In this inspiring episode of Epic Begins With One Step Forward, Zander Sprague sits down with Troy Horne—musician, Broadway actor, author, and dedicated dad—to explore a life built on bold decisions. From driving to Los Angeles with $1,500 and no plan, to signing a record deal, touring with legends, and starring in Rent on Broadway, Troy’s story proves the power of simply saying “yes” to your dreams. He shares behind-the-scenes insights from NBC’s The Sing-Off and his bestselling book Mental Toughness for Young Athletes, written with his son to help kids build resilience in sports and life. Now, with new projects like Middle Management, Troy reflects on parenting, reinvention, and the courage to chase your “not yet” dreams.
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Parenting, Publishing, And Performing: Troy Horne’s Not-Yet Dreams
I am honored to be joined by Troy Horne. Troy, tell us who you are and what you do.
First and foremost, I’m a dad, husband, musician, author and all kinds of things. Those are the main ones that I like to talk about. The rest are just all life.
We all do many things and we’re not just one thing. You’ve had a pretty interesting musical career. Is that safe to say?
It started from just wanting to do it. By saying, “I’m going to figure this out no matter what.” That’s how things go.
We get to do things that we find passion in and it seems just a little easier. It’s not that it’s easy but it just seems easier.
It feels a little easier. As you said, it’s not easy but it feels easier.
The Epic Journey Of A Musician: From $1500 To A Record Deal
Tell us a little about your epic journey as a musician, where you started and things that you’ve done.
It started well a long time ago as a kid but the part that we’re interested in after going through high school and all that stuff. It was driving to Los Angeles at twenty-years-old with my 1985 Nissan Sentra, which was fun and $1,500 in my pocket because that’s all the money I saved up for my summer job looking to be in the music industry. I didn’t have any songwriting skills. I’ve never written a song before. I’ve never liked playing instruments successfully or even studying them outside of the mandatory stuff that we needed for college.
Even talking about it with you, Zander, it just shows what you can do when you just make a decision. Who would think that a kid who didn’t know anybody in LA, who never wrote a song, had never put a band together, had $1,500 to his name would go out there and end up getting a record deal, film and television, and starring on Broadway? When I first got there, a friend of mine that I met at one of the jobs was Octavia Spencer who ended up being an Oscar winner. It’s like, when you make a decision that’s the biggest part of this whole thing just deciding what I’m going to do.
When you make a decision, that’s the biggest part of this whole thing. Just deciding this is what I’m going to do.
Any of our epic journeys is that first step, deciding that I’m going to do this. The other thing is and this stops lots of people, I don’t know all the steps I need to take. I laugh at that because I talk to people every day about this and I’m like, “Let me make it simple for you. When you got up, you didn’t know all the answers to all the questions and yet you still got up. I’m not sure why you get up every morning knowing that I don’t know what’s going to happen.”Somehow, some dream you have you’re like, “I don’t know how to do all of this.”
None of us, the other thing. None of us know how to do it.
You got a record deal?
Yes, I signed with a small company called Freedom Zone. It’s funny because during the whole time, we were playing in these big rooms in LA. We were playing in this place called the Viper Room and we were packing these places out. John Salley was starting a record company and he came to see us. I saw him a couple years ago. He was like, “Madonna and I talked about your band all the time because we loved what you guys are doing.” “Why didn’t you all sign us then?” He was like, “Back in the time, we just didn’t understand distribution and blah, blah, blah.”
All this to say, I kept going and I kept saying, “This is going to happen no matter what.” I end up getting signed with this amazing label called Freedom Zone out of Salt Lake City. We tour the world opening for Steve Miller and Gov’t Mule. I ended up being in Forbes Magazine and the deal was better than probably any beginning deal I would have gotten with any major record label. It was like, “Man’s rejection is God’s protection,” as they say.
Man’s rejection is God’s protection.
It’s like any good dreamer, I’m like, “Oh man,” because I love being on stage. I love being in front of a crowd. I’ve got to imagine that if you’re opening up for Steve Miller and Gov’t Mule, you get up there and there’s a few thousand if not tens of thousands of people there. That’s got to be a rush.
It was weird. Weird like in a cool way but also like, “Oh man.” Even in that moment, you’re like, “Am I prepared for this?” I asked for it and now it’s here. We did whatever. It’s like, “Am I ready for this?” It was cool as we were doing it.
Congratulations on that success.
Those guys could play. We were good but those guys.
There’s good and then there’s good with a small dream.
The musicianship was like, “You got to be kidding me?” You’re a musician as well.
I dabble in the guitar. I wouldn’t say. I can hack my way. If I practice a little, I’d probably be better but that’s fine.
