Ty Herndon

20012004: Departure from Epic Records In late 2001, Epic released the song "Heather's Wall", which was intended to be the lead single from Herndon's fifth album for the label. At the time, Herndon was considering exiting the music business to star in a Broadway theatre production of Urban Cowboy, but decided against it. Paul Worley, the producer with whom he was working at the time, recommended "Heather's Wall" to him when the two were selecting songs. Herndon originally rejected the song as "too heavy", but decided to record it after the September 11 attacks inspired him to record music again. Although the song was well-received by fans, Thom Jurek of AllMusic reviewed the album favorably, stating that "Herndon's voice is not only unchanged from his missing years, it's stronger, his phrasing is tighter and more expressive, and his manner of handling a song is entirely his own." One track from this album was a cover of Johnny Reid's "You Still Own Me", itself later a single in late 2007 for Canadian country band Emerson Drive.

Herndon's next album was Journey On, released on the independent FUNL label in 2010.

The album was nominated at the 53rd Grammy Awards for Grammy Award for Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album. "Journey On" was selected by American football player Kevin Turner as the theme song for his Kevin Turner Foundation. This foundation is dedicated to research of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's Disease, which Turner had been recently diagnosed with at the time. After Journey On, he released a non-album single titled "Stones", which was previously recorded for his unreleased Epic album in 2001. FUNL released the song to country radio without disclosing the artist's name, and held a contest with radio programmers to see if they could determine the singer.

2013present: Lies I Told Myself, House on Fire, Got It Covered. and Jacob The album Lies I Told Myself followed in 2013, also on FUNL. Prior to the album's release, Herndon had performed the title track in concert, and chose to make it the lead single due to its positive reception from fans. He also noted that the track "Beautiful Love Song" had been written eight years prior and rejected by other artists, but he chose to record it because he liked the sound of the song's demo. Another track on the album, "Sugar", was co-written by country singer Sara Evans's brother, Matt Evans. Herndon compared this track to "Steam", and cited it as an example of the more "modern" sound he wanted on Lies I Told Myself. Herndon financed the album through a Kickstarter campaign, and supported it by touring with Jamie O'Neal and Andy Griggs.

His next album was 2016's House on Fire, which once again featured several songs he co-wrote. It was his first release on the BFD label, and he co-produced with Drew Davis and Erik Halbig, a guitarist in Herndon's road band. Herndon described the title track as autobiographical, while in comparison, "All Night Tonight" came from Davis and Halbig wanting to write a "beach song". Herndon said that he had almost considered retiring from country music due to the lack of success of his last few albums until he heard "So Small" on the radio. When Underwood found that Herndon had covered the song, she spoke favorably about it on social media. In 2020, Herndon collaborated with Kristin Chenoweth and Paul Cardall on a single titled "Orphans of God".

Herndon's next single release was "Till You Get There" in June 2022 on Pivotal Records. This was the lead single to his next studio album Jacob, released one month later. It included more songs that Herndon had written about his personal life. Country musicians Terri Clark, Emily West, and Shelly Fairchild provided guest vocals on individual tracks, as did jazz singer Wendy Moten. Herndon told Spin that the album's title came from the account of Jacob wrestling with the angel in the Book of Genesis. This was followed in late 2022 by another single titled "God or the Gun", which was accompanied by a music video. The third single from the project was "Dents on a Chevy", a duet with Terri Clark.

Herndon signed a three-album deal with the independent Club44 record label in June 2025. His first project for the label will be a compilation titled Thirty, which will include re-recordings of his hit singles. The first such re-recording to be released was of "What Mattered Most" with LeAnn Rimes as a duet partner.

Musical style Herndon's singing voice has generally been met with critical favor. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote of Ty Herndon's musical style, "His earnest delivery was a good match for the kind of streamlined country he sangmusic that didn't shun tradition but was aligned with the anthemic, rock-influenced arena-country pioneered by Garth Brooks at the dawn of the '90s." Dan MacIntosh described Herndon as having "straight-with-no-frills singing". When taken into custody, Herndon was also discovered to be in possession of methamphetamine. Herndon filed a plea bargain and was sentenced to community service and drug rehabilitation, after which the charge of indecent exposure was dropped. He also had a lawsuit filed against him by a California dentist claiming that Herndon had not paid for emergency dental work and another lawsuit from a former manager for breach of contract. In addition, he relapsed into drug and alcohol addiction. This led to him experiencing depression and weight gain. After his friends noticed he had not left his apartment in several days, they flew him to Nashville, where he lived in his mother's basement for one month before re-entering rehabilitation. After completing this, he returned to performing in 2004.

Herndon's addiction to methamphetamine resulted in a second relapse in 2020, at which point he was discovered in his apartment with both methamphetamine and Ambien in his possession. In addition to this, Herndon was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2021.

Relationships and sexual orientation Herndon married Renee Posey on March 13, 1993. The couple lived in Dallas, Texas, at the time, but held their wedding in Nashville. During the 1990s, Posey worked as a registered nurse. The editors of The Encyclopedia of Country Music wrote of the exposure incident that it "raised sexuality questions" within the genre, and that Herndon's continued commercial success throughout the rest of the 1990s indicated an unprecedented level of tolerance within the fandom. Herndon and Posey divorced in 2002. thus becoming the first mainstream male country star to do so. Herndon was partnered with his boyfriend Matt Collum for eleven years before the two amicably separated in 2021.

In relation to his coming out, Herndon re-issued "What Mattered Most" in June 2019 with the song's pronouns changed to reflect a gay relationship. This re-recording appeared on Got It Covered, and Herndon commented that he wished he could have recorded the song in that fashion at the time of its original release. Many of the songs on House on Fire, including the title track, are about the stigmas that Herndon felt he faced as a gay man in country music, typically a more conservative genre than most others. He also credited conversations with country singer Chely Wright, who came out as a lesbian in 2010, with giving him the confidence to come out. Herndon and Wright have performed together at benefit concerts for GLAAD on multiple occasions. In 2016, Herndon and CMT presenter Cody Alan founded the Concert for Love and Acceptance, an annual concert to support LGBT youth in Nashville. In February 2023, Herndon became engaged to Alex Schwartz, whom he had been dating for six months prior. They married on August 27, 2023.

Discography

Studio albums What Mattered Most (1995) Living in a Moment (1996) Big Hopes (1998) Steam (1999) Right About Now (2007) Journey On (2010) Lies I Told Myself (2013) House on Fire (2016) Got It Covered (2019) Jacob (2022) THIRTY, Vol. 1 (2025)