Rich Hennessy
Biography
Rich Hennessy has finally found his voice.
He found his literal voice at a young age – he was known in the family for belting out pop songs in the back of his mom’s Dodge Caravan.
But in high school, Hennessy found he had another voice – one with the power to make change.
“Growing up as a public school student in a small New Jersey town, I saw how politics worked and their effect on everyday life, especially on the school system,” says Hennessy. “By high school, I recognized what corruption looked like and that it was everywhere. So many times on both sides officials would say, ‘Well, what about the children?’ but I remember feeling, ‘They have no idea what children want--no one ever asked us.’ Who was actually advocating for students?’ So around high school, I decided it would be me. I started showing up to school board meetings, advocating for what I thought was in the best interest for the students. I went toe to toe with Teacher’s Unions and Administration.”
Hennessy carried with him his love of advocacy to college, representing his fellow students and eventually becoming student government president. But there was another voice inside him that wasn’t ready to emerge.
“I didn’t want to come out in college. I felt like being gay would damper my success in school and put my twin brother under the microscope for the next three years. I thought me being gay would have been the ultimate ‘demerit’ on my life.”
After a string of life-changing events post-college that forced Hennessy to look inward, Rich’s father, who shares a deep passion for music and songwriting, invited Rich to join him on a trip to Nashville. Rich found himself in the studio with budding songwriters and artists, and everything clicked: the boy who loved to belt show tunes, the teenager who was compelled to advocate, and the proud gay man who had come out of the closet and learned to love himself. “I can do this, and I should have done this a long time ago.”
Hennessy moved across the river to NYC and began booking gigs around town, eventually landing local opening slots for national acts. But he couldn’t shake what he had experienced in Nashville – a vibrant pop music scene driven by a tight-knit network of songwriters, artists, and producers.
One cold winter night, after an especially frustrating bartending shift on Manhattan’s West Side, Rich made his nightly walk down 8th Avenue and knew it was time to take another leap. A few months later, he pulled a U-Haul up to his first Nashville apartment.
Appropriately, the first song Hennessy recorded was a cover of the 80s anthem “You’re The Voice,” released just prior to the 2020 election. Hennessy, who was eager to use his music to inspire and empower others, performed the song as part the iVoted concert, and partnered with Drag Out The Vote to record a lyric video.
After he saw the song become a vehicle to empower others to speak their truths, Hennessy began honing his songwriting skills. He knew others would connect with his story and his experiences. Digging deep in songwriting sessions, Rich returned to his advocacy roots and knew as a gay man living in America, there was much work to be done.
“There is room in the industry for artists to use their voices to push agendas,” says Hennessy. “There are so many artists in marginalized communities that don’t speak up on social issues, especially white gay men. I know it’s a risk, but I also have to live in this world. I have to break the silence on my community that has been marginalized.”
His first original song, “Enough,” chronicles what he calls “his love/hate relationship with America.” “I wrote the song about a relationship where someone had been disappointed or burned, but that relationship is me with my country. Through school shootings, police killings, and the COVID pandemic, when is enough, enough?”
Seeing the success of “Enough” and feeling empowered to write more, Hennessy’s next release, “Break The Silence,” began while in quarantine out of frustration for the mishandling of COVID as social justice demonstrations unfolded around the country in the wake of the George Floyd killing. Hennessy felt compelled to write the anthem to inspire others to “reclaim our time.”
“It’s truly amazing what can happen when you find your authentic voice and use it to change the world,” says Hennessy. “Of course I want people to enjoy my music, but on a deeper level, if I can empower others to find their voices through my music and to speak out against injustice, that is on a scale so much bigger than personal satisfaction. I want my music to be an agent of change.”
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