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Exclusive Interview With Sean Dietrich
Oct 8, 2025
Sean Dietrich speaks to Everything Nash about his new book, Over Yonder, overcoming childhood trauma, spreading light and goodness into the world, and more.
View Video Transcript
0:01
Hey guys, it's Gail with Everything Nash
0:03
here with the fantabulous Shawn
0:05
Dietrich. So glad we get to talk today,
0:07
Sean.
0:08
I'm I'm proud to be here.
0:10
Well, we have a lot to talk about. I
0:11
want to start with because you're coming
0:13
to Colombia and I'm going to be there um
0:16
in October. Talk about being in
0:18
Colombia. Talk about what you're doing.
0:19
You're touring. You're talking. Just
0:20
give us all the details. Uh well, I am
0:25
going to be doing a show there and uh
0:27
I've been doing my oneman show kind of
0:30
all over and uh I never set out to do it
0:34
and I never thought this would be
0:36
anything I'm doing with my life but uh
0:39
over the last 10 years it has kind of
0:41
evolved uh from an evening of
0:44
storytelling into an evening of audience
0:47
participation. And really all I all I
0:51
aim to do wherever we visit is make
0:54
everybody feel really really really warm
0:56
and good uh for as long as we're
0:58
together even if it's an hour and then
1:00
we do a meet and greet afterward. Uh
1:02
whoever wants to stay, I will I will be
1:06
the last one to leave the building. I'll
1:08
I'll stay as long as they want me to and
1:09
hug everybody's neck who's come. And so
1:11
sometimes our meet and greets last for a
1:14
long long time. And uh but I like it. I
1:17
love it.
1:18
So, you said this isn't what you set out
1:20
to do. What did you set out to do?
1:22
Uh, I don't know. I I when I was
1:26
younger, uh, music was really important
1:28
to me. U, so I kind of kind of supposed
1:31
I would be a musician. Uh, and I did a
1:34
lot of bluecollar work and I do
1:36
bluecollar jobs in the day. Uh, and then
1:39
I would play music at night and I played
1:42
in churches, but then I also played in a
1:44
lot of places that my mother did not
1:45
want me to play. and uh and I made my
1:48
living that way. And I guess I suppose I
1:50
thought that that would just kind of be
1:52
what I do. Uh and I was happy with that.
1:56
And then I started riding kind of on a
1:58
on a whim. I didn't really set out to be
2:01
a writer. And my writing just kind of uh
2:04
snowballed
2:06
and uh I did this this little event at
2:10
the Dothan Library in Dothan, Alabama in
2:13
Houston County. I mean uh yeah anyway I
2:18
was uh I was there and they had asked me
2:21
to do to speak and I said well you don't
2:24
you don't want me to talk I don't know
2:25
what I'm doing and I had self-published
2:28
one book at that point and they said
2:30
well please come and give us a little
2:32
talk I think we have some people here
2:33
who'd like to see it and I said well
2:36
okay I finally gave in and my wife and I
2:38
showed up and I brought a guitar and uh
2:41
I was in the back room of the library
2:43
there were maybe 10 chairs set up
2:44
plastic chairs and I thought maybe
2:48
half those people would come and uh as I
2:52
was setting up the microphone and
2:54
everything,
2:56
people just kept coming in into that
2:58
room and coming into that room and
2:59
pretty pretty soon it was standing room
3:01
only in that room and people were kind
3:03
of filed out the door and I was just I
3:05
had no idea what to even think or do and
3:08
I came onto the microphone and said,
3:09
"What do you want me to do to
3:12
everybody?" And they said, "Well, just
3:14
tell us a story." So, I told a story and
3:17
they said, "Well, well, sing us a song."
3:18
And so, I sang a song. They said, "Well,
3:20
read something from your book." So, I
3:21
read something from my book. And that
3:22
ended up being what my very first, you
3:24
know, quote unquote show. And ever since
3:28
then, it's been what my wife and I do
3:31
pretty much full-time. So, uh, and that
3:34
that's been a long time ago. So, anyway,
3:36
I found you when you wrote about the
3:39
sweet boy named Preston with Down
3:41
syndrome. Yes,
3:42
we adopted our daughter also. So, I'm
3:44
always into adoption stories. And I
3:46
remember I think I was I think I was on
3:48
my way to Alabama with my husband for
3:50
some reason. And I was just sobbing
3:52
reading the story. Um and then I
3:54
followed you through your whole El
3:56
Camino journey. Like I've just followed
3:58
your journey. What I'm want to know and
4:01
I'm asking you this because you've been
4:02
vocal about it. Your childhood was not
4:04
the best,
4:05
right?
