Trinity the Tuck gives a new spin to the Scrooge story with a new holiday book and album – News JoJo
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Trinity the Tuck is a drag legend, and she’s here to brighten your holidays with a new album and book based on the classic tale of A Christmas Carol.
RuPaul Drag Race’s first double crown All-Star winner released her first-ever Christmas album, Trinity Ruins Christmas: The Musical, featuring a sleigh full of St. Nick’s most talented drag superstars, including Alaska, JIMBO, Manila Luzon, Aria B Cassadine, Ginger Minj and Kylie Sonique Love. The accompanying hardcover book Trinity Ruins Christmas: The Chronicles Of Sister Mary Kuntz features original illustrations and story co-written by Trinity and Jason Michael Snow. The book is based on the tale of Ebeneezer Scrooge, told through the drag lens of Trinity The Tuck, featuring characters that she popularized on Drag Race.
We had the chance to chat with Trinity about her latest project and her favorite holiday memories in our exclusive interview. We also put this multi-talented queen in the hot seat for another installment of the Socialite Seven. Learn more about this project that certainly won’t ruin your Christmas – it will definitely make it much better.
Let’s talk about Trinity Ruins Christmas. Where did you get the inspiration for it?
Well, the initial idea was just to redo my song. I have a song called “Trinity Ruins Christmas” that’s like a drag bop that I did a couple of years ago in the vein of “The Grinch”. And, you know, Christmas comes around each year, so I was like, how can we reinvent this for something new for this Christmas? And I was talking to my team, and we were like, let’s make it a ballad because how fun is that – because the lyrics don’t lend itself to a ballad, so it just makes it comical. And, during the creation of that, we decided instead of it being a ballad, we were like, okay, well, why don’t we just make this into a whole entire musical?
And so, in order to create the story, I had to write the book first. Even though that was the secondary thought, I wrote the book and then from there I collaborated with a producer, and we wrote all of the songs and It turned into this huge project that I didn’t even expect it to turn into. It’s been so exhilarating and fun something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time and it’s been magical. I just love it
What is the writing process like for you to create the book and all those songs?
Well, it’s all based around the original story of A Christmas Carol but this is told through the lens of a drag queen, and there’s definitely some twists and turns that make it way different than the original.
I really wanted to make this a queer story, because we don’t have a lot of holiday stories around queer people, especially drag queens. And, you know, drag, especially right now, is being vilified. And to me, I wanted Trinity to be the character of Scrooge. I wanted her to be misunderstood. I wanted that character, even though she was seen as something bad, she’s just really misunderstood and also even for herself, you know, she doesn’t even understand herself fully and throughout the story, she is being shown her past and reliving what has brought her to be who she’s become and in the end, the moral is she realizes she may not be a perfect person, but she can have some empathy and kindness for others. And that’s really the moral of the story.
I listened to the whole album and it’s really good. My favorite song is “Light in the Dark”. Is there a song that means the most to you on the album?
You hit the nail on the head. “Light in the Dark” is my favorite song. It’s the one song that’s a ballad that pulls your heart strings. It’s the core of the story of when Trinity is starting to realize that the root of why she is the way she is and the start of her transition into a better person. I think that a lot of people can relate to the story because the song is about going through challenges in life but seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and realizing, you know, not all bad things last forever, that we can get through things and, and that’s, that’s the moral of the story for that specific song.
And I love that song and Aria, who sang that song on the album, did a fantastic job. Her voice blends to it. She’s very soft. And the character is the ghost of Christmas past and is a very gentle ghost and almost like a motherly character and she was perfect in the role.
How did you get to work with some of the other queens that are on the project with you like Alaska, Sonique, Ginger Minj, Jimbo and Manila Luzon?
I know all of these queens personally and when writing the album, we picked the characters and as we were going through writing the character or writing the songs, I was like, okay, this is who I think I want to play this character. And when I reached out to each of them after we had the demos each of them said yes. I was thrilled that everybody that I picked that I wanted on the album actually said yes – and each of them did a fantastic job. I mean, Alaska is playing God as a she. Manila plays a baker woman and Kylie Sonique Love plays a younger Trinity. Ginger plays my evil business partner, Neil Down, who is so funny, and her song can be my second favorite song on the album. Aria plays The Ghost of Christmas Past and Jimbo plays Tiny Tammy. Everybody played their parts so fantastic. I really don’t think that I could have picked somebody better for each of them. They all did so good.
