It’s Never Too Late to ‘Follow Your Dream,’ Says Robert Miller
THE EPOCH TIMES
‘It’s Never Too Late to Follow Your Dream,’ Says Robert Miller
‘Baby steps’ led top podcaster Robert Miller on the path to his rock ‘n’ roll fantasy.
June 16, 2025
Growing up in Queens, New York, Robert Miller—whose “Follow Your Dream” podcast is ranked in the top 1 percent of all podcasts—began piano lessons at age 5, then moved on to learning the trumpet.
While his dad was the amateur musician, playing his trumpet at weddings and bar mitzvahs—it was his mother who made him practice.
“Every day she would say, ‘OK, 20 minutes go in that room. I want to hear you practice,’” Miller said in a recent interview with The Epoch Times. “I hated it. She said to me, ‘One day you’re going to thank me for this.’ And you know what? She was totally right.”
Like so many in his generation, Miller, who turns 74 next month, got swept up in Beatlemania. “I knew from the time I was a teenager, when that little group from Liverpool, England came out on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” I was going to be a rockstar period,” he said. “Then I segued into jazz because I got lucky and I studied with this guy, Jimmy Garrison, who was John Coltrane’s bass player. But that’s what I was going to do.”
Of course, like it is for so many, the reality clashes with the dream. For Miller, that meant college, law school, marriage, and children. Making a living.
“I had no time,” said Miller, still incredulous. “The obligations started piling up and I stopped playing music for 15 years.”
He knew he was not alone. “Everybody starts out life with a dream of one sort or another,” said Miller. “Whether it’s to become a fireman or an astronaut or an author or whatever. And almost all of us never go down that path. Life gets in the way, as I like to say.”
Get Back to What You Love
In his 40s, Miller still couldn’t shake off the longing for what might have been and “forced” himself to find space for music in his demanding life.
“I started to rehearse again,” said Miller. “I recorded my first album. I put a band together. And we started to play around New York City, all the clubs, a few festivals, it was great. But it was still like having a hobby because I still had my day job.”
But as he turned 60, he was ready to go all in. “The bell went off and I said, ‘Gee, if I don’t do it now, when am I going to do it?’” explained Miller.
“So I put everything else aside and figuratively, I jumped into the deep end of the pool.”
It was then that the dream started to come more into focus. “I have this philosophy, it’s called baby steps,” said Miller. “If you say to yourself, ‘I want to become an author,’ that’s a big daunting position to put yourself in. You don’t even know where to start. But if you start, ‘I need a title. I need a subject. Let me write the first paragraph.’ You start doing things in baby steps and one leads to the next one. ... And I say, ‘What’s the worst that can happen? It doesn’t work out.’”
Turn Setbacks Into Positives
When the pandemic silenced the music scene, Miller searched for a way to keep the music playing. The podcast was born.
“I never even listened to one,” he said. But at a friend’s suggestion, he explored it. “The more I looked into it, the more I [realized] you can get a deeper level of engagement in this context.”
For Miller, that detour worked out better than he could have ever imagined. He crafted a motto for the podcast: “You’re never too old and it’s never too late to follow your dream.” Four years later, Miller has made over 500 episodes. It’s ranked in the top 1 percent, with listeners worldwide in 200 countries. “I didn’t even know there were 200 countries,” he said with a laugh.
While the podcast has Miller interviewing musicians and other creatives who have found success in following their dreams, it’s also an avenue for him to release his own music, which he’s now doing monthly. Project Grand Slam, his jazz-rock-Latin fusion band, has released 14 acclaimed albums to date, including a Billboard Number 1.
“The icing on the cake for me is that I have met so many wonderful musicians from everywhere, and I’ve invited a number of them to come in and participate, to collaborate with me on my music,” said Miller.
Of course, he didn’t get to where he is alone—he’s been married to his college sweetheart, Debbie, for 50 years. “She has seen me through all these different twists and turns of the career. And she was very, very happy to watch me do this.”
Like his rockstar hero and dream guest, Paul McCartney—who turns 83 on June 18—Miller is not slowing down.
“There’s nothing more invigorating than doing what you love. [Older rock stars are] doing it with such incredible feedback from a live audience,” said Miller. “That’s one of the things I don’t have with a podcast but I close my eyes and I can envision thousands of people all around the world listening to what I’m doing, listening to my guests, listening to my music. That keeps me going for sure.”