American Anthems

Jennifer

I think what writings songs is all about is being a storyteller, and this is a real life story of a real life person right now and that, for me, is exciting to get to hopefully take what is their story, get to the heart of it and speak to it in an emotional way that, uh, makes people connect with it more. I did wanna ask you, uh, just a few questions from a heart standpoint and from a human standpoint of, we all, I think, fear that call that you get in the middle of the night or, in this case, in the middle of the day, where suddenly your world is forever changed. What were you most afraid of when you got that call? -

Seth

I guess the fear is how bad is this gonna be? The hardest part, um, was watching my family watch me. -Yeah. That was the hardest part for me.

This is Maddy, Mariah. -Hi (laughs). -Yes, and the youngest, Steven. -

Jennifer

Steven. And... -

Barbara

I'm Barbara. -Hi Barbara. -

George

I'm George. Nice to meet you. -Hi, George. Nice to meet you all.

It is a pleasure to be here. I was chatting with Seth about, um, obviously his journey and, and one of the things that he pointed out most is that this has been such a collective journey. -

Seth

So, when I did break the news to my children, it was three different reactions. We did it separately and my middle daughter, uh, Madeline, who's, she's real cerebral, she likes to, like, think about things, she thought about what we gave her and she digested the information, then she looked at me and she goes, "Dad, it's just the monster under the floorboards, you're gonna have to stomp it out." -But what a fantastic metaphor, you know, across life. There are always these monsters that we come across in our lives and this one was a big one in yours and she recognized it as that as a child, from the mouth of a child to say, like, "All right, this is one of those monsters."