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Tuesday, July 22, 2008
7/22: Interview with former Grant Park man Ty Pennington, Sean Hannity and WSB-AM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I feel out of breath after a 10 minute interview with former Atlanta boy Ty Pennington, the whirling dervish of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”
He’s in town today to promote a new drug Vyvanse for adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, better known as ADHD. And he has no complaints about the heat. {“I love it super moist!” he said.)
Pennington said he grew up with ADHD, known at the time as hyperactivity. He had a tough time focusing on one thought, idea or project at a time.
“My mom was studying child psychology when I was a kid and she asked for the worst child in the class to observe. That ended up being me!” he said. “While she watched, I probably jumped on my desk, swung from the blinders and set a small fire in the back of the room. Let’s just say I was a bit of a distraction.”
She even tried a bribery system to keep him in line but he wasn’t stupid: he quickly realized the trinkets were in a particular closet. He didn’t get medication until college and he has managed, for better or worse, with various meds since then including Adderall. “It was like someone literally put glasses on my eyes for the first time. I could see clearly!”
Two months ago, he switched to Vyvanse and said it has improved his ability to focus. “I don’t know about everybody else but it works for me. And I need something that works. Now I can finish a thought, finish a sentence.” (Note that the pharmaceutical company Shire is now paying Pennington to sing the drug’s praises.)
Even with the medicine, Pennington still talks a mile a minute.
“I work countless hours, long hours, traveling, juggling two rooms I’m designing simultaneously and the next two around the corner for next week and doing a magazine and a book and designing things at Sears.”
But he has no regrets. “I have the best job in the world,” he said. “I’m really stoked I can do what I do. What other show can I be creative as an artist and change someone’s life, too?”
During his time with TLC’s “Trading Spaces,” he lived in Grant Park but moved to Los Angeles in 2002, soon nabbing what would become his signature gig at “Extreme Makeover” the next year.
He no longer owns real estate here but still misses his friends and family. “I miss the nice rhythm and pace. People appreciate the quality of life.” He’ll be back in Atlanta for Labor Day to sign books at the Atlanta Journal Constitution Decatur Book Festival. His new book culls stories from his past few years dubbed “Good Design Can Change Your Life: Beautiful Rooms, Inspiring Stories.” “We have only 40 minutes on the show to tell a story so we can get into more details here,” he said.
You can get more details of the book and order it here.
And for a quick laugh, here’s a facetious clip from “The Soup” related to Ty Pennington on the show:
-Pete Spriggs, the program director at WSB-AM, got back to me today about Sean Hannity and whether the new deal between him, ABC Radio and Premiere will affect his presence on WSB-AM. For now, no. But Spriggs won’t tell me when the contract is up with any level of specificity: “The new deal with Sean Hannity doesn’t change anything with our relationshp with him. We will be a Sean Hannity affiliate here for a long long time to come.”
“I talked to Sean this morning,” he noted. “Sean works in New York. But our relationship with him is one where we feel he’s a member of the WSB team. He’s good friends with Neal Boortz, Clark Howard and Scott Slade.” Expect Sean’s next visit to Atlanta to be on Sept. 5, a public event with Neal Boortz, place TBD.
