What Mattered Most: A Memoir

Country singer Herndon debuts with an affecting chronicle of his struggles with addiction and coming to terms with his sexuality. Shaped from childhood by the devout Southern women in his family, Herndon recalls first singing on his grandmother’s Christian radio program at age five, in 1968. A few years later, he was singled out by a tent revival preacher during a fiery sermon on homosexuality. Though Herndon was too young to understand the sermon, the public shaming left a scar, contributing to his later efforts to suppress his same-sex attraction. Despite a supportive, borderline-codependent relationship with his mother (“Miss Peggy was never prepared to analyze anyone’s psychology, especially her own”), Herndon spiraled as his music career took off in the 1980s and ’90s, burying the pain of the closet in anonymous sexual encounters and crystal meth. With unblinking candor, he chronicles his fragile sobriety, 2014 coming-out, and 2020 relapse followed by a suicide attempt, but ends on a convincing note of hope that outlines how therapy has helped him heal. It’s a raw account of one man’s jagged path to self-acceptance. Photos. Agent: Zeke Stokes, ZS Strategies. (Mar.)