Home Free (group)

Home Free
Home Free, from left to right: Tim Foust, former member Chris Rupp, Austin Brown, Rob Lundquist, Adam Rupp, performing in Iowa, February 2016
Background information
Also known as	Home Free Vocal Band
Origin	Mankato, Minnesota
Genres	A cappella, country
Years active	2000 (2000)–present
Website	www.homefreevocalband.com
Members	Austin Brown Rob Lundquist Adam Rupp Tim Foust Adam Chance
Past members	Chris Rupp Matt Atwood Darren Scruggs Dan Lemke Chris Foss Elliott Robinson Troy Horne Matthew Tuey Joe Fine Joe Kent

Home Free is an American a cappella group of five vocalists, Austin Brown, Rob Lundquist, Adam Rupp, Tim Foust, and Adam Chance. Starting as a show group, they toured around 200 shows a year across the United States.

The group competed in and won the fourth season of The Sing-Off on NBC in 2013. They sang an arrangement of Hunter Hayes' "I Want Crazy," as their final competitive song, earning the group $100,000 and a recording contract with Sony.

Home Free released their album, Crazy Life, on February 18, 2014. It was released digitally on January 14, 2014.

The group Home Free was originally formed in 2000 by Chris Rupp in Mankato, Minnesota, when some of its members were still in their teens. The five founding members were brothers Chris and Adam Rupp, Matt Atwood, Darren Scruggs, and Dan Lemke; taking their name