4:06
And you have been so vocal about sharing
4:08
that part of your story and I'm really
4:10
curious why. Uh simple uh because
4:15
when we go through trauma,
4:18
it's a wound and after that wound uh the
4:23
body just like the mind
4:26
tries to repair it and it does a pretty
4:30
lousy job at first because it's it's
4:32
such a deep wound. So what happens a lot
4:35
of times is infection and so infection
4:38
starts to take over it physically but
4:40
it's very similar mentally and you get a
4:43
lot of pus buildup and you get a lot of
4:45
fluids if that wound is not addressed
4:48
correctly from the beginning and it we
4:50
rarely do you have this infection and
4:53
the only way to get an infection out of
4:57
your body or your mind is to drain it is
5:00
to get is to to address it. So,
5:04
I find that talking and being vocal
5:06
about things like that, going back and
5:08
talking through it is like letting go of
5:12
all that buildup, that infection that's
5:14
been growing, that pus. And the more you
5:17
do it, the more you speak about things
5:20
that you're afraid to talk about and the
5:22
more you decide that you're not going to
5:26
avoid it and and and engage in pure
5:29
avoidance, the more you experience
5:32
healing and the more the less power it
5:34
has over you. The more you do it, the
5:35
longer of a period of your life that you
5:38
make that normal for you, the power that
5:41
your trauma has over you diminishes
5:44
almost to nothing. And that is kind of
5:48
miraculous. It's kind of sweet. Uh, and
5:50
it's it's it's
5:53
something that
5:55
is counterintuitive when you grow up
5:56
that way. Uh, the first reaction when
5:58
you go through something bad is to just
6:00
kind of move on with your life and
6:02
ignore it. And I I've noticed that so
6:04
much in my own family and also in other
6:07
people that I meet. And my goal is to
6:12
help people see that it's it's okay to
6:14
talk about it. In fact, talking about it
6:16
will set you free. The longer you do it,
6:18
the more you do it and the more open you
6:20
are to doing it will allow you to talk
6:23
about it. And because we're such
6:25
empathetic creatures as humans, when I
6:28
see somebody talking about it, I'll
6:29
start to talk about it. So, if someone
6:31
sees me start to talk about it, well,
6:32
hey, maybe I'll start talking about it.
6:34
And it's the yawn. It's the yawn reflex.
6:37
If they see me yawn, well, maybe they'll
6:38
start to yawn, too. And
6:41
that's so powerful. Um, I want to get to
6:44
your book, but before you just performed
6:47
at the Grand Opry.
6:49
Yeah.
6:50
I I do a lot of interviews back there,
6:52
and I always say, if those walls could
6:55
talk about being part of the Grand Opry.
6:59
Well, uh, this past time was my sixth
7:03
time and I wish I could say that, you
7:06
know, it gets like old habit, you know,
7:10
but it it not for me at all. But that's
7:13
because I
7:15
that's because out of all the people
7:16
there, I don't belong there. And I think
7:21
I think everybody kind of knows that on
7:22
some level because I I'm I'm
7:26
a lot different than uh than I I took a
7:28
a different route than a lot of the the
7:30
bigger names there. And so uh when I go
7:33
there, I have a ball with the staff,
7:38
with the uh oh my gosh, with the
7:41
security guards, with the ushers. I
7:43
mean, those are my those are my people,
7:44
and I genuinely love those people. Uh
7:48
the ground opery the first time I did it
7:51
was
7:53
so transformative for me. Uh my dad was
7:56
a huge fan of the Grandal Opry. He died
7:57
when I was 11 and I walked out to the
8:00
crowd and people were out there at the
8:03
opery and I looked out in the audience
8:07
and I saw a huge poster board. Someone
8:10
had printed out a photograph, a major
8:13
large photograph of my dad and they were
8:15
holding it up in the audience and I saw
8:18
that and I just about lost it and
8:22
actually I did. I I doubled over on
8:24
stage and I was I was crying and uh
8:28
people were still kind of like, you
8:29
know, cheering me on. Come on, get up to
8:31
the microphone. And I remember saying to
8:32
myself in that moment while I'm double
8:35
over on the stage, I said, "All right,
8:38
buddy. You got to get it together. you
8:39
are on the grand old oper. You cannot
8:42
just sit out here and cry. And I sucked
8:44
it up and I don't know how I did it, but
8:47
I I swallowed all that in a moment and I
8:50
was normal Shawn there for a second and
8:52
I got up to the microphone and I said
8:54
words that I had been waiting my whole
8:56
life to say. I said over the microphone,
8:58
I'm just so proud to be here just like
9:01
many Pearl would have said. And uh it
9:04
was it's amazing. It's amazing.
