‘It’s Great to Finally Be In The Room’: Melissa Etheridge Talks Rock Hall Nomination

It’s low-hanging fruit, perhaps, but when Melissa Etheridge is asked if she’s a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominee, she can now say — wait for it — Yes, I Am . The singer, songwriter, guitarist and activist — whose 1993 album Yes I Am was a six-times Platinum breakthrough — is one of 10 first-time nominees for the Rock Hall ‘s Class of 2026, 13 years after she first became eligible.

Etheridge is no stranger to the institution, however — she performed at the opening Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Sept. 2, 1995, in Cleveland and inducted both Janis Joplin (1995) and Bonnie Raitt (2000). Now, she tells Billboard via Zoom from her home near Los Angeles, “It’s great to finally be in the room, and the rest is up to the voters.

I think it means a lot more to my friends and family around me, ’cause they’ve been kind of going, ‘What’s wrong with these people?!’ for a long time. But it’s really nice to be seen. As a musician you hope that your work has a lasting impression and you hope that you’re still actively participating on rocking people.

So it feels really good.” Etheridge has fond memories of her Rock Hall-related experiences — even being part of the disastrous opening concert finale of “Rock and Roll Music” with Chuck Berry, backed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and others. “I remember Bruce going, ‘Hey, you want to sing with Chuck Berry?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah!’ Then Chuck did his famous tell the band one key and the rest of us another key.

It was horrible! Why’d he do that? It was like a fever dream.”