Singer Melissa Etheridge said her children’s sperm donor, the late musician David Crosby, also fathered many other children the same way.

The 63-year-old recording artist discussed the situation with People magazine while promoting her upcoming docuseries, “Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken,” which will air on Paramount+.  

“The situation was special with my partner at the time because she had been adopted and she wanted her children to know who their biological father was,” Etheridge told People of deciding to have children with ex-girlfriend Julie Cypher. “So we weren’t going to go to a sperm bank because she wanted them to know.”

She added, “To me, I didn’t want someone who wanted to be a father… I didn’t want all of a sudden my children to have…’Oh, there’s dad.’ And who am I? That sort of thing.”

Etheridge said Crosby’s wife, Jan Dance, was the one who suggested he become their sperm donor. She had two children via Crosby’s donation: Bailey, age 27, and Beckett, who died of a drug overdose in 2020.

“They had just had help having their son and they appreciated that. They wanted to pay it forward,” she told the outlet. “We’re still finding kids from David Crosby out in the world. My daughter’s like, ‘I have another half-sister.'”  

“He did not need to be [a father]. And that’s what really made it clear for me, was that he was willing to say, ‘Yeah, I was the biological father.’ And my kids call him bio dad, so he’s the biological father, but they didn’t need a relationship with him,” Etheridge went on.

Crosby died in January 2023 from complications related to COVID, per his family. Etheridge posted about it on social media, calling him, “the gift” of her family.

“I am grieving the loss of my friend, and Bailey’s and Beckett’s biological father, David,” Etheridge wrote on Instagram.

“He gave me the gift of family. I will forever be grateful to him, [son] Django, and [wife] Jan. His music and legacy will inspire many generations to come. A true treasure.”

Crosby is known for being a member of the Byrds in the mid-1960s and later of the group Crosby, Stills & Nash, which became massively popular with their California rock music in the 1970s.