9:07
There's such a tradition. such an
9:09
American tradition. It's It's amazing.
9:11
It really is. Okay, let's talk about
9:13
your book, my friend. You have a book
9:14
coming. Is this your fourth?
9:16
This is my Well, this is my 20th book,
9:19
but it's my fourth uh novel with the
9:22
with this publisher. Actually, it's my
9:26
I think it's Yes, I think it's my fourth
9:28
novel with this publisher.
9:31
Maybe maybe my sixth if you count my
9:33
non-fiction.
9:34
talk about it and talk about the
9:36
difference like so novel and you've
9:37
written all these books about your life
9:39
and what's the juxosition there just
9:41
give me all the details
9:43
um
9:45
okay uh you know well I've always loved
9:47
novels I've read I I dropped out of
9:50
school when I was in the seventh grade
9:52
after my dad my dad died when I was 11 I
9:55
tried going back briefly and then I just
9:56
dropped out uh and I kept up with
10:00
entertainment and ed and my education
10:02
and the only way I knew was by reading.
10:04
I went to the library every week and
10:07
novels were super important to me
10:08
because they were you can learn a lot by
10:11
reading novels. So, I've always wanted
10:14
to write fiction. But it really hit home
10:17
with me when I was uh
10:21
when I was starting u writing at all. As
10:26
I watched people and I asked I was
10:28
asking friends, I noticed that the world
10:30
was kind of sad. People are sad. And I
10:32
said, "Why, you know, where are you
10:33
getting your information from?"
10:36
Uh, and I'd listen to their answers and
10:39
they would say, "Well, we we read the
10:40
internet. Uh, we we watch Netflix or or
10:45
you know, streaming services and we read
10:47
novels and we and I noticed nobody's
10:49
really getting their information from uh
10:53
from historians or from or from
10:55
self-help off. They are they are, I
10:57
guess, to some degree, but most people
10:58
are getting it from these entertainment
11:00
sources." And I thought, you know, if I
11:02
write novels, perhaps I can say some of
11:05
the things I want to say in a different
11:07
form that people will enjoy. I don't
11:11
know. So anyway, I started writing
11:12
novels. And uh this novel in particular
11:15
is about
11:17
uh a character that that I really kind
11:20
of got into. Uh, and he's a man who
11:25
I don't know how much to reveal here
11:27
because I can never I can never figure
11:29
out how much to reveal, but he's a uh
11:31
he's just an everyday guy who who
11:34
figures out a few things about his life
11:35
that he did not know. And uh he's going
11:38
through a lot of health issues and then
11:41
it's also about a young woman who who
11:44
discovers uh some things about her own
11:47
self that she didn't know. And somehow
11:49
these two stories interweave. I don't
11:51
know how much to give away. I'm terrible
11:53
at this. Uh anyway, in short, the book
11:58
is about found family, which all my
12:01
books to some degree are about found
12:03
family because I have such a splintered
12:04
family myself. The people who have been
12:08
incredibly formative in my life have
12:10
been found family members. I mean, you
12:14
mentioned Gettysburg. I was just in
12:15
Gaysburg last week and I went with a guy
12:18
who who has been like a surrogate dad to
12:21
me and we were together and it was the
12:24
greatest week. I mean, we made so many
12:25
memories over that week. It was just
12:27
incredible and he's not related to me
12:30
and yet
12:32
I've never felt more related to somebody
12:35
in my life. So, uh that's my books all
12:39
contain that theme of that found family.
12:42
Um, found family. It sounds like you
12:45
have a rockstar wife because it was her
12:46
idea to do El Camino, right?
12:48
Oh, yeah.
12:49
I need to be friends with her.
12:50
Yeah, she's a lot. She's she's uh she's
12:54
huge in my life. She's uh
12:57
she's she's probably the most
13:01
she's probably the the reason I'm even
13:03
alive. She's just wonderful.
