Melissa Etheridge has been relying on music to help her cope with the death of her son Beckett.
The singer/songwriter appeared on “Good Morning America” in her first live television interview since losing her son, to share how music has been helping with her devastating heartbreak.
Beckett succumbed to his opioid addiction at age 21 in May.
“Time does heal,” the 59-year-old told Robin Roberts. “It’s only been a couple of months, but I’ve been very busy and made myself very busy. You go one day at a time. You get through the grief and you get to the healing.”
“There’s something about singing, something about opening the soul, it’s got me through everything,” continued the Grammy Award-winning artist. “So many people throughout my life said, ‘Your music got me through this, your music got me through that.’ And I now am using my music to get me through this.”
Melissa Etheridge with her son Beckett, circa 2011. (Peter Brooker/Shutterstock)
Etheridge said one song in particular, “Talking to My Angel,” has been a source of soothing. It’s a track she originally wrote after her father passed away in the ‘90s.
“That was about connecting to those who have passed to the non-physical,” she explained. “I’ve been talking to my angel and he says that it’s all right. It’s a way of self-soothing that I can draw on.”
The “Come to My Window” singer admitted that she “can’t help to feel responsible” for her son, who was first introduced to painkillers after breaking his ankle during a snowboarding incident. However, Etheridge stressed she did “everything she can.”
“As a parent, you know your children have their own lives and make their own choices - but you just can’t help to feel responsible, of course, for them,” said Etheridge. “When you see one start to struggle, you go through so many things. You go through the, ‘What can I do to help them?’ You go through the ‘Wait, I’m doing too much, I don’t want to enable this.’ They need to find themselves, they need to fall to get back up.”
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Etheridge said launching Etheridge TV, which offers live concerts and chat sessions from her own home garage studio, has also kept her busy.
“It’s a way to connect to people,” Etheridge shared. “It’s, of course, healing for me — but mostly to connect with my fans. Because all over, we are isolated and it’s starting to get hard on us. It’s one thing that I think contributed to Beckett’s passing that he had nowhere to go. He couldn’t get on his skateboard and go to the skateboard park. There are people who are still suffering and I want to give them relief in this crazy world that we are in right now.”
Etheridge also said she wants to help fund research programs through the Etheridge Foundation and raise awareness on the dangers of drug use and addiction.
“I’m very intense about raising funds for research into what we can do with this disease,” said Etheridge. “The scourge that takes so many of our young people every day.”
Beckett was one of two children Etheridge shares with ex-partner Julie Cypher. According to Parents magazine, Etheridge and Cypher have publicly shared that they conceived Beckett and Bailey, 23, with a sperm donation from friend and fellow musician David Crosby.
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This photo taken on Sept. 27, 2011, shows singer Melissa Etheridge with her son Beckett and her daughter Bailey during her Walk of Fame ceremony held at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood. (CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images)
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Cypher and Etheridge split in 2000.
Etheridge also shares 13-year-old twins with actress Tammy Lynn Michaels, whom she split from in 2010.
Fox News’ Nate Day contributed to this report.
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