ROBERT MILLER BIO

Robert Miller is an acclaimed Bassist, Songwriter and Singer. He’s released 14 albums as the leader of his band, Project Grand Slam (including a Billboard #1), and numerous singles. He’s written an Amazon #1 Best Seller, and he’s the host of the award winning Follow Your Dream Podcast. He’s recorded with the following World Class musicians.

Mindi Abair (2x Grammy Nominated)
Michael Abene (Grammy Winning Arranger)
David Amram (National Treasure: NY Philharmonic)
Randy Brecker (Blood Sweat & Tears)
Tony Carey (Rainbow)
Billy Cobham (Mahavishnu Orchestra)
Pat Coil (Michael McDonald; Carmen McCrae)
Anton Fig (David Letterman Show)
Antonio Farao (Herbie Hancock)
Al Foster (Miles Davis)
John Helliwell (Supertramp)
Mark Lettieri (Snarky Puppy; The Fearless Flyers)
Jon Lucien (Weather Report)
Kerry Marx (Grand Ole Opry)
Deobrat Mishra (Indian Sitar Superstar)
Jim Peterik (The Ides Of March; Survivor)
Elliott Randall (Steely Dan)
Tim Ries (The Rolling Stones)
Kat Robichaud (The Voice)
Peter Tiehuis (Metropole Orkest)
Judie Tzuke (UK Chart Topper)
Lucy Woodward (Snarky Puppy)

EARLY YEARS

Robert came from a musical family - his father was an amateur musician who played the trumpet at weddings, Bar Mitzvahs and private parties. He started Robert on the piano at age 5 but he didn’t love it and was allowed to switch to another instrument. He chose the trumpet like his father. He played the trumpet throughout  junior high and high school in the orchestra and the band, and studied with Phil Fisher, the first trumpet of the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra.

But something magical happened in February 1964 that changed Robert’s life trajectory when The Beatles were introduced to America on the Ed Sullivan Show. Like millions of other kids who were mesmerized by that event, Robert’s focus shifted entirely to rock music, and his dream was to become a rock star.

Musically he came of age during the ‘60s and in particular during the British Invasion era of that decade. He taught himself the guitar and then the bass and played in rock bands. His first gig was at age 16 when his High School band, The Buccaneers, played a Boy Scout Luncheon and were paid in cheeseburgers. But that was it for him - Robert knew he was going to be a rock star.

In the ‘70s at age 19 he was introduced to jazz when he studied bass briefly with Jimmy Garrison, John Coltrane’s bassist. Robert then returned to college in Boston and became a mainstay of the music scene there in the ‘70s with his jazz fusion band, Sagov. They played at all the Boston area clubs and even opened for Gary Burton. Anton Fig - later David Letterman’s long time drummer - was a member of the band.

When he graduated from college in the early ‘70s Robert was working an entry level day job at WGBH, the Boston public television station, and playing jazz at night. But even with two jobs if was difficult for Robert to make a living. Robert decided to take a Wall Street level day job in order to “make a living”, with the goal of continuing to play jazz at night. But it didn’t work. The day job consumed too much time. And Robert was now married with a child on the way. It was an old story - life got in the way of his music dream. Marriage, kids, job, obligations. The end result was that Robert no longer had time for music. In fact, he stopped playing music altogether for 15 years. Then he woke up one morning and realized that his dream had slipped away. He was miserable and determined to do something about it.

He was now in his 40s. He forced himself to get back into music, practicing and building up his chops. He found a place in NYC that he jokingly refers to as a “musicians dating service”. They set up musicians with equipment and people to play with. Robert spent six months getting back in the saddle.

Robert then recorded his first album (“Miles Behind”) in 1994, with an all-star cast including Anton Fig, Al Foster (Miles Davis), Randy Brecker (Blood Sweat & Tears) and Tim Ries (The Rolling Stones). He formed The Robert Miller Group and began performing at various clubs and festivals. It was great but it was still more like an avocation or hobby because of his day job. Robert resolved to get back into music full time, and continued to play and gig. But it took another 20 years, until he turned 60 years of age, to finally do what he always wanted to do - play music full time.

At that moment Robert realized it was now or never to go after his dream. How many more chances would he have? So he made a decision to give up everything else and figuratively jump into the deep end of the pool. It was the best decision he ever made.

Project Grand Slam

First thing, he reorganized his band, Project Grand Slam. He surrounded himself with a group of young, extremely talented, musicians - mainly from foreign countries - who had come to NYC to make their mark. He began writing music again and rehearsing and gigging with the band. Slowly but surely the band began to make progress - bigger and better gigs, openers for several major stars like Edgar Winter, Blues Traveler, Boney James and Mindi Abair, festivals and concerts in the U.S. and in Europe.

Everything was moving forward rapidly for Robert and his band. He was making up for decades of lost time and opportunity. PGS released one or more new albums each year, including 2028’s Trippin, which went to #1 on Billboard. The band had millions of video views and streams.

Robert realized that was accomplishing something that was unique and inspiring - becoming a successful musician in his 60s, an age when most Baby Boomers were contemplating their retirement.

Follow Your Dream Podcast

Then, in 2020, the pandemic hit the world. Musicians like Robert could neither perform nor even rehearse. Robert knew that he needed to do, something creative. Someone suggested that he start a podcast, but he had no idea what that was; he had never listened to one. However, after looking into it Robert decided that a podcast could provide a much deeper level of engagement than ordinary social media.

So in March 2021 he launched his Follow Your Dream Podcast. He had no audience and no guests, but he had a goal: to inspire and motivate people to follow their dream, just as he had done. The podcast started small and then began to grow. It took Robert two years to reach 1 million downloads, then only one more year to reach 2 million downloads, and just eight months more to reach 3 million downloads.

Robert’s low key, conversational style with his guests has built a devoted worldwide audience - and encouraged his guests to introduce other guests for the show. Starting mainly with musicians, the show has expanded to cover all kinds of creative artists including actors, directors, and photographers - all of whom have followed their dream to success. Robert’s guests hale from all parts of the world, and every creative nook and cranny.

The podcast has become a much bigger success than Robert could ever have imagined. For quite some time now the podcast has been ranked in the Top 1% of all podcasts (actually the Top .1%) and has listeners worldwide on every continent in 200 countries! As Robert likes to say, each episode is like going on a World Tour for him and his guests.

Robert’s music is a big part of the podcast. He infuses his music into each episode and also uses the podcast’s worldwide platform to introduce his music. Robert now releases all of his new music through the podcast. In this way his music is heard by thousands of listeners all around the world. For Robert it’s like playing a concert to a worldwide audience!

And the icing on the cake is Robert’s musical collaborations with a number of his World Class guests, as noted above.