What matters most: An interview with gay country artist Ty Herndon

By Gregg Shapiro

Gay country music legend Ty Herndon, who came out publicly in 2014, has plenty of reasons to

celebrate. He’s been happily married to his husband, Alex Schwartz, since 2023. His forthcoming memoir, “What Mattered Most,” is being published by Harper Collins in March 2026. Herndon is also celebrating his 30th year as a country musican artist by releasing “Thirty: Volume 1” (Club 44/The Orchard), an eight song album on which he revisits songs from his career with a host of high-profile duet partners including Kristin Chenoweth, LeAnn Rimes, Ashley McBryde, actress Chrissy Metz (of “This Is Us” fame), and out country artists Brooke Eden and Shelly Fairchild. Ty generously made

time for an interview shortly after the album’s release.

Gregg Shapiro: I’m intrigued by the way that artists choose to commemorate career anniversaries, in the way your new album, “Thirty: Vol. 1,” celebrates your 30 years as a recording artist. How did you come up with the concept of revisiting some of your biggest hits as duets for the record?

Ty Herndon: When it comes to messing with original songs that were on the radio, because the

songs have nestled into people’s hearts, you don't want to venture too far from something they love. I read an interview where Ashley said, “When I was just a kid loving country music, ‘A Man Holding On,’ me and my mom used to sing it at the top of our lungs.” So, it was special to her already. One of the cool things we did was I went ahead and produced the track with my producers, and I did my part. I kept it as close to… I didn't change a lot of melodies. In some places, I just made it a little more modern. Then I gave them (the duet guests) free rein to do what they wanted. We sent everything over to their producers and said, “Play with the melodies and make it yours.” It gave them the freedom to do what they wanted with it. I didn’t want to hear it until they sent it back. I would go and put my harmonies on it. Ashley made some beautiful melody changes. And LeAnn! We were on tour together when she was 15. Right in the middle of that tour, (her single) “Blue” blew up. She came to me and said, “Mr. Ty, we're gonna have to switch.” I said, “I was waiting on this, sweetheart. I'm happy to

open for you [laughs].”

GS: You know the famous story that in 1977, Kenny Loggins was headlining a tour with Fleetwood Mac as the opening act. When “Rumours” blew up, they switched, and Kenny Loggins became the opener.

TH: There's no room for attitude or anything like that. You just want to work. If you're out on tour with

somebody and you're not happy for them, then you probably made the wrong choice.

GS: Two of the songs on the album, “I’d Move Heaven and Earth” and “A Pretty Good Thing,” feature vocals by queer musical guests Brooke Eden and Shelly Fairchild, respectively. Was it important to you to includemembers of the community among the performers on the album?

TH: Shelly and I are old friends, and she’d kill me if I didn’t call her to be on the album. I wanted “Pretty Good Thing” to be playful. At the very end of the song, you hear Joanna Cotten say, “I still think I can change him.” She surprised me with that and it's the cutest thing. This is about two friends saying, “Look at Ty! He tried to date all these girls. He was just being ridiculous.” I said, “I want you

guys to be campy and have fun with this, as the soulful artists that you are.” They both can sing their

booties off! That vamp at the end made the whole record for me. (Coproducer) Erik Halbig put a spin on

that song that made it country-radioready today. I hadn’t met Brooke. I respect the work that she’s doing. I love that she's married (to Hilary Hoover) and they have this awesome baby. They were over for dinner the other night, and the baby took to my husband like you wouldn’t believe. They were just pals! Brooke honored me and said she’d do the song. It's a love song. “Volume 1” is “hits and missed hits.” The missed hits were songs that were slated to go out to country radio if we had gone one

more single deep on the album. Sometimes the radio people say they don't want anything else from the

record. That's kind of heartbreaking. We were getting ready to do a video for “Heaven and Earth,” but it didn't happen. But it’s a fan favorite. I called Brooke and said, “We're most likely going to put this out for independent radio in the next year. This song is simply this for me. I want you to come into the studio, I want you to sing this to your wife, and I'm gonna be singing it to my husband. We're going to create an anthem, a beautiful love song for our community that speaks loudly of love.” I knew Brooke could sing. I was sitting there producing her vocals, and she sang the first and second verse through. I was so stunned that I didn't say anything. She said, “Is that okay? I changed the melodies.” I said, “I knew you could sing, child. I didn't know you were Sheryl Crow and Bonnie Raitt!” On that bridge, where she goes up to that C sharp, she asked, “Is it all right if I belt that out there?” I said, “ Yes, please!”

GS: Listening to you sing “Heart Half Empty” with Tony Award winning Broadway chanteuse Kristin Chenoweth made me wonder if perhaps there might be either a role in a

Broadway musical or your own original Broadway musical in your future.

