Everyone knows Melissa Etheridge is a renowned singer, songwriter, musician, and guitarist, but you may not know that she’s also a memoirist. Her latest, Talking to My Angels, has just hit shelves. To celebrate this huge accomplishment, she recently chatted with Katie — and their intimate conversation went places.

In this in-depth interview, the pair talked about everything from Etheridge’s childhood to her more recent journey experimenting with ayahuasca (including her recommendations for who can benefit from the experience). They also dove into the horrific sexual abuse Etheridge was subjected to as a child and reflected on how Etheridge views the experience now. Plus, they got up close and personal about Etheridge’s relationships with her past romantic partners and her mother, and the loss of her son (and how his death has influenced her to help people struggling with addiction using a unique skill set).

We’ve included some of our favorite moments from this raw, must-listen conversation below, but watch the video to get the full effect.

Melissa Etheridge’s ayahuasca tips

Katie Couric: I just interviewed Jada Pinkett Smith. She wrote a memoir called Worthy, and she talked about her spiritual awakening, which was interesting. You both write about your experiences with ayahuasca. I’m curious what that journey was like for you. I have friends who’ve done it, but I’m afraid. First of all, do you have to do it in those really hot tents?

Melissa Etheridge: No, I actually did it in my home.

Because a lot of people do that in the sweat lodges. That sounds miserable to me.

[If you do ayahuasca, you have to] really listen to yourself. Some people are like, “Oh yeah, give me that and we’ll go and do it.” And many people have come up and said the same thing: “I’m just afraid.” Because it’s a very different experience and I would not advise someone to just go do ayahuasca because it’s going to rock your world. It is not something to do recreationally. It’s not fun. This is not for everyone.

Life is full of loss. I would suggest it to anyone who’s having a very hard time. It’s very good for drug abuse. It’s very good for people who are having a hard time letting go of grief. If you’re searching, this is a great answer. I was searching. I had already had this unintentional, huge journey and I wasn’t as afraid of it anymore. It does help people; it helped me get over my fear of death. Sometimes, the fear of death can rule a person’s life. And when you go on an ayahuasca journey and ceremony, you realize that we are not our bodies; we are eternal beings inside here. And our bodies are going to expire someday because they’re just meat. But we are eternal. When you get the sense of our eternalness, that’s a gift because you live your life differently.

Melissa Ethridge’s sexual abuse by her sister

You also write about your older sister, Jenny, who sexually abused you from the age of six or seven.

I was about seven or eight, I think. Until I was about 12 and said, “No, stop.” That can mess you up…But again, I’m not going to be tethered to that. I freed myself from that. I went on from that. It became so distant from me that it’s almost funny talking about it and her life. She had a miserable life — and still kind of does. But we don’t talk, we just have an understanding that we were two people who happened to be in the same family together.

I think she was being sexually abused somehow, not by my parents but elsewhere in the family system, I don’t know where. A long time ago I tried to talk to her about it and she was just kind of disconnected from it. But I think it was happening to her because children act out what’s happening to them.

Melissa Etheridge on her son’s death

I just marvel at your resilience. You dedicate the book to your son, Beckett, who died in 2020. It’s so upsetting because he started taking Vicodin after a snowboarding accident, and like so many people in this country, became addicted to opioids, which is so infuriating.

Before he started Vicodin, I wouldn’t call him a happy individual. He had a hard time finding happiness. It’s that sort of personality that if you give them something that not only takes the physical pain away but numbs that dissonance inside of them, that’s going to be addictive. And then if you don’t take it, you’re going to feel bad. Then you’re stuck — you don’t have the willpower, the ability, or the tools to get out of it. He went in and out of rehabs and therapy to talk about all the bad things he went through, and it wasn’t working.

And that’s why I started the Etheridge Foundation. It raises money to provide research into plant medicines and psychedelics that are helping with opioid use disorder. But there’s so much other research — you hear about psilocybin and cancer or hospice. These are still schedule 1, which means there’s no medical data to prove they work. So we’re providing the research and the medical data to change this so these tools can be available. And that makes me feel like I’m doing something to move this forward.