“She walked in and said, ‘My wife is Melissa Etheridge. She has cancer. I want to get her something special’”: Melissa Etheridge on how she came to own a “museum quality” Fender from Norman's Rare Guitars – which she played at the 2005 Grammys

Since storming into public consciousness in 1988 with her self-titled debut, Melissa Etheridge's journey as a guitar storyteller has gone from strength to strength – and with that, so has her impressive (and, to say the least, sizable) guitar collection.

One guitar in particular, though – bought from the well-loved Norman's Rare Guitars – reflects a very specific time: her cancer journey, which culminated in a raw (and, frankly, historic) performance of Janis Joplin's Piece of My Heart at the 2005 Grammys alongside Joss Stone.

Melissa Etheridge and Her Favorites Purchased at Norman's Rare Guitars - YouTube

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“The first guitar [from Norman's] was actually when I was going through chemo, and my girlfriend at the time knew I was in a whole lot of pain,” she says in the Norman’s Rare Guitars documentary on Netflix.

“I had talked about this place – that I wanted to visit it again, that I hadn't been there for 20 years. And she walked in here, it was Christmas or something. It was a special time, and she wanted to get me something, and she didn't have any idea what to do, [so] she walked in here and literally said, ‘My wife is Melissa Etheridge. She has cancer. I want to get her something special,’ and Norm's like, ‘Okay.’ And he took her to the rare, rare stuff.”

Etheridge ended up unexpectedly receiving what she believes to be a 1964 Fender Thinline Telecaster that she describes as “museum quality.”

“It's the guitar I played when I played the Grammys in 2005, bald. That guitar was what I got from here, and it's probably the finest guitar I own. It's amazing – and it's funny, because I probably wouldn't have bought it, but my girlfriend at the time came in and just laid the money down and didn't ask anything.”

From then on, she truly caught the rare guitar bug – eventually purchasing a ’64 Gibson Hummingbird, a J-45, a Mosrite double neck which was made specifically for country guitarist Elaine Frizzell, a ’79 Gretsch Country Gentleman, and a ’79 Fender Jaguar, all from Norman’s.

In other Norman's Rare Guitars news, owner Norman Harris recently revealed to Guitar World that Joe Bonamassa could very well be the ideal person to replace him when he retires.