Ty Herndon wants to make a comeback in Nashville. Another one. "It's possible," says CMT host and critic Cody Alan, who's heard Herndon's new album, Jacob, out July 15. He says Nashville is a more forgiving town these days — especially if you've got a good song. "I've always thought that a great three minutes can save anybody."
Herndon, now 60, needs a little bit of saving. Over the 27 years since his debut album — which spawned five No. 1s — he's bounced in and out of Nashville, on and off the charts, and in and out of rehab. He's married two women, one man, has come out of the closet, relapsed three times, and has battled crystal meth addiction for the better part of three decades. Along the way, he's become a cautionary tale. The Ty Herndon story, the way it's told in Nashville, is almost apocryphal. The morning of my interview with Herndon, I told someone in my Nashville hotel I was interviewing him. "Oh, gosh, Ty Herndon. Man, what a voice. Such a shame. I thought he died." (Google asks the same question, actually.)
