Melissa Etheridge Will Help Welcome Back War Memorial Auditorium

Anyone alive in the '90s knows that singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge has been performing her brand of blues rock for quite some time. Still, it's surprising to discover exactly how long she has been singing on stage.

"As a 12-year-old, I'd play to grown-ups in country bars," she tells New Times nonchalantly over the telephone.

Born in 1961 in Leavenworth, Kansas, Etheridge was a musical child prodigy who arrived at the right time.

In the '60s and '70s, music was everywhere. My parents had a great record collection; the AM radio stations played everything from Tammy Wynette to Marvin Gaye," she shares.

At 8, she first picked up the guitar after seeing her older sister ignore it. "My fingers bled, but I kept playing," Etheridge adds.

In no time, she was spending weekends making a little pocket money playing cover songs at honky-tonks. "My dad would take me to gigs. I learned so much; It taught me how to perform in front of drunks or people fighting," she says. "It made me more appreciative when people applauded me or sang along to one of my songs."

Success finally came in 1993 when she scored hits with "I'm the Only One" and "Come to My Window." The gradual nature of her fame meant it never overwhelmed her. "I always thought there'd be a time I could stand back and say, 'I made it,'" Ethridge shares. "I remember when I didn't have to audition to play a gig; I thought I made it. When I got a record deal, and I wouldn't have to take just any gig, I thought I made it. Then, with my fourth album, I heard my songs on rock radio, and I said, 'Woo-hoo! I made it!'"

When she first came out as a lesbian in 1993, and later when her partner became pregnant via artificial insemination by rock legend David Crosby, her life quickly became tabloid fodder. "Coming out was a change, and change is slow," she says, looking back. "In the beginning, when you come from no rights, you don't know you don't have any rights."

She always kept her mind on her music and the disenfranchised. Her latest project, I'm Not Broken (Live From Topeka Correctional Facility), was released this summer as a documentary and a live album capturing Etheridge's performance at a woman's prison. "I grew up in Leavenworth, Kansas, which is famous for its prison. That made an impression on me. I performed at a prison at 12, and that also made an impression on me," she says.

Johnny Cash's seminal At Folsom Prison live album greatly influenced I'm Not Broken. "Before the first song, I said. 'Hi, I'm Melissa Etheridge,' and I wore all black," emulating Cash's first line on the record and his trademark wardrobe. "I knew I had to play my hits, so they can say, 'Oh, that's who that is,'" she says of her performance. "I wanted to do songs they could get something from, deeper tracks that talk about the journey of the soul and about regret. I'll never do that setlist again."

She'll keep the mood a bit more upbeat at her January 21 show in Fort Lauderdale, the first scheduled live performance at the recently renovated War Memorial Auditorium. "I know I'm the first artist to play there, so that excites me," she shares. "I'll look at what I played last time I was in town and play some different songs. We'll play the hits, and we're going to rock."

In front of her three-piece backing band, she'll live the dream 12-year-old Etheridge aspired to achieve. "I've learned so much, and I'm grateful I got to learn it."

Melissa Etheridge. 7 p.m. Tuesday, January 21, at War Memorial Auditorium, 800 NE Eighth St., Fort Lauderdale; 954-835-7080; ftlwarmemorial.com. Tickets cost $57 to $122 via seatgeek.com.