“She told me, ‘That Les Paul’s too heavy for you, honey. You’re not gonna be able to do that.’ So she took me to Norm’s Rare Guitars”: When Bonnie Raitt took Melissa Etheridge guitar shopping – and convinced her to swap her Les Paul for a Strat

Melissa Etheridge had no shortage of heroes growing up, and like any other young guitarist, those inspirations shaped the way she played the guitar.

In a recent interview with Guitar Player, Etheridge revealed who was on her pantheon of greats. It was easy. There were a trio of players that summed up everything she wanted to do with the instruments.

“When I was playing acoustic, I was very influenced by Richie Havens and José Feliciano,” she says. “They both had this powerful way of playing an acoustic guitar, so I really followed that. And then Keith Richards; when I heard the Rolling Stones stuff, I felt like, ‘I can do that!’ Those three – to me, that’s guitar playing.”

But every young musician needs a mentor to dispense hard-gained wisdom. Etheridge had got her deal with Island but was still a rookie as far as the electric guitar went. She was lucky, though. She had Bonnie Raitt, and Raitt knows electrics.

For starters, she knew that the 1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom Etheridge had bought back home in Kansas with her father was an impractical choice for the touring musician. Norlin-era Les Pauls often have a rep for chonk but even so, Etheridge admits this was something else, as in “the heaviest thing you can imagine”.

Raitt told her straight up that she was too slight to be playing that big ol’ slab of mahogany night after night, no matter how thick her guitar strap was.

“She took me under her wing,” says Etheridge. “She told me, ‘That Les Paul’s too heavy for you, honey. You’re not gonna be able to do that.’ So she took me to Norm’s Rare Guitars when it was deep in the Valley.”

As anyone knows, Norman Harris’ store is the place if you want to make a serious trade. Etheridge had some considerable collateral. Given that Raitt took her to the guitar store it was no surprise that she returned with a Fender Stratocaster – though Etheridge does sound a note of regret.

Melissa Etheridge - Bein' Alive (Official) - YouTube

Watch On

“I traded in my Les Paul for a Strat… although I wish I still had that Les Paul, ’cause it’d be worth a lot of money now,” she says.

Etheridge actually went to the bother of trying to track the Les Paul down. But as with the whole missing Back to the Future ES-345 saga, the records were lost.

“If I knew where it was I’d go find it,” says Etheridge. “I’ve even asked Norm, but he doesn’t have any records of the things he sold from that long ago. But just recently somebody gifted me a 1979 Les Paul, so that makes up for a little bit.”

Etheridge has some new music, too. Her 17th studio album, Rise, will be released on March 27 via Sun Records. It saw her record at LA’s Sunset Sound studios, where she co-produced the album with Shooter Jennings.

And she remains a regular of Norman's Rare Guitars, shooting the single for her latest single, Bein' Alive at the store in Tarzana.