Melissa Etheridge has opened up about her relationship with the late David Crosby.
The 63-year-old rocker, who dazzled in black at the 2024 CMT Music Awards, turned to the singer-songwriter as a sperm donor when she and ex-partner Julie Cypher wanted to start a family.
Etheridge said Crosby’s wife, Jan Dance, suggested it.
“They had just received help to have their child and they were grateful. They wanted to return the favor,” said the Grammy winner. People ahead of the release of the documentary series Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken.
“The situation was special with my partner at the time because she had been adopted and she wanted her children to know who their biological father was,” the Breathe artist explained.
Melissa Etheridge has opened up about her relationship with the late David Crosby, who died in January 2023, aged 81. Crosby was the sperm donor who helped the singer become a mother.
“So we weren’t going to go to a sperm bank because she wanted them to know.”
Etheridge and Cypher share 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 age 81, as “perfect” for the job of donor because he “didn’t need 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 dad, so he is the biological father, but they didn’t need a relationship with him,” she explained.
The “Similar Features” singer said the service provided by Crosby and his wife “really taught me about generosity.”
Since then, she and Bailey have discovered that the folk-rock legend was also generous to others.
“We keep finding David Crosby’s children in the world. My daughter says, ‘I have another 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 that she has since learned he was a donor for other families as well. “We just kept finding kids,” she told People (pictured here in 1995).
The singer said Crosby’s wife, Jan Dance, suggested the rock icon help her and his ex-partner Julie Cypher have children. She explained that Cypher was adopted and wanted her children to know who their biological father was. (From left) Cypher, Etheridge, Crosby and Jan Dance
The Grammy winner shares daughter Bailey, now 27, and late son Beckett with Cypher (the trio pictured with Melissa’s mother Edna in Los Angeles in May 2020).
The breast cancer survivor had 17-year-old twins Johnnie and Miller with her ex-partner Tammy Lynn Michaels. The former couple turned to a sperm donor to help them carry the twins.
The rocker has been happily married to actress, producer and writer Linda Wallem since 2014 (pictured with Wallum and Bailey in New York in June 2019)
On losing Beckett, the Piece of My Heart singer said, “I can look at my son’s death as a huge loss, or I can look at it as his time here being a huge life and learning moment,” she told People in September 2023. “He’s taught me so much and I find great comfort in him in the non-physical.”
The breast cancer survivor had 17-year-old twins Johnnie and Miller with her ex-partner Tammy Lynn Michaels. The former couple turned to a sperm donor to help them carry the twins.
He has been happily married to actress, producer and writer Linda Wallem since 2014.
Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken will premiere on July 5, with the accompanying docuseries debuting on Paramount+ on July 9.