They’re playing these amazing licks. They’re not like looking at the fingerboard and not concentrating. They’re just playing these licks and looking around like they’re at a park. I’m like, “This is wild.”
Troy, it’s my experience. I read the book years ago, The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. I love that book. It’s great. The whole idea that we get good at something because we struggled to learn and then you build the neural pathways and it comes easy. I’m like, “That is so true,” because think of things like when you first learned to drive. It was exhausting because you’re looking at every sign. You’re paying attention to everything.
Now, you get in the car and I’ll admit. There are times where I’m driving someplace I know and all of a sudden, I’m like, “How did I get here?” Not that you weren’t conscious but you know everything. You know about driving you and that’s so true with music, if you play musical instruments. If there’s a song you play all the time, you don’t have to look down. Your hands know where to go.
They definitely did. That was fun.
Also, Steve Miller Band. Let’s face it. They haven’t come out with a new album in a very long time. It’s awesome. I went to a Steve Miller band concert back in the late ‘80s and it was honestly one of the better concerts I’ve ever been to. Why? It’s because I hadn’t come out with a new album that I hadn’t heard. I didn’t sit through half of their new songs, which I didn’t know and couldn’t appreciate. I’m like, “That’s a good song but I don’t know it.” You go to contact because you want to hear the music you know.
You want to hear, “Some people call me the space cowboy.” Can we start with that?
I love that concert because they played everything I knew and loved. Following up on that, they’ve gotten to play the same songs and they don’t have new ones to learn. It’s like, “We got this.”
It was definitely cool.
Behind The Scenes Of The Sing-Off: Troy Horne’s Acapella Adventure
Another thing I know. I did enjoy this and I’m going to talk about it. You were on the Sing-Off. If people don’t know what that was or remember what it was. It was an acapella singing competition. Tell us about how you got on the Sing-Off and what was like to be on the Sing-Off. What season were you? Who were you up against? How long did you make it?
The Sing-Off was something that came about by a friend of mine. I was in a group called the House Jacks. Deke Sharon started that group and I was singing with him. Deke was doing the casting for the Sing-Off and this group called Urban Method needed a base because their base just stopped things. He’s like, “We need one. The show airs in about a month.” They’re in Denver, so might as well hop on TV and connect with him. We did. I went to this Sing-Off and we were in the season with Afro Blue and Pentatonix. I think that’s Season 2.
Good luck again to them, Troy.
It was cool. We were with them and we got down to the final three, I believe, or something like that then it was like them and Dartmouth and us.
Was it fun?
It was fun. It was very educational about the industry. There are a lot of things that you learn about the industry while you’re in the industry and that was another situation where it was like very much you get to see behind the scenes. You get to see what the wizard is doing behind the curtain.
Do you want to share any of that or is that trade secret?
There’s so much.
How about this? I understand that when the show comes, it looks like people come out one after another but I also know how TV production works. It could have been that there’s an hour in between when Pentatonix went on and when you came off.
There was. They could have been. The tapings were like 4 or 5 hours long.
I love that show. I thought it was sad that it went away because it was great. It’s true acapella and the vocal percussion and how just a group of people create sounds and stuff. I love Pentatonix. One of my favorites was Home Free.
I used to sing with Home Free before they went to the Sing-Off. It’s funny because the year we did it, Chris, who is no longer in the group but who founded the group, called me and he said, “Tell me about this show.” I said, “A game of some of the behind the curtain formation.” It was a very cool deal.
Although, I know Humphrey. I don’t know what their base is. That guy’s insane. You talk about a base.
He’s very great.
Broadway Lights: Performing In Rent And Life Lessons Learned
He has a very deep voice and range. You also were on Broadway.
I also played Tom Collins on the show on Broadway for about a year or so. All these things. It’s just funny that when you look back at them and you go, “Life has been quite an interesting little journey.” That was amazing and the fact that you get to learn how to connect with people more than anything else eight shows a week. You also learn that you can do it and no matter what level you go, everyone is just a person trying to do their best. It was very cool.
I’ve got to imagine that although it’s cool to be on Broadway, eight shows a week can get a little tiring.
It’s like what you’re talking about. You just talked about a few minutes ago. I would wake up as you could say in the show in a different position on stage and I’d be thinking just like with you driving. I have no idea how I got here.
Author’s Journey: Mental Toughness For Young Athletes & Middle Management
You’re also an author. I’m an author too, which is cool. What is your book? What’s it about?
