AceShowbiz - Melissa Etheridge recently shared insights into her latest album, Rise, revealing how she channeled both joy and profound grief into its creation. The album marks her first collection of original songs since 2019’s The Medicine Show, offering listeners a deeply personal look into her life experiences over the past several years.

Speaking via Zoom from her home near Los Angeles, Melissa Etheridge explained that much has changed since her last original album. “I hadn’t gone in and made an original album since The Medicine Show in 2019, so it was a good six, seven years and I hadn’t written about my life and the events and the motions and things that have happened,” she said. Her 2021 release, One Way Out, consisted of previously unreleased early-career songs rather than new material.

However, the process of writing Rise was shaped by significant challenges, foremost among them the loss of her son. Melissa Etheridge revealed, “I went through the pandemic. I lost my son. So I was really analyzing and looking into my life and wanting to write and express it and get it out – to do what I’ve always done.” Beginning in 2024, she started gathering her thoughts and experiences, preparing to translate them into music.

With a touch of humor, Melissa Etheridge recalled telling her management, “I’m gonna make a record. I know you guys don’t think that albums live anymore or have any place, but I’m gonna make one.” Her commitment to the album format remains strong; she sees it as an art form meant to accompany people on drives, plane rides, or moments of reflection, offering 45 minutes of uplift and connection. “I want to feel better when I hear these songs,” she added.

The opening track and emotional core of Rise is “Call You,” a song about losing her son and the ongoing process of living with that loss. “I had to just write a song about losing my son, and how I lived with that,” Melissa Etheridge said. She described the universal feeling of wanting to reach out to a lost loved one and the impossibility of doing so. Yet the song carries a hopeful message, emphasizing that despite grief, life must continue. “He wouldn’t want me to stop living,” she reflected.

“Call You” portrays simple acts of healing—taking a drive, dancing, tending a garden—even in the face of overwhelming pain. Melissa Etheridge intended the song to serve as a model for her other children and anyone coping with loss. She described the track as “the ground floor” of the album, a foundation built on survival, love, and the refusal to be consumed by guilt or shame.

The album moves beyond sorrow to a place of strength and resilience. It kicks off with the hard-rocking “Bein’ Alive,” where Melissa Etheridge sings about moments of despair and her choice to survive. Following that is “Matches,” an autobiographical track that begins a cappella and evolves into a gentle, rootsy groove.

Rise balances upbeat tunes like the blues-inflected “Don’t You Want a Woman,” the country-tinged “If You Ever Leave Me,” and the honky-tonk style “Davina,” with emotional ballads such as the title track and the piano-driven “More Love.” Melissa Etheridge expressed her desire to evoke the same feelings in listeners that they experienced with her 1993 six-times platinum album Yes I Am. “I want it to become part of the Etheridge repertoire,” she said. “There was this constant reminding myself, ‘Melissa, stay in your lane right now. Just stay in what you love to do.’ I didn’t need to experiment. I didn’t need to do anything but write good, solid songs about myself and put it to music.”

The album was co-produced by Shooter Jennings, whose musical background and supportive approach complemented Melissa Etheridge’s vision. “Shooter is a music lover,” she said. “He comes from a music family, of course. He doesn’t interfere. He provides support when it’s needed, and a little bit of guidance. He’d be really moved by it, and really excited.” She described how Jennings’ enthusiasm helped keep the creative momentum going, often encouraging her to move on quickly to the next idea.

A notable collaboration on Rise is the duet “The Other Side of Blue” with Chris Stapleton. The idea for a duet came from her management, but Melissa Etheridge herself selected Stapleton as her only choice. She had never met him before, and was surprised and delighted when he agreed to participate.

For Melissa Etheridge, songwriting is a way to process life as it happens, keeping her music fresh and purposeful. “I don’t come from the, ‘Oh, I need to write a hit song.’ I can’t do that. I write like me, and I write my experience,” she explained. This authenticity, she said, has made her career “really fun,” and she cannot imagine doing anything else.