Melissa Etheridge Believes that Beckett’s Death Taught Her that No One Can Save Him.

She recalled, “It was four years of a downward spiral and I kept thinking: ‘We’ll continue putting him in programs,’ You’ve to learn this, get that,'” He was too difficult to live with, and when you can get away with drugs, it’s easy for me to understand. He never had joy in his life. It was four years later that he slowly began to decline. I put him in programs. I took him out. You can do anything you want. You believe that you can save him if I do the right thing. You can save him. He can be punished. I can do it. Finally, in the end, I realized that I couldn’t do any other, and I knew I might get the call one day after he was gone. He can decide. It is his life. He must figure it out. These were his choices.

Beckett’s death in 2005 was the year that the Grammy-winning musician started the Etheridge Foundation, to fund research into new opioid treatment options.

She admitted that she was not surprised by his death. “I was so sad. He hadn’t contacted me in four days. He was taken to the police, who then informed me that he had disappeared.

She has questioned her handling of it all and admitted that “the guilt and shame will eat at you up.” It was extremely stressful. Our entire family took some time to heal. We are still here. We remember him and we celebrate him. We remember how hilarious and joyous he was. We are still close to him, and we support each other in not bringing any guilt or shame into our home.

She admitted that the grief is not over, but it is still “endless”. “I can’t imagine that I will ever stop thinking of him. He is always on my mind. He has helped me to realize that those thoughts can be turned into joy and that I must not let them bring me down. It doesn’t work. He doesn’t want it, he is in the pain-free territory. My deep belief is that we are both in a physical reality. The non-physical reality is right beside us. We are all doing this together. When I think about him with love, I feel him. He is close to me when I think about him with love.

Etheridge, who has been married to actress/writer/producer Linda Wallem since 2014, also shares daughter Bailey, 25, with Cypher. Etheridge is also the mother to Johnnie, 15-year-old twins with Tammy Lynn Michaels.