I wrote a book called Mental Toughness for Young Athletes. I wrote that one with my son. I wrote it with him because I wanted to help him with his mindset because he was struggling with that at the very beginning when he was in 5th and 6th grade. Youth sports becomes a thing where it just becomes very challenging once you move to the competitive level. I couldn’t find any books that were very children oriented or youth oriented. I was like, “Let’s write one.” I wrote it for him so that he could read it and get the principles. I ended up selling like 200,000 or so copies of the book because it helped a lot of other people out there in the world, which has been cool.
Congratulations on that.
Thank you. Now, I’m writing a book called middle management, which will be coming out in a little bit because that’s about when the child and the children start getting to high school. They go do their own things and you realize, “There’s life left. What I’m going to do with the second half? There’s still a second half left.”
I got multiple thoughts. One about two daughters and I’ll get back to the second thing with the thing you just said. To jump back to the first one about mental toughness and youth sports. One of the things that I look at and go, “It’s sad.” When I was growing up, I played soccer, hockey and lacrosse. I played three sports. I was never good but I played and enjoyed it. I wasn’t horrible but certainly wasn’t a star. Nowadays, I see kids just do one thing and they do it year-round.
I get that you have to practice to be good but it makes me sad because they burn out. They’re sixteen and are like, “I don’t want to play any more football, tennis, soccer or baseball or whatever sport.” They’re like, “I’m just done. It’s not fun anymore.” For me, part of the fun was I’m going to play soccer but when that’s over, I get to go play hockey.
Some of that mental toughness comes from the variety. Life has variety. We don’t do just one thing. You and I are perfect examples. We have not done just one thing in our life. “I’m just a musician.” You’re doing so much more. That’s an important message. We talked about mental toughness but what is that? As a parent, we tell our kids to do things like, “You need to do this,” but then I always try to catch myself, especially when my daughters are young. Which is, have I explained to them what it is that I’m asking them to do? Very often we know what it means but they may not know what concentrate looks like or be consistent.
It was great to write that with them to help kids understand that stuff.
You were mentioning, as your kids get older, all of a sudden, this thing that’s been your primary focus like raising your kids transitions greatly. My girlfriend pointed this out, which I thought was great. She’s like, “As a parent, you put all your blood, sweat and tears into raising this person. You’re raising them to leave you and when they go off to college or whatever.” You’re so happy for them but so devastated yourself because you’re like, “I did my job.” Honestly, that’s true of all of nature. The parent bird raises the bird for it to leave the nest. Knowing that’s one thing. Experiencing it is a completely different thing. Isn’t it, Troy?
It’s like in that journey of discovery of, what to do in the second half? You realize that even those moments we’re preparing you for your next thing. Whatever that ends up being for you. For me, in writing that book with him and pouring all into that with him, it’s like, “This is something that can be a thing.” I like building the community and I like understanding how to format the book or do the cover or reach the audience via YouTube or social media marketing or whatever. It’s like, “This is something that I enjoy doing,” which I would never have found had it not been for me trying to pour into him and help him on his journey.
I’ve been unfortunate to write three books so far. In the writing, there’s so much that you learn and I’ve said it on the show before. For those who are reading, I’m going to say it again. Sometimes I repeat myself because it’s worth repeating. Which is, although the writing was challenging. The editing of the book is even harder. You know what I’m talking about, Troy.
I don’t know about you but by the time my book came out, I didn’t want to open that book for like a month or two because I had just spent the last six weeks reading my book cover to cover six times proofreading and then you’re going through. You’re trying to find all the mistakes. I said that when my first book came out, my friends were like, “Zaner, that’s great. What’s your favorite part of the book?” I’m like, “I love what I wrote but I’ve had too much.”
I’ve read six or seven times. Even then, inevitably you find something and you’re like, “How did I and my team miss it?” Part of the problem is, when you read the same chapter, the same sentences, the same paragraph 50 times, you know what it’s going to say. I jumped over the fact that you forgot a the or an A or an. You’re laughing because you know.
The Art Of Editing: Preserving Your Voice In Publishing
I know exactly what you’re talking about. What gets me and let me know if this has been your experience. Finding editors that will allow your voice to stay in your own work. Has that been a challenge for you?
Luckily not, but I do get where in my first book. My editor was trying to help make it more readable and I get it. There were suggestions that she made where I’m like, “I get readability wise but that changes the voice and the intent.” I have thought about the words that I want to use. Now, I joke all the time that I’m a talker, not a typer. The fact that I’ve written books is amazing because I don’t like writing. I found my way using dictation in my last book Epic Begins. I wrote it with my business coach and we just did YouTube interviews.
We had a classroom. We talked about it for 45 minutes. I get the transcript and then I work with my editor to take it from what would look like a movie script. I’m like, “No one wants to read twelve chapters of a conversation.” She helped me do it but also, as an editor, you start to work with an editor. They start to hear your voice. You start to push back and go, “That is how I want to say it.” The writing of a book and then the book comes out. You’re like, “Now, what do I do?”
