Episode 60 – Conclusion with Rich Merritt
Listen to the amazing conclusion with author Rich Merritt as he tells more about his life and where he is today!
Rich Merritt’s website <—– click here for more information
Buy his book <————- click on this link to buy his book today!
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June 18th, 2006 at 1:29 pm
Another great interview. I couldn’t help but think about an NPR segment on books which dealt around the question whether someone had to have had a rocky childhood or history in order to write an interesting memoir. One of the people being interviewed was Augusten Burroughs (“Running with Scissors”). I don’t remember the exact comments but Burroughs stated that the result of his tumultuous upbringing was that he HAD to write. It was through writing that he not only dealt with his abuse as a child but also helped him to deal with his later alcoholism.
Listening to Rich Merrett it sounds very much the same way. It was this very process of writing that helped him to get where he is today.
I don’t envy these guys “exciting” lives; however, I think their stories tell us a great deal about the gay community and how we need to learn to cope with all of our compartments. (I’m very big into compartments myself.) I’m sure for every Burroughs and Merritt who are successful in overcoming these demons there are multitudes who were not successful. Perhaps Rich is right, perhaps part of this comes from not going through the whole natural dating thing as teen agers and we develop these horrible self image and identity issues.
At any rate, it’s great to hear about someone who has overcome this and looks forward to the future.
June 19th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
Ahhh, Perhaps that’s why so many drag queens love referring to themselves and the rest of the Gay community as retarded: because gays and lesbians are about 5-10 years behind the heterosuxual children because of the confusion (IE: “I’m not attracted to this girl… am I supposed to be doing stuff with them? Oh whatever, I’ll just have interesting philosophical discussions and play with computers”). I’d say this explains the generality that Gays and Lesbians tend to do better when they have their shit together and fall harder when they find something like substance abuse… but really I have no statistics to back anything up and it borders on a stereotype.
Otherwise, I’m sorry to hear Rich had a tumultuous life, but otherwise I am happy to hear he’s getting through it okay. I guess I like the idea of retiring porn stars going “I’m done with that now” and then going off to live a happy life without this sort of thing shadowing them or getting them fired. But at the same time I imagine it can’t be that easy.
July 26th, 2006 at 2:17 am
The three-part interview format worked well for Rich Merritt’s story. All interviews were informatively and sensitively conducted; and I especially appreciated the non-judgmental discussion about porn. Having previously read the book, it was good to put Rich’s voice to his words. The bonus is learning about events subsequent to the end of the book.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Wow. The Advocate sounds like an awesome magazine and sounds like it’s done wonderful things for many people’s lives. Glad Rich was able to pull through everything and make the best of his life.