Women Who Rock founder Melinda Colaizzi and trailblazing rock star and activist Melissa Etheridge speak to the Gibson Gazette ahead of Benefit Concert in Pittsburgh
August 28, 2024, sees the return of the annual Women Who Rock Benefit Concert, presented by Gibson Gives at Stage AE in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ahead of the event, we spoke to Women Who Rock founder Melinda Colaizzi and legendary musician and activist Melissa Etheridge. Etheridge will headline the 100 percent female-fronted music lineup at the show and has signed a 1968 Les Paul Custom Reissue, which is up for auction in aid of the Magee-Womens Research Institute.
“The Women Who Rock Benefit Concert is all about raising funds for life-saving women’s health research,” says Melissa Etheridge. “I went through my own health issue 20 years ago, I’m still cancer-free now, and I know how important it is for women’s health to be studied specifically and independently.”
In founding Women Who Rock, Melinda Colaizzi was inspired by both her experiences in the music business and health issues that impacted her family. “The reason we do what we do is to help empower and support women in the music industry and also raise awareness and funds for women’s health research, which—not just in the US but all over the world—is still grossly understudied and underfunded,” she explains. “I’ve been personally affected; my mom is a cancer survivor, and I saw firsthand how a clinical trial and groundbreaking research saved her life.
“When I thought about the state of women’s health research and the underrepresentation that women still face in the music industry, I thought we could do something about it that’s not scary or divisive, and I thought we could do that through a concert.”
What began seven years ago as a one-off show with an audience of around 100 people in the Hard Rock Cafe in Pittsburgh has become a global brand and a movement that has united some of the biggest names in the music industry—including a partnership with Gibson Gives—to support not just live events but also other initiatives such as the Women Who Rock apparel line. Melissa Etheridge is an artist whom Melinda Colaizzi has been trying to book for the Women Who Rock Benefit Concert for several years. In addition to holding Etheridge in high esteem as a “rebel and a trailblazer for women in the music industry,” there are other synergies, as Melinda explains.
“She’s 20 years cancer-free as a breast cancer survivor, and her foundation does great work based on opioid addiction,” says Colaizzi. “For the women’s health research side of things, Women Who Rock is partnered with the Magee-Womens Research Institute, which is our nation’s first and largest research institute dedicated solely to women’s health. Not only is breast cancer research an amazing part of what they do and are world leaders in, but they are also one of the only centers that provide care for pregnant women who are addicted to opioids. A lot of doctors shame those women, and then they stop going to the doctor. And I thought Melissa would be such a great person to connect with on this.
“Gibson made a beautiful introduction on our behalf, but our concert historically was always in October, when she was on Broadway with her show, so the timing didn’t work out. We approached it a little differently this year and said, ‘Hey Melissa, we’ll work around your tour schedule!’ So that’s why the concert is a little earlier this year, in August. We’re just so grateful to have her onboard.”
For Etheridge—currently celebrating the release of I’m Not Broken, a documentary in which the multiple GRAMMY® Award-winner performs at a women’s prison in Kansas after writing a song inspired by letters from some of its residents—opioid addiction is an issue that has impacted her directly, following the tragic death of her son in 2020. As the documentary proves, music has the power to make beautiful human connections even when dealing with challenging subject matter.
“What I love about the documentary is, not only did I do the hit songs, I also did some really deep tracks that only the steadfast fans know, from some of my lesser-known albums,” says Etheridge. “These are songs that talk about addiction, and guilt, and consequences, and things like that. For the people in the penitentiary that I was playing for, these are the songs I wanted to play for them. Songs like ‘Into the Dark,’ ‘An Unexpected Rain,’ and ‘The Shadow of a Black Crow,’ which was written when I was really starting to understand what addiction was and saw what my son was going through.
“Playing it for them, I was trying to relate to them, and when I talked about losing my son four years ago to an opioid overdose, in the audience they showed their little hearts with their hands and they were so empathetic to me—and they were the ones behind bars, not being able to see their kids and stuff. It really touched me.”
It’s fitting that a Gibson Les Paul™ was the guitar chosen to be signed by Etheridge for the charity auction. Etheridge’s current number-one instrument is a Les Paul Custom, and although she is a longterm fan of Gibson instruments and describes them as her “favorite guitars to play,” in recent years, her relationship with the brand has blossomed—something she puts down to a mindset shift at the company. “When Cesar [Gueikian] took over, Gibson really started to get into gear, and really change,” Etheridge says. “One of the changes was hiring women, and those women began looking for women guitar players. We’ve always kind of been on the outskirts and people don’t really think we can play the guitar!
“I’d been playing a Gibson Les Paul for a long time—that was my guitar; after many years of trying other things, it just felt right. I was always a vintage girl, and vintage is great, but after a while, on the road, you are going to have trouble. You’re always going to be fixing it, sort of like a car. So I thought, ‘Well, let’s see what a brand-new Les Paul sounds like.’ And they sent out my three-pickup Les Paul Custom. Man, it sounds so good, every night when I’m soloing on it. I put the whammy bar on it, which makes it look really crazy! It’s so good, I’m so grateful for it.”
Get tickets for the Women Who Rock Benefit Concert presented by Gibson Gives on August 28, 2024.
Visit the official Melissa Etheridge website for news on upcoming tour dates and releases.