You learn all about book marketing, eBook marketing, promotions and applying for awards and stuff like that. For the audience, the way you get any award, be it an Oscar or a Grammy or a book award. Someone applies for you. Someone puts your material up there for consideration. People don’t get a Grammy because the academy of recording artists goes, “Troy, we love your stuff. We’re putting you up for a Grammy.” Your record label is like, “I consider this one for best new artists.”
That’s how that happens. Even if you’re Taylor Swift, someone on her team is going, “By the way, would you consider that album?” They’re like, “We already know about it.” That’s how all of this happens folks. You got to ask, “Would you consider me for an award?” Many things happen. You get what you asked for.
The thing is learning even at a later age to continue to ask because we are brave in asking for other people during that kid-parent part. We can ask for our kids like no problem. It’s like, “What do you need? Let me go get it.” When that’s back to you, it’s like, “I’ve got to remember to ask for myself.”
Even at a later age, we continue to ask because we are really brave in asking for other people.
I grew up in Massachusetts and when I was growing up, my dad was a state legislator. I grew up knowing some political figures in Boston. My dad served within the State house in the legislature with Tommy O’Neill whose dad was Tip O’Neill, who was the Speaker of the House for 35 years in Congress.
I heard of that guy.
Younger people don’t but you and I are old enough that we’re like, “I know who that is.” Anyway, Tip was in the office and he was telling the story. I liked the story because it says exactly my point here. Tip said this woman came up to him and said, “I didn’t vote for you in the last election.” He goes, “Why not?” She said, “You didn’t ask.” It’s such a great demonstration of you get what you ask for. The funny thing in life, we can ask for something.
If we don’t get it, we’re not any worse off than where we were before we asked. Oftentimes, we do get what we need and when we state our dreams out loud and say, “I want to go to LA and be a recording artist. I want to write a book. I want to start a show. I want to start a TV show.” Those happen because you put it out there and then someone goes, “Troy, how’s that book coming along?”
Embracing “Not Yet”: Troy Horne’s Dreams For Amazon And Ghana
The last thing I want to ask you here because I love this question. In my book, I talk about not yet. This concept of there are things that we want to do but it’s not yet. As we were talking about the book, you had an idea when you wanted the book to come out but it’s about your new book. “Is your new book out?” “Not yet.” It doesn’t mean it’s not coming out. It just means not now. It’s not getting published now. With that in mind, what’s one or two of your not yets in your life?
One of the big not yets for me, there’s so many.
You can give me more than 2 or 3. I’m just trying to make it easy.
One is I want to be number one on Amazon like a Mel Robbins number one. Not a category number one but number one, number one like in the main bookstore of all the books. That’s something that I would like to do. Number two not yet is I want to go visit Ghana and Kenya just to be in that space. That’s a not yet for me. Those are the two big not yets. There weren’t that many. I thought they were, but those are the two big not yets.
That’s cool. I would encourage you. The first one is very challenging. I too would like that. It’s hard to say how to make that happen other than people got to know who you are and that you have a book. The second one, one step forward. Say, “Here’s the pin in the calendar when I’m going.” It makes it easier when you are like, “Right here Troy has to meet. This Troy here to go to Kenya and Ghana.” Anyway, I want to thank you so much for joining me today. What an epic conversation, my friend.
That was so much fun.
How can people find you or get a hold of you?
There’s a couple ways. and I’ll just give you two of the main ones. First, you can go to MiddleManagement.bio. There’s a free download that goes with a book. If you want to help me reach number one on Amazon, that’s a free download there that can get you started. I’m on TroyHorne.com which is just my website. Those are two places.
Troy, I want to thank you so much for joining me.
Thank you.
I want to remind everyone. If you’re ready to begin your epic journey, go to EpicBegins.com. As always, remember epic choices lead to the epic life that you want.
Important Links
- Troy Horne
- Troy Horne on LinkedIn
- Troy Horne on Facebook
- The Talent Code
- Mental Toughness for Young Athletes
- Epic Begins
- MiddleManagement.bio
About Troy Horne
Troy Horne is a three-time best-selling author, Star Search contestant, NBC’s The Sing Off competitor, Steve Miller and Gov’t Mule band opening, RENT on Broadway Tom Collins performer, and the Father of three.
As a self-published author, he’s sold over 287,800 copies of his non-fiction books. (Exiting third person ‘cause I wrote this. HA!) My mission is to help people over 40 live their dream.
I wrote a book about it called Middle Management! If you’re middle-aged and would like some inspiration and motivation, as well as some how-to, you should check it out.