Bailey Cypheridge Tells PEOPLE What It's Like Growing Up on the Road with Melissa Etheridge (Exclusive)
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Melissa Etheridge's daughter, Bailey Cypheridge, tells PEOPLE what it was like growing up with a generational icon as a mom
Melissa Etheridge's daughter has the sweetest memories of growing up with a rockstar mom.
Speaking with PEOPLE about her appearance in MTV and Paramount+ series Family Legacy, the daughter of the "Come to My Window" singer and ex partner Julie Cypher says that she's known her mom was a star for as long as she can remember.
"I was always going on tour with her from such a young age. I was used to her performing and that being her job and part of her life," Bailey Cypheridge, 26, recalls.
Cypheridge says the best thing about growing up with her mom on stage is being able to see the "evolution of her tours."
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"I've seen her play by herself. I've seen her play with a full band. I've seen her play with an orchestra, which was so cool. There's a venue I'll always remember in Amsterdam, and she has such a cool fan base there. We went there for the first time when I was like, 13, and I still just remember the crazy energy of that show."
Cypheridge calls her mom a "true Gemini," noting her life offstage is much different than the force she's known to be in front of audiences.
"When she's not working, she really likes to stay home. She loves the Chiefs, she's a huge football fan. That's her idea of a perfect Sunday, watching football with my stepmom with a giant mixing bowl of guacamole. And honestly, we play a lot of music at home, too. Just for fun, you know, just with our family, even when she's not working."
As a queer woman herself, Cypheridge appreciates Etheridge's dedication to normalizing families like their own.
"As a kid, I knew I had two parents that loved me and wanted me, and that's a lot more than a lot of people can say," Cypheridge tells PEOPLE. "I actually remember, when I was in kindergarten, I was bragging about having two moms because I thought that was a good thing. I still think it's the coolest thing."
"As I grew up, it meant more to me how much my parents were trailblazers and how hard it must have been for them at the time. For my mom to stay true to herself and to stay out even when so many people were telling her she'd have a more successful career if you say in the closet," she says.
"I think it's really brave that that was just never a question for my mom. It means a lot more to me, now, looking back as an adult because I'm also a queer adult, so I can look at that and think that they really led the way for so many people, including me."
Having endured the loss of brother Beckett at 21 in 2020 from an opioid overdose and more recently, the death of her biological father, family friend and Crosby, Stills & Nash's David Crosby, Cypheridge says she tries to "carry the best parts of both my brother and my dad with me."
"I try to listen for what their reaction might be in their head if I'm trying to make it an important decision or something like that," she says, noting "loss and grief are really hard."
"I don't think anyone has a clear-cut way to deal with it. I try to focus on the good memories, try to know that feeling that loss so deeply means that you loved something so deeply."
Calling her mom the "biggest-hearted and kindest person ever," Cypheridge notes, "You just don't find that type of person that's really genuine."
"She puts out a message that she puts out this love and acceptance. She's a very like peaceful person, and I don't think has ever got to her head in the way that it so easily can because she's always been so focused on her craft," she continues, remembering a time when the mother-daughter duo walked into a restaurant together, and fans reacted to the singer, who thought they had spotted someone else.
As both a daughter and a fan, Cypheridge has a favorite piece of memorabilia she calls her own.
"I have the cover of Rolling Stone that came out two years after I was born when they announced that my father — my brother and I share the same father, and that was a secret until they decided to announce it, they announced it there," she shares. "I have that magazine in my bedroom, and I just think it's really cool to have that."
Laughing, she adds, "I mean, I peaked in '99. Can't really top that."
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