Press Tour (Part Two): Ricky Cornish & Steve Duffy
After wrapping a phone conference with Parade Magazine, I was buzzing with excitement for my next interview. This one was a Zoom call with the one and only Ricky Cornish from Pride Magazine. I’ve watched him work his magic on red carpets, interviewing Scott and Mark with that infectious charm. I knew this was going to be a blast.
Ricky was every bit as delightful as I had imagined, just sweet, funny, and so easy to talk to. The real heart-melting moment came when Scott chimed in during the interview.
“I'm just so excited that my mom is telling this story from her perspective. There could be parents that relate to it more and understand it more. My mom didn't fully understand [my coming out] at first, but she had unconditional love for me. When I came out, the concern she had was my safety. It just makes me very grateful, it makes me want to cry.”
Cue the waterworks. That hit me straight in the heart.
We covered so much ground during the conversation. We reminisced over old memories, talked about the surreal experience of watching Scott perform in front of 15,000 fans, dreamed about what the book could mean for readers, and even chatted a little about baby possibilities. It felt less like an interview and more like catching up with an old friend. Ricky is such a talent at interviewing, please check him out if you haven’t.
That call wrapped up the first part of the day, but there was much more to come.
Steve Duffy – Edge Media Network
My next stop was an interview with Steve Duffy from Edge Media Network. He began with a brief overview of Scott’s journey, from high school to USC, The Sing-Off, and Pentatonix’s rise to mainstream success. From there, he asked about my inspiration for writing the book, Scott’s feelings about me telling our family story, and my own journey after he came out.
Steve also discussed Scott’s role as an inspiration for young LGBTQ+ people, asking how that feels as a mother. His final question was my favorite:
“If you could choose one life lesson for readers to take away, what would it be?”
I answered, “What's important is love, acceptance, support, and positivity. Those things can change lives and send a person in the right direction. Negativity will hurt them. As a parent, when your child comes out to you, make sure you handle it in the right way, because if you do not, your child is the one who will suffer. “
You can find this and more about our conversation in the published article, alongside a video of Scott performing “Pray” on the Kidd Kraddick Morning Show. I will share more about that in a future blog.
This was just the start of an incredible string of powerful conversations that reminded me that sharing your story can be so healing. In the next post, I’ll share my interviews with SiriusXM’s Eric Alper and Denny Patterson from Instinct Magazine, where my emotions ran just as high.