What does Christmas mean to you?
Christmas is my favorite holiday. And although it’s Trinity Ruins Christmas, I am far from the character in the book. I love, love the holidays. It’s very nostalgic for me. I no longer have my grandparents around who raised me, but I had a fantastic childhood, even though we grew up really poor.
I didn’t realize that we were poor, and I always had everything I ever needed growing up – which was mainly family and food and the pageantry of what Christmas is with all the decorations, it was always just a magical time and still is today. I love to decorate and I love to have friends and family over and it’s all about food and having that camaraderie and love all around.
Do you have a favorite Christmas song?
“All I Want for Christmas” is definitely the number one Christmas song. But there’s tons of classics. When I hear different songs, they all have a different memory from my childhood.
You’re on the Drag Queen Christmas tour. What can fans expect to see when they come see you in that show?
First of all, I’m doing two of the songs from the album, so they can definitely check those out live. I’m bringing, “It’s in the Book”, which is sung by the character Sister Mary Kuntz, who is the illustrator of the story.
She’s one of my characters from season nine. And a lot of fans loved that character. So I’m excited to bring that back out for them. And then I’m also, I’m actually going to be doing Ginger Minj’s song, “Guilt So Heavy” as Neil Down and I have some surprises for that number, the costume and everything. It’s going to be fabulous. So, if you’re interested, I will be on those dates during the month of December, and you can check out tickets and tour dates at DragFans. com.
I loved you on AJ and the Queen. I thought you were fantastic. Do you have any aspirations to do any more acting?
Oh, yes. Actually, I just got back from South Africa where I filmed an entire movie that’s going to be premiering on Tubi. It’s a Tubi original coming up in the new year. I don’t know exact dates, but it’s called Slay and it’s a horror comedy. It’s got From Dusk Till Dawn meets Priscilla Queen of the Desert vibes. It’s drag queens that are fighting against vampires and the lead cast is myself, Heidi N Closet, Crystal Methyd, and Cara Melle. We’re all Drag Race alumni and it’s going to be fantastic. I’m also on a couple of episodes of some TV shows coming out soon, though you’re just going to have to check out my social media for updates on that.
I enjoyed seeing you on Drag Me to Dinner. How was the experience for you working with Bebe on that show?
Oh, so fun. So, on Drag Me to Dinner, I found my love for acting a fool. I think that, you know, starting drag and through my drag career, I was always a pageant queen, so I always had to hold myself at such a caliber of professionalism and polish and Drag Race really allowed me to just dip into being silly. And so now I find I love doing stuff that’s just absolutely silly and Drag Me to Dinner was absolutely silly. Me and Bebe made such a great team because we’re such opposites. She’s so poised and she takes herself very seriously. And although I’m very polished and glamorous, I am the opposite. I will make a fool out of myself at the drop of a hat. And so, to have the chaos of me and the put togetherness of her together for a team. It just made comedy gold and I had so much fun with her on that. It really was. I’m hoping for another season. Now that the strike is over, we can start doing that.
Now, we all know you won All Stars, but if Mama Ru came knocking to put you on a vs. the world season, would you want to do that?
No, I don’t. I think my competition era with Drag Race in the scheme of a regular competition setting is done. I’ve done a regular season. I’ve done an All Stars season. I did a winners season. If I was to come back, I’m not opposed to coming back to compete. I would love to, but it would have to be something different. I’ve already done everything else. It would need to be something for charity, or it would need to be something like drag mother and daughter or something interesting that would make it more interesting for me because I’ve already done it. There’s nothing else I can gain from it. I already have the most wins out of any queen, so I would want to do it if I could do something interesting for me.
You have pretty much done it all – you have acted and sang and performed and written a book. Is there anything that you haven’t done yet that you want to accomplish?
You know, I often tell this to some of my close friends. When I started drag, I never would have thought that my career would have taken me to every continent other than Antarctica. I would have never thought that I would have had over a million followers on social media. I would never have thought that I could have made a living and bought a house because I didn’t grow up in a house, I grew up in a trailer, but I never thought that this would have been my life. When I started drag and I’ve accomplished so many things, all of the goals that I’ve set forth, I’ve accomplished. And, if I was to die tomorrow, I am extremely happy. Now once I accomplish one goal, I’m moving on to something else. So, a goal of mine was to write a book and here we are. My next goal is to make this story and album into a live musical on Broadway or the West End or maybe make it a Christmas special. So that’s my focus now and we’ll see what doors open. I’m totally open to doing bigger and better things and that’s all we can do. But I will say that I’m very fortunate and I’m very happy with the things that I’ve accomplished.
