Michael J. Morell

Michael 'J' Horn

Michael 'J' Horn (born 7 October 1979 in Orlando, Florida) is an American pop singer formerly of the boyband "Natural". He also acts, writes plays, and teaches.

Early life

Michael 'J' Horn grew up in Tarpon Springs, Florida although he spent a good amount of his life in Orlando, Florida. He began piano lessons at the age of 7 thanks to his Grandmother's urging. While in middle school he joined the local theatre and performed in many plays. By this point he was a pretty accomplished pianist and turned his sight on combining his loves of theatre and music: directing musicals.

By the time he graduated high school he had appeared in over 30 productions either as an actor, the musical director, or both. In his junior year he took a break to become a drum major. He continued to perform in many local events singing and playing piano throughout his teen years.

Natural

Many publicity stories exist as to how Natural was started, but the most likely one is that in 1999, Marc Terenzi met a man named Patrick King at a party. The men hit it off and with their friends Michael Johnson and Ben Bledsoe they created a boy band which was the big thing of the time. After many line up changes Ben Bledsoe found Michael through his vocal teacher. He sang "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" for his audition and even had to do it over the phone for members who were not present at the time. And with that Michael joined Natural.

The boys tried to get signed with many major labels but were turned down despite a huge local following in Orlando, FL. One day as they rehearsed at Transcontinental Studios, boyband king Lou Pearlman noticed them and liked their act. Soon after, they were signed with Transcontinental Records.

Lou Pearlman had a new twist for his old boy band vision: not only would they dance, sing, and look cute, but they would also play instruments. Michael became the pianist and one of the lead vocalists.

Lou Pearlman spared no expense promoting the guys' first single with Claire's and a tour with the Monkey's. However American fame was slow and the guys were soon sent to Germany to conquer little girl's hearts. They had much success with such hits as "Put Your Arms Around Me", "Will It Ever", and "Runaway".

In the Summer of 2001 Marc Terenzi met German pop star Sarah Connor at a music festival. The two soon hit it off and were dating despite Lou Pearlman's wishes. Lou Pearlman had strict rules for his boy bands: they couldn't have facial hair, they couldn't have many piercings or tattoos, and they definitely couldn't have girlfriends. However, the relationship continued on.

Meanwhile Michael seemed to have trouble adjusting to boy band life. He often refused to wear the silly and skimpy (the boys posed almost nude at least 3 times in the band's history) outfits looking the odd one out. He also didn't seem to enjoy the poppy music; his true love was Jazz and Broadway styled tunes.

In the summer of 2003 Sarah Connor became pregnant and the couple became engaged. Around this time Natural was coming back from a hiatus and releasing a single 'What if' from their 2nd album It's Only Natural. Lou Pearlman wasn't happy with the news and wanted Marc kicked out of Natural and replaced with someone new. The other members (except Patrick King) were not thrilled with this and decided to break Natural up.

However Michael appeared to have very little to do with the project by this point. While Lou was threatening the end of the band it appeared the tour would not happen and Michael made other commitments to star in a production of 'Merrily We roll along' back home. He also had a few other projects coming up with Rollins College which he had been attending. By the time it was announced the tour would gone Michael decided he had had enough and would not join the other guys.

Life after Natural

Michael got started right away on his life after Natural. He as planned starred in 'Merrily We Roll along' where he met his to be wife Olivia right before Hurricane Jeanne. They soon got engaged and married in 2005.

Michael spent much of 2004 and 2005 acting and musically directing in several Rollins College and other local productions of such plays as 'Annie Get your gun', 'Sweeney Todd', 'A Day in Hollywood and a night in Ukraine'.

He also had the privilege of helping work on the famous Bach Festival in Winter Park, FL in 2005.