Marcus Collins was making a living as an actor and a singer when he got a call from his friend, JC Fisher, about trying out for a reality competition show on television with their mutual buddy, John Hagen.
“We’re huge fans of ‘America’s Got Talent,’” Collins said during a telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles. “He saw singing groups and said, ‘I could do that,’ so he called me and he called John. We rehearsed over the phone because we lived in different places.”
The trio dubbed themselves The Texas Tenors, the state in the country where they knew each other from.
Singing Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.,” then the Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody” and finally Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” the group worked its way through the different levels of the show, coming in fourth in the fourth season of the series known for making West Virginia’s Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. famous.
“We started booking concert tours immediately and never looked back,” Collins said.
The trio will appear with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for three shows, at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh.
Blending country and classical music, the trio has come up with a formula that wows fans across the country, whether performing in-house at the Starlite Theater in Branson, Missouri, or making a PBS special of songs from their second album, “You Should Dream.”
“It resonated with people,” Collins said. “We were three guys sitting at home watching the show with our families, and we formed a group. We’re just like everybody else. That’s what made us successful. People think, ‘These guys really have fought and paid their dues for the American Dream and grabbed it.’”
And their fans have done their part by purchasing the trio’s CDs. “The First 5 Years Live,” released last November, was at No. 13 on Billboard’s classical crossover chart, Collins said, while “You Should Dream” was at No. 7.
“It’s still consistently in the Top 10, and this week it’s No. 7,” Collins said.
Collins noted that the band produces all its records, which are not put out by big labels. They do stay busy, however, playing 150 concerts a year and spending 200 to 250 days annually out on the road, counting travel time.
Some of that is mitigated by the 60 shows The Texas Tenors play yearly in Branson, Missouri.
“There are some gals who have seen the show over 200 times,” Collins said. “They are called The Texas Tenorettes. It’s quite a group. And there are more who have seen it 100 times. They wear T-shirts and carry signs stating the amount of times they’ve seen it.”
A native of Iowa, Collins spent most of his life in Houston. He attended Drake University in Des Moines but left when he got a job on a national tour of a children’s theater company.
He was making a living as a singer and an actor when he got the call from Fisher.
These days, “I’ve had a few calls for acting, but I’m extremely busy with the group,” Collins said.
And as part of The Texas Tenors, Collins gets to stretch his musical muscles and perform a variety of different kinds of music, although he lists his influences as Freddie Mercury, Elton John and Garth Brooks.
The songs the trio sang on “America’s Got Talent” remain in the show, and other fan favorites range from a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses” to “Amazing Grace.”
“The show is very interactive,” Collins said. “There is no fourth wall. We go down into the crowd to sing to people. It’s a very interactive, family-friendly show.”
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