Fifteen years ago, at age 24, the ever-affable Tommy McFly rose to local stardom as host of The Tommy Show on 94.7 Fresh FM. Four years later, the Washington Post called him the “local Ryan Seacrest.” McFly later transitioned to TV—where he’s now NBC4’s Scene reporter. Here he reflects on a time during his radio days when he “almost came out” to singer Sara Bareilles after hearing her perform her song “Brave,” and how it all eventually came full circle.
“On April 23, 2013, ‘Brave’ debuted. Two days later, Sara Bareilles performed for my radio show at the Hamilton. It was the first time she played it live. And in that moment, I’ve got all this stuff stirring inside me.
“That decision to come out, it’s weird—like, people don’t come out as straight. It could ruin some relationships, but it can make others better. And you get to be who you authentically are. But it was not easy.
“I was really nervous about coming out on the air. I didn’t know how that would be received, what would happen. I was trying to figure out the right time and venue. So the lyrics, ‘Say what you want to say / Let the words come out / Honestly, I want to see you be brave’—I was like, Did you write this song just for me?
“We did the photo line afterwards, and I’m like, Should I come out to Sara Bareilles right now? I remember being super awkward [with her], like, ‘The song was really great, I really like the song.’ My cohost, Kelly [Collis], knew what was going on in my head and was like, ‘Move it along, let’s go.’
“I remember doing the calculations: Okay, if I come out to Sara Bareilles, there are people around. And is that really who I want to tell? Should I tell Sara Bareilles before I tell my parents? That’s probably stupid. But also, maybe someone caring about it, and it becoming a bigger thing, would have ripped the Band-Aid off?
“That June, I turned 27 and I thought, I’m going to spend a year figuring myself out. I’d been pretty sure [I was gay] since I was 14, but I wasn’t totally sure. So that was the plan: [Be] open to the universe, meet people. It was a ‘me’ journey.
“That lasted 40 days. At a table for six [with mutual friends] at Lauriol Plaza, I sat across from my [future] husband, Chrys. That was a Saturday, and Monday was our second date. By the third date, I pretty much moved in. Four weeks later, I went to Greece with him. His friend was like, ‘You should go with Chrys to Greece.’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about, I should go to Greece? What?’ So, yeah, I did.
“That’s how it happened—the spark lit by Sara Bareilles playing ‘Brave’ at the Hamilton. A little less than four years later, Chrys and I walked down the aisle to ‘I Choose You’ by Sara Bareilles. I haven’t seen her since. And I would totally tell her that story now.”
This article appears in the June 2025 issue of Washingtonian.
Amy leads Washingtonian Weddings and writes Style Setters for Washingtonian. Prior to joining Washingtonian in March 2016, she was the editor of Capitol File magazine in DC and before that, editor of What’s Up? Weddings in Annapolis.
