Talking to My Angels

by Melissa Etheridge

Overview

Twenty years after the success of her first memoir, the New York Times bestseller The Truth Is . . ., the Grammy and Oscar award-winning rocker and trailblazing LGBTQAI icon takes stock of the intervening years, recounting the euphoric triumphs and the life-altering tragedies of her life.

The audiobook is an exclusive musical experience, read and performed by Melissa. It features live, stripped-down performances of many of Melissa’s songs, including the one that inspired the book title, Talking to My Angel; never-before performed songs including Here Comes the Pain; and original interstitial and credit music. 

Live with spirit.

Find peace in the chaos.

Lean into the joy.

Over the past twenty years, Melissa Etheridge has been blessed with success, love, joy, contentment, freedom, and release. She became a mother again, recorded eleven albums, toured the world, performed at the Grammy Awards, won an Oscar, discovered her one true love, and underwent a profound spiritual awakening. She also experienced illness, incomparable loss, heartache, guilt, shame, and devastating grief. She was diagnosed with breast cancer, endured two contentious and public break ups, and witnessed the devastating disintegration and death of her son, Beckett, to opioid addiction. Yet through it all, Melissa found the strength and courage to carry on.

Talking to My Angels is a profoundly honest look into her inner life as a woman, an artist, a mother, and a survivor. With characteristic wit and courage, Melissa delves into how numerous tragedies served as a catalyst for growth, and what the past two decades have taught her about the value of music, love, family, and life in the face of death. It is her story: as raw, vulnerable, and electrifying as her acclaimed songs. Melissa shares hard truths about surviving and thriving—a journey through darkness and uncertainty that leads to forgiveness and love. A remarkable storyteller, she digs deep into the well of her life, sharing memories that, woven together, create a rich portrait of success and survival—an intimate, emotional and ultimately inspiring story of healing. 

A memoir a lifetime in the making, Talking to My Angels is Melissa’s engrossing—and at times harrowing—story as she lived it. It is a testament to the power of art, a touchstone for anyone seeking a path out of darkness, and a powerful love letter to the family and fans who’ve been integral to her journey.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063257450
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	09/05/2023
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	22,082
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Melissa Etheridge is a Grammy-winning rock star. She was named ASCAP’s 2007 Songwriter of the Year and won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Her iconic voice looms large in music and a wide range of activism, including LGBTQIA rights and environmental preservation. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling autobiography The Truth Is . . ., which focused on her early life and early career. She lives in Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

07/24/2023

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Etheridge follows up 2001’s The Truth Is... with a frank look at her life and career. Born in Kansas in 1961, Etheridge had a difficult childhood: her older sister began sexually abusing her when she was six or seven, her mother had debilitating depression, and Etheridge herself struggled with an early realization that she was gay. Music provided an emotional outlet and, eventually, a lucrative career. She’s especially good at linking the lyrics of her best-known work to the experiences that inspired them: “Bring Me Some Water,” for example, came from a place of insecurity about a nonmonogamous partner (“I would have my share of dating more than one woman at a time, but when I was with Kathleen, I wanted her to be all mine”). Most affecting, though, are the sections about Etheridge’s son, Beckett, and his descent into opioid addiction. In 2020, Beckett died of an overdose at age 21, and Etheridge writes wrenchingly of her slow-moving project to forgive herself for his death and focus on the “warmth” she gleans from his memory. This clear-eyed look at life, loss, and art-making resonates. Agent: Yfat Reiss Gendel, YRG Partners. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

2023-06-15
New Age–tinged memoir by lesbian rock icon Etheridge, recounting the highs and lows of a long career.

To paraphrase French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “I am a spiritual being having a human experience,” writes Etheridge. She’s also a survivor of many a rough patch, from seeking the approval of an emotionally distant mother who considered her queer identity a “psychological illness” to kicking cancer and enduring a couple of very ugly breakups—and, worst of all, the death of a son to a fentanyl overdose. Etheridge’s book of revelations begins on a heady note, her mind on a hard-earned vacation courtesy of a whole bunch of pot-laced cookies. She had an epiphany that “love is within us and all around us” and that maybe she didn’t have to try so hard. Still, for all the past-life-regressing and consultations of astrological charts, the author seems to be a get-it-done, practical-minded Midwesterner with no end to her work ethic. Would-be songwriters stand to learn quite a bit from studying her process as well as the pointers from those who taught her—e.g., a jazz guitarist who instructed, “Doesn’t matter what notes you play. Just never go out of time.” It took a while for Etheridge to hit the big time, but she amassed enough material over years of hard work that she could field an at-home pandemic concert series every night for a month without repeating herself. Another lesson she discusses is the importance of connecting with one’s spiritual being, “assisted, of course, by ingesting a lot of cannabis.” On that note, Etheridge serves up a meaningful, even helpful elaboration of Don Miguel Ruiz’s famed “four agreements,” the last of which should form the heart of anyone’s life practices: “Just do your best, always.”

A must for Etheridge fans, with plenty of lessons for striving musicians.

Kirkus Reviews

She’s especially good at linking the lyrics of her best-known work to the experiences that inspired them….Most affecting, though, are the sections about Etheridge’s son, Beckett, and his descent into opioid addiction….This clear-eyed look at life, loss, and art-making resonates” — Publishers Weekly

“The singer's many fans will appreciate her honesty in this compassionate and gentle memoir of self-realization, self-empowerment, and self-healing.” — Booklist

From the Publisher

Startling…A pull-no-punches autobiography.”

People