Trinity the Tuck Answers the Socialite Seven
Who has been your biggest influence?
I think overall my biggest influence to date would probably be my sister. I know saying a family member is kind of cliche, but my biological sister has been through so many things in her life, health wise and personally, that she’s really triumphed through it all. And it really pushes me to know that if I’m going through a tough time, that I can get through it because I know people that have gone through worse. And so, she’s definitely been a big supporter of mine and also someone that I’ve looked up to because of her sheer will to survive and thrive and she’s done that. I definitely think that she’s been my inspiration. Actually, this book is dedicated to her, my sister, Ginger.
Who would you love to work with that you haven’t yet?
I don’t fangirl over a lot of artists and stuff but I was fortunate enough to work with Taylor Swift on her music video (“You Need to Calm Down”) and actually I won a MTV Video Music Award for being in that video. But I’ve worked with her. She was fantastic. I would love to work with some more celebrities. Madonna is on tour right now and Bob the Drag Queen is fortunate enough to be on tour with her and she has this huge mural of pictures of people. She’s dedicating her tour to people who have died of the AIDS pandemic. I was reached out to by her team to include my birth mother’s picture in that because she unfortunately passed from complication of AIDS in 1993. I would love to work with more people that support our community. I think it’s super important that we keep our messages out there in a positive way. I would love to work with more artists like her. Kylie Minogue is another, also Lady Gaga. Any of these inspirational artists who support our community, I would love to work with.
What is your biggest pet peeve?
I don’t like when someone is not professional. I think that in whatever setting that you are in, it could be drag or not drag. Just be professional. You could still have fun and let loose but you know, if you’re there for a job, you need to complete the job, and that includes being on time and that includes being respectful and delivering what you’re there to deliver. And I think when people are unprofessional, it not only disrupts the production or whatever the task at hand is, but it makes it difficult for other people to do their job too.
What are three things you can’t live without?
Oh, I can’t live without my dogs, food and. TV. I’m a huge movie and television buff. I love my TV shows. I have many favorites, but right now I’ve been watching House of Villains. It’s a reality competition and it’s all these TV villains from different other reality shows that they put in a house. And it’s so fun. It’s so shady.
If you could wake up in the morning with a superpower or a talent you don’t already possess, what would that be?
I think I would like to control minds because I think you could do a lot with that. I think you could get anything you wanted in the world with controlling minds. And that includes changing a law to something positive or, you know, if I wanted more money or if I wanted someone to like me or if I wanted to buy something or, you know, trivial stuff, to be able to control minds or get people to do what you want them to do. You know, if somebody is bothering me. I can just tell them to go away, and they would just walk away. How fun would that be?
If they made Trinity: The Movie, who would you want to play you on the big screen?
Oh, gosh. Well, everybody would pick Meryl Streep. I mean, she’s the actress of all actresses. She’d be the number one choice because she could play anything.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Oh, I tell this a lot to people. One thing that someone told me at the beginning of my Drag Race journey, when I was on season nine, they were like, you’re going to become really popular, and just know that you can’t take everyone with you. And I was very confused by that. For a long time, like, not a long time, right after that, for months after that, I didn’t understand what they meant, but it stayed in my mind because I was confused. I was like, I don’t understand.
But as you go, you realize that a lot of people you meet in life aren’t necessarily meant to be in your life long-term. They’re there to either serve as a life lesson or whatever that might be. And that’s true for everyone. And it doesn’t matter what your job is or what you’re going through in life. You can’t take everyone with you. You can’t be friends with everyone, like true friends, you know. If everybody was really friendly, if the more friends you have, the less friends you have and so, you just can’t take everyone with you. You have got to prioritize your happiness, your mental health, and prioritize the people who truly love and support you who’ve been there the longest and that has stayed true over the years.
Trinity Saves Christmas (the book and album) are now available on all digital platforms and through Trinity’s merch store. Only 200 copies of the book will be available so be sure to snatch yours up as quickly as possible. Follow Trinity on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Spotify, YouTube and on her Official Website.
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