TH: When did you get into my psyche, man? You're asking all the bullet point questions. When this

book (Herndon’s memoir) hits on March 25 (2026), the readers are gonna go on a ride, and it's gonna

be a ride that equals “Steel Magnolias” and “Fried Green Tomatoes” meets “The Kardashians” [laughs]. I'm going to New York right after Thanksgiving to do the audio book. I'm gonna read it myself. We're going to print this week; the final changes were made. We're going out for a possible madefor-

TV miniseries kind of thing. But my absolute vision for this book is a live musical. When you hear the

audiobook, there's going to be a lot of music in it because there are so many stories behind the songs that wouldn't work putting them in a book. The memoir is laugh-out-loud funny, and it's heartbreaking. The last chapter is called “Some Enchanted Evening,” when I meet my husband.

GS: A Broadway musical reference!

TH: [Laughs] I sat on the floor as this Southern voice was reading the last five chapters to me. I told (co-writer) David Ritz, “I don't want it, I don't want to hear the wrap up till the very end.” I’m going to cry (Herndon chokes up). I basically fell down on my knees in the kitchen. It was a Holy Spirit moment. It’s so beautifully written. I told David, “Gosh, if I had done this book 20 years ago, I wouldn't have to have all this therapy.” He said, “Yes, but you wouldn’t have this book!”

GS: “Thirty: Vol. 1” closes with the song “Big Hopes,” which features vocals by your husband Alex Schwartz. What was it like for you to record a song with Alex?

TH: Are you really gonna make me keep crying?

GS: I’m sorry! Here, have a tissue.

TH: It’s happy tears, man. I spent 20 years of my life not able to cry, so I welcome it. Wide open heart. Alex’s mama, my mother-in-love – we don't say mother-in-law – Charlotte Medley is a renowned songwriter and an amazing woman. I’m actually recording a song that she and I cowrote for the rerelease of (the album) “Journey On” for its 15th anniversary. Alex has been around it his whole life, but he's not a singer. He's creative and brilliant, but he did not want to do this. I said, “Here was

your fatal mistake, husband.” He got up at karaoke one night, the first time he did karaoke, by the way, and nailed a Talking Heads song! I’m sitting there with my eyes crossed. Another little hidden secret. He said, “Don’t even think about it.” I said, “Too late!” I dragged him, kicking and screaming, into the studio. He stayed for about 45 minutes. He sang, and asked, “Happy?” I said, “Yes, very. Thank you.”

GS: It sounds like you were having fun doing it.

TH: He didn't hear it until it was done. To be honest, he was on the fence about releasing it

until we finished it. He was like, “OK, that's really special.”

GS: Are you at liberty to share with the readers what songs will be featured on “Thirty: Vol. 2”?

TH: The rest of the radio singles will be featured. “Living in a Moment,” “No Mercy,” “It Must Be Love,” “I

Want My Goodbye Back,” and then we're going to let the fans, and the winners will be the next three songs. I'm a little scared of that [laughs]. I looked at my manager and producer and said,

“Really?”

GS: As we mentioned, your memoir “What Mattered Most” is coming out in March of 2026. Why was now the time to do this?

TH: Honestly, I had had a few folks shopping a book deal for the last 10 years. Not because I think I'm

important; I think the story is important. I'm not supposed to be here, but I am, and I'm healthy and

I'm happy. It's a story, especially now, that our youth and, even if you're 90 years old, that you need to

hear. Because anything's possible with hope and love. I'm a God guy, so a whole lot of God. I think the real reason was because everybody would say, “Country doesn't sell,” and I think that was somewhat of a of an excuse that people were using because they didn't know a lot about my story. The book proposals weren't really going that deep. This amazing person, David Ritz, who’s 84 years old, had, I think, 51 number one bestsellers. Aretha Franklin’s story, Aerosmith, Willie Nelson, all these great stories. He's bisexual, and he sought me out after seeing the People Magazine article. Talk

about the chips falling where they're supposed to. He goes, “I want to write your story. I've been following you for a long time. I got arrested at Stonewall, man. I want to take your story and insert some pivotal moments.” We met two years ago. He's a family member now. His vitality and his heart; he found my voice. Doing a timeline is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It all gets jumbled up. But laid out so perfectly beautiful, and everything makes sense. That's the journey readers are going to take. I start this book out saying, “As much as I want you to love me, by the middle of this book you're not going to like me. But the hope is that you'll come back to me by the end of it.

GS: Finally, in the 30 years since the release of your major-label debut album, What Matters Most, and the 10 years since you became the first male country artist to publicly come out, the country music world has undergone a transformation when it comes to the LGBTQ community. What advice would you give to a country artist, whether new or established, struggling with coming out today?

TH: Put it in your music. I say this all the time. If you're coming to this town, the number one thing that you need to know is your country music history. If you don't know who Loretta Lynn is, or little Jimmy Dickens, you might as well stay at home. You’ve got to know your generations of country and then pour your heart and soul into your authenticity in your music. Once you're successful and you get there, you'll be amazed at how happy you are. I always say this, “Let your authenticity shine through your heart and your music. I'm giving you advice that I wish someone had given me. It wasn't necessarily that I had to change the pronouns. I've looked back over my volume of 30 years of recording; I've been telling the story all along. Maybe the pronouns were different, but I was

telling the story. David Ritz pointed that out to me. He goes, “Dude, you've chronicled your entire life in

this music.” He started connecting the dots, and I was like, “Well, I’ll be damned!”