13:05
Will she be in Colombia?
13:06
Oh. Oh, yes. She does everything. She
13:09
she didn't go to Gettysburg with me,
13:11
which is very rare. She because it was a
13:13
kind of a guys trip, I guess. And uh it
13:16
felt very I called her. I said, "This is
13:18
weird." Because we have traveled Jam
13:19
Jamie and I have traveled the country
13:21
together and been everywhere together,
13:23
even all the way up to the Canada border
13:26
uh together and done it together. And we
13:29
have our roles and she is everything.
13:31
She is I do the stage stuff, she does
13:34
everything else. And uh without her it
13:37
was very bizarre. I said, I just feel
13:38
like h there's half of me here.
13:41
Well, I'm gonna have to be friends with
13:42
her. I'm gonna let you go soon, but I
13:44
have to ask you this yet because you
13:45
have been so open. Talk about your
13:48
faith. I love how when you kind of put
13:50
people in their place in your own gentle
13:52
way. Talk about your faith and why you
13:55
choose to be so open about it.
13:57
Well,
14:00
that's a really it's a good question
14:02
because
14:05
because I've noticed that everybody
14:07
brings to u their perception of faith or
14:13
a little bit of their own
14:14
interpretation. And this is what
14:18
causes so much division in people
14:21
because
14:23
they were raised in a culture of faith
14:25
that believes this and they're waiting
14:26
for my answer to say something that
14:29
either agrees with X Y and Z or
14:31
disagrees with XYZ so they can figure
14:33
out where I am where they can put me in
14:35
a in a in a in a pigeon hole and say,
14:38
"Well, no, no, he doesn't believe that."
14:40
So, yeah, you know, he's just not. Or
14:43
they can say, "Yes, he's one of us." And
14:45
I find that at the core of those of
14:47
these inquiries that I because I get a
14:50
lot of the
14:52
is the need to exercise this
14:57
primal instinct we have of of
15:00
classifying other people with us and
15:03
them. Uh if I can classify you as you're
15:06
part of them, you're not us. Uh then I
15:10
then I know where where we stand. But I
15:12
find that in my faith uh one of the most
15:15
defining characteristics is we are all
15:17
us. That there is no them. That that
15:21
I find an incredible unity
15:24
with my early
15:26
church fathers, the ones right after you
15:30
know I I grew up in the Christian
15:32
tradition. Uh so in 33 AD when Jesus was
15:38
you know was taken care of by the Roman
15:41
government uh the church that blossomed
15:43
out of all this I find such a kinship
15:46
with them but I also find a kinship and
15:49
have been finding more kinship with
15:52
certain people that I never thought I'd
15:54
have anything in common with. So, my
15:56
faith has been continually tested and
16:00
transformed and opened up.
16:03
I believe uh that I I wouldn't be here
16:07
if it wasn't for my
16:11
uh if it wasn't for the provision and
16:15
providence of God. And so
16:18
I know so little about this wonderful
16:22
benevolent creator, the great artist,
16:26
but I feel that it's important to
16:30
point upward so that people realize uh
16:35
that that
16:37
there's just more there than I think we
16:39
believe. I think there's more there than
16:41
we expect that we know. abundant love.
16:42
Love
16:44
which is the the uh fabric of who this
16:49
creator is and it's the fabric of the
16:51
universe kind of unifies us all and I
16:55
feel that we ought to give more credence
16:58
to that than we do. So again, I try to
17:01
talk about it and uh I take a lot of
17:03
heat for it because some people classify
17:06
me as a uh I mean one guy called me a
17:09
pantheist and I don't even know what
17:11
that means and then another person has
17:12
called me a heretic and uh I love these
17:16
letters actually when I get them because
17:19
I find that there are more people out
17:21
there who feel the way I do who feel a
17:25
brotherhood and kinship with every human
17:27
being
17:29
than than the people who
17:32
draw hard divisions between us. So my
17:34
faith my faith is quite simply uh I love
17:41
I love and I love God and I love you.
17:44
That's that's all I know.
17:46
I've said often I think we all just
17:48
stumble all the way home.
17:49
Yeah, I so agreed. I agree.
17:52
I'm gonna end it there because that was
17:53
good. Thank you, Sean. Good to see you.
17:55
I will see you in Colia.
17:57
I'll see you. Thank you friend.