having that experience. And he said, ‘oh, Melissa, you talk in song.’ And that’s the first line and the last line of the song,” she said, singing, “sometimes I listen when she talks in song.”
“He’s just beautiful at collecting that, and we just put this song together about how life can really deal you some things, but you just, if you choose — it’s up to you how you take them,” Etheridge continued during her appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, and explained that she knew she had to write about her son when she wrote music for Rise. “It’s a choice, and we all have that choice. It’s brighter on the other side of the room.”
The “Other Side Of Blue” video opens by noting that “1.7 million US military veterans suffer from PTSD,” and “music can help soothe those demons.” The end of the video spotlights Wounded Warrior Project, a veterans organization offering programs to help improve lives of injured veterans and their families.
Etheridge released Rise shortly after announcing her co-headlining tour with Wynonna Judd. The two Grammy-winning legends will kick off the “Raised On Radio Tour” in June, with performance dates spanning into September. Etheridge said in a statement when she and Judd announced the tour that she “was literally raised on the radio.” In particular, she recalled a local station that “played every kind of music from rock and soul to R&B and country music. It helped shape me to become the versatile writer and musician that I am today." Find more info about the tour here.
Watch Etheridge’s full interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show here, and listen to her duet with Stapleton below.