Melissa Etheridge reveals how Johnny Cash’s prison gig sparked her ‘own’ passion

Melissa Etheridge opened up about her inspiration behind performing at the local prison in her new docuseries

Melissa Etheridge recently opened up about her inspiration behind performing in prison in her latest docuseries Melissa Etheridge: I’m not broken.

Speaking to PEOPLE, Etheridge shared that it was Johnny Cash, who paid her Kansas hometown a visit in 1970 to perform at a local prison.

The 63-year-old shared: “No one in Kansas City saw him. I thought, ‘Wow, prisons must be a place of fine entertainment. And this is a goal. I would like to be that someday.”

Melissa revealed that performing at various penitentiaries influenced her in many ways.

Reflecting on her experience, she added: “I wasn’t afraid of prisons or of what was going on in there. And so I always knew that I wanted to get back and do that sort of Johnny Cash thing, the performance for people that really need it, who probably haven’t had entertainment in months, years, decades, and just how healing that can be. I had no idea what it would be like, and it was really beyond what I thought.”

For the unversed, Cash rose to fame after he performed in Leavenworth for 1200 people.