Melissa Etheridge |

Welcome to this premier episode of the Kenny Aronoff Sessions podcast! This is the first installment of an exciting new show in which Kenny - one of ‘Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Drummers of All Time’ - sits down to chat with the many, many music industry leaders whom he has played with and befriended over the years. Each episode will feature Kenny and one of his famous friends trading stories and insights into the industry gathered over decades of creating and performing some of the world’s greatest music. Along the way, there will be plenty of laughs, just as many glimpses of what goes on ‘behind the scenes’, and, really, just about anything you ever wanted to know about these legendary artists' lives and careers.

Kicking off this inaugural episode, Kenny’s very dear friend and music megastar, Melissa Etheridge, joins him to reminisce about their shared experiences in the music industry, their love of both football and music, and their collaboration in the studio and on tour over the years. Together, they explore Melissa’s incredible journey from playing bars as a teenager to performing for hundreds of thousands at festivals, and her informed perspective on everything from leadership to performance to self-care. And in a moment that you won’t soon, if ever, forget, Melissa recounts her truly inspiring story of the 2005 Grammys where she performed with Kenny while still in the throes of her cancer treatment. Today’s conversation is an entertaining, informative, and thoroughly engaging one between two undisputed leaders in their field whose sincere respect and love for each other is on full display. It is an episode filled with that kind of warmth, ease, and humor that can only be found where true friends talk together, serving as the perfect springboard to this exciting new podcast that invites us all inside the personal and professional lives of these music superstars.

YouTube Chapters:
0:00 Start
0:25 Introduction
2:41 Melissa's love for football and singing the national anthem at Arrowhead
7:31 Melissa’s skill as a rhythm guitarist
9:41 The first time Kenny and Melissa met and played together
15:47 Their work together on “I Could Have Been You” and Brad Pitt’s reaction to it
20:23 Their work together on “Scarecrow”
22:27 Melissa’s legendary 2005 Grammys performance
26:31 Melissa’s journey in the music industry
32:47 Kenny’s comparison of Melissa to Patrick Mahomes
39:20 Some experiences from their live shows and touring together
43:07 CBD use and the importance of self-care
47:46 Melissa’s current outlook on life and its impact on the work she does now

Quotes:
"I want the performance of the song to feel like a performance in a big stadium."
"You’ve got to match your singer with your drummer. You can't have a weak drummer and a powerful singer, or a powerful drummer and a weak singer."
"There was this rule, this unwritten rule, that you could only play one woman on the rock radio."
"The more connected I am with my musicians...that bed of music, that tight car that I'm in, of music, that song, I can then stand up and scream and holler out the convertible door."
"It's all about serving the music, and that's how I think Kenny and I got along so well."
"It's about looking at yourself as an athlete and taking care of your body, like an athlete would."
"The experience of being with a live audience and hearing them respond is the best feeling in the world."

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