Melissa Etheridge, solo and personal in Santa Barbara

As a singer-songwriter, Melissa Etheridge took cues from the best. She wore the tapes out of artists like Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, Peter Gabriel, Rickie Lee Jones and Paul Simon.

“They wrote songs that spoke to the human condition,” said Etheridge. “I always believed that’s what a singer-songwriter’s job was.”

Two Grammy awards and 13 albums later, some might say she’s doing her job well. In addition to making music, she came out as a lesbian in 1993, battled breast cancer in 2004, and she got married in Montecito in 2014. She has four children, one of her sperm donors, musician David Crosby, lives in Santa Ynez. In 2009, she sang “Born to Run” at the Kennedy Center in honor of Bruce Springsteen.

Who would she like to see up on stage during her own honorary concert?

“I would love to hear Adele sing anything that I do,” she said. “Anything.”

Etheridge plays a solo performance at UCSB’s Campbell Hall on Sunday, November 15th.