Eric Troyer

Vocals, Keyboards, Guitar

Eric Lee Troyer was born in Elkhart, Indiana, USA on 10th April 1949, the only boy with three sisters. Higher education for Eric consisted of studying music and history at the Goshen College, Indiana and Orange Coast College in California, in the midst of 'Flower Power'! At this time the Vietnam War was in full force and due to his religious background, Eric was listed as being a conscientious objector. One of the choices he was given was to spend two full years as a US Army 'guinea pig'.

Eric finally settled in New York City, the only place to be if you wanted to make it in the Music Industry, and hung out at Hendrix's Electric Lady Studio and Record Plant. It was at this point that he took his first steps into the music business proper, when he sang on the Johnny Winter song "I Was Raised On Rock", and it was here that he experienced the recordings of such classics as "Born To Run" by Bruce Springsteen and gained a valuable insight into the ways of the music industry. More importantly, though it was here and at the Record Plant that he met and befriended one of the most visionary and influential producers ever - Jim Steinman.

"I have worked with Steinman on just about everything he's ever done, and sung on all his demos...".

Word spread quickly and soon he was gainfully employed as a session artist. Since then he has appeared on countless best-selling singles and albums. Among those artists Eric has worked with are well known names such as Rick Derringer, Aerosmith, Kiss, Clarence Clemons, Ian Hunter, Garland Jeffreys, Frankie Miller, Carly Simon, James Taylor, John Lennon, Billy Joel and Meat Loaf. He also fronted his own band on two unreleased albums for Chrysalis. Furthermore Eric was extremely successful at writing catchy jingles for US TV, too - eg, IBM typewriters "We're Your Type", others for Michelob, Hershey's Halftime, Playtex, Ford, and GTE Talktime to name a few. It was none other than Jim Steinman who was instrumental in Eric joining ELO Part II:

"The Ardens who worked at putting ELO Part II together, when it was just an idea to put together another ELO. At that time Steinman was to produce them and one of the things they did was to go to him and say they needed another singer/songwriter and asked Jim if he knew anybody. He mentioned me and they flew over and I met them in New York, hung out a bit and played them some songs - I had written "Thousand Eyes" before that so I had a demo of that which sounded good and right up their alley, so Bev asked me if I would join."

But being an integral part of ELO Part II hasn't stopped Eric from continuing with his solo projects! He and his wife have produced CDs for many up and coming New York bands, and in late 1993 he was contacted by an old friend, Jim Driscoll, from Hagley, Worcestershire, UK. Jim had driven past the tragic M40 minibus crash in which one teacher and 12 pupils died, and as the Hagley Schoolwas local to Jim he wanted to do something. He had written some words inspired by the way he felt and asked Eric to put them to music, which Eric was only too happy to do - (his three daughters are the most important thing to him and he loves children generally - the one unfulfilled ambition he has is to be a teacher). The result was "Perpetual Light" a single which Eric recorded with the choir from Hagley School and a Perpetual Light concert in May 1994, at the Birmingham Symphony Hall, to raise money for a new music wing for the school, in memory of those who died.

He has also put together a 6-track limited edition CD called "Model Citizen" on which he sings lead
vocals, and plays keyboards as well as programming and co-producing most of them. It is obvious by his intelligent and thought-provoking lyrics.

Eric is married with his second wife Donna, and has three daughters: Laureen born in 1987, Lindsey born in 1984 and Asia born in born in 1974.

Eric Troyer has got a personal web site.

Information compiled by Jules McNab and Dirk M. Hoffmann.
(C) 1995, 1996 FACE THE MUSIC GERMANY.
More about Eric Troyer can be found in the book "Unexpected Messages"


last modified: 19.03.2001