‘90s Rock Icon Reveals She Was ‘Uncomfortable' With How Personal Her Music Was
Melissa Etheridge has revealed how it felt sharing candid music before coming out as a lesbian.
During the Monday, June 1 episode of P&G and iHeartRadio's Elton John Impact Awards podcast, the rocker admitted it felt "uncomfortable" to be so personal in her music yet not share her sexuality. The 65-year-old came out as a lesbian in 1993 at Clinton's inauguration.
"I started thinking, gosh, you know, it's getting a little uncomfortable because my music was so personal," she said. "It was very interrelational music - songs about, you know, passion and desire and heartbreak, and, and so the questions that interviewers would give me were more detailed," she said per People.
Etheridge added, "And I was always very, very careful to just say 'they,' 'them,' 'you' [when referring to a partner], and even my music was very genderless."
There was an infamous 1992 Music Express interview where a journalist referred to Melissa's partner as her "boyfriend." She said that the interaction had a long-term impact on her life and career, as she was worried the lesbian community would think she was responsible for the change. Melissa's sexuality was an open secret for many years, with many of her fanbase becoming aware she was gay before she came out.
"Underground, people knew I was a lesbian, and it just horrified me. I said, 'People are gonna think I'm lying and I'm trying to cover up. And it just, it horrified me. So I was like, 'No, no, no. I need to come out,'" Etheridge explained on the podcast.
Melissa's multiplatinum 1993 album, Yes I Am, acted as the companion piece to her coming out story. She wanted to announce her sexuality to coincide with the record's September release, but ultimately expedited her announcement to January after working on the victorious Bill Clinton-Al Gore campaign.
"It was the first time that gay organizations had come together, formed political PACs and raised money," Etheridge, now 65, told iHeartRadio host Elvis Duran. "And it was the first time a presidential candidate had actually talked about being gay, not about him, but had said the words 'gay' and 'lesbian.' I had never heard the words 'gay' and 'lesbian' on television, you know? It was the first time and it was very exciting."
Melissa's coming out thankfully didn't have a negative impact on her record sells either, in fact the headlines may have helped her career. "I went from selling about a million copies a record to selling seven million of Yes I Am in one year," she explained, per Entertainment Weekly.
"I tell people, 'No, it didn't hurt me,' but I believe that the extra press I got from being gay, all of a sudden, I was more of a headline story… It made me more interesting. They wanted to talk to me. All of a sudden there was different television shows that wanted to talk about it. It became a good thing."
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This story was originally published June 2, 2026 at 3:25 AM.