of the 'young guns' could learn from". Thom Jurek of AllMusic wrote that "Herndon has soul and plenty of it. You can hear the gospel in his voice, his love of the old country songs, but his delivery is thoroughly contemporary." An article from Music City News magazine re-published in the Asheville Citizen-Times said of Herndon, "there is a passion in his ballads, and in the case of...'I Want My Goodbye Back', an edgy emotional twist that sends listeners careening along with him". Dan MacIntosh described Herndon as having "straight-with-no-frills singing". Walter Allread wrote of Herndon on the same site, "Country music now resembles early Sixties American pop, with producers the real artists and singers merely interchangeable faces on record sleeves. As long as Ty Herndon's nice voice and face can front a hit, he's good for another 100,000 miles of touring and audio tape." The lyrical content of his Epic albums was met with mixed reception. Michael McCall of New Country found some of the tracks on What Mattered Most "shallow", such as "In Your Face" and "Heart Half Empty". Both Entertainment Weekly and AllMusic panned Living in a Moment for formulaic lyrics. In comparison, Herndon began writing songs in the 2010s; although he had not written previously, he thought that doing so would allow his albums to become more personal. Personal life In June 1995, Herndon was arrested in Fort Worth, Texas, at Gateway Park by an undercover male police officer. This officer alleged that Herndon exposed himself. 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. In 2002, Herndon underwent a series of personal setbacks. Early in the year, he was robbed at gunpoint in Los Angeles. 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