Melissa Etheridge is opening up about her relationship with the late David Crosby.
The 63-year-old rock star, who rocked the CMT 2024 Music Awards in all black, enlisted the singer and songwriter as a sperm donor when she and ex-partner Julie Cypher wanted to start a family.
Etheridge said Crosby’s wife, Jan Dance, made the suggestion.
“They had just had help having their son and they appreciated it. They wanted to pass it on,” the Grammy winner said People ahead of the release of the documentary series Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken.
“The situation was special because my partner at the time was adopted and she wanted her children to know who their biological father was,” the Breathe artist explains.
Melissa Etheridge has spoken candidly about her relationship with the late David Crosby, who died in January 2023 at the age of 81. Crosby was the sperm donor who helped the singer become a mother
“So we didn’t go to a sperm bank because she wanted them to know.”
Etheridge and Cypher have a daughter, Bailey, 27, and their late son Beckett, who died of an opioid overdose in May 2020 at age 21.
The singer described Crosby, who died in January 2023 at the age of 81, as “perfect” for the role of donor because “he didn’t have to be [a father].
“And that’s what really made it clear to me, that he was willing to say, ‘Yes, I was the biological father.’ And my kids call him biological father, so he is the biological father, but they didn’t want to have a relationship with him,” she explained.
The Similar Features singer said the service Crosby and his wife provided “really taught me a lot about generosity.”
She and Bailey discovered that the folk-rock legend was also generous to others.
“We still find David Crosby children in the world. My daughter says, ‘I have a half-sister.’”
Etheridge and Cypher separated in September 2000, but continued to raise their children together.
Etheridge said Crosby was “perfect” as a sperm donor, and has since learned he’s been a donor for other families as well. “We’re still finding kids,” she told People. (They’re pictured in 1995.)
The singer said Crosby’s wife, Jan Dance, suggested the rock icon help her and former partner Julie Cypher have children. She explained that Cypher was adopted and wanted their children to know who their biological father was; (L-R) Cypher, Etheridge, Crosby and Jan
The Grammy winner shares daughter Bailey, now 27, and her late son Beckett with Cypher (the trio pictured with Melissa’s mother Edna in Los Angeles in May 2020)
The breast cancer survivor later had twins Johnnie and Miller, 17, with ex-partner Tammy Lynn Michaels. The former couple enlisted a sperm donor to help them conceive the twins
The rocker has been happily married to actress, producer and writer Linda Wallum since 2014 (pictured with Wallum and Bailey in New York in June 2019)
Of Beckett’s loss, the Piece of My Heart singer said, “I can see my son’s death as a great loss, but I can also see it as an amazing time that he lived and learned a lot,” she told People in September 2023. “He taught me so much and I find a lot of comfort in the non-physical.”
The breast cancer survivor later had twins Johnnie and Miller, 17, with ex-partner Tammy Lynn Michaels. The former couple used a sperm donor to help them conceive the twins.
Since 2014, she has been happily married to actress, producer and writer Linda Wallem.
Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken opens July 5, with the accompanying docuseries debuting July 9 on Paramount+.