“We would roll into, say, Portland, and go to the pawn shops. You could find a ’57 Les Paul for $200!” Melissa Etheridge learned more from a grouchy old man who’d lost his fingers than she did at Berklee

PHOENIX, ARIZONA - OCTOBER 12: Melissa Etheridge performs at Arizona Financial Theatre on October 12, 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by John Medina/Getty Images).

“I really appreciate Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton,” Melissa Etheridge tells Guitar World. “But I realized that I missed out on 10 years of sitting in my bedroom and playing a Fender Strat, so I don’t play like they do.”

Instead she cut her teeth in clubs after forgoing an education at Berklee. “I have my own style of playing,” she says. “I’m not the fastest. I don’t desire to do dweeddly-dweedly stuff all the time! I like to be melodic and to move people with the guitar.”