In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with award winning country singer Ty Herndon about the 2019 Concert for Love & Acceptance at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville, Tennessee on June 6th. The 5th annual concert takes place during the legendary Country Music Association Festival and will be hosted by Grammy-nominated and Dove Award-winning artist Herndon and CMT’s Cody Alan. The concert features a coalition of artists and celebrities appearing and performing to accelerate acceptance for LGBTQ people. Herndon co-founded the concert with GLAAD the world's largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization in 2015 and will also perform along with Antigone Rising, Daughtry, Harper Grae, Tayla Lynn, Brody Ray, Brandon Stansell, Rita Wilson, Chely Wright, Tyler Rich, Lee Brice, Mickey Guyton and more. Anita Cochran is returning as a performer and musical director for the show. We talked to Ty about his inspiration for The Concert for Love & Acceptance and his spin on our LGBTQ issues.
When asked as we approach the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall how he sees our LGBTQ community moving forward in this Trump administration Herndon stated, “You know that’s a big question. In this administration today I know there have been many challenges. I pretty much try to focus my attention on the kids and where we are in the South. We have seen the suicide rate go down but there’s so much work to be done educating not only the kids but educating the parents out there that don’t want to lose their kids. When I first started doing this even in a political environment it was hard to get people to listen to me. You’d go ‘Hey, do you know how may LGBTQ suicides you had in your state alone this last year?’ I had a number of people go, that’s not correct and I’m like no go look it up, it is correct. So when it comes to having power at all, it comes to the children...”
Ty Herndon’s career spans two decades with 20 Billboard charted singles and 5 million albums sold. He continuously performs shows and maintains a heavy appearance schedule proving Herndon as unstoppable. In 2014 Ty was the first major male country artist to publicly come out as gay. Shortly after he made history when he hosted the first country music event, The Concert for Love and Acceptance. The event is designed to bring attention and support to at-risk youth. Since the launch of the event Herndon has partnered with GLAAD to produce the event each year using his celebrity influence for the better good. GLAAD announced that a grant named after Herndon was being offered to support young people for their commitment to enhancing LGBTQ inclusion and representation in music. The recipient of the Ty Herndon Rising Stars Grant receives $2,500 to further fund their work and initiatives. We’ll be covering the 2019 Concert for Love & Acceptance that takes place at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville, Tennessee on June 6th.
For More Info & Tix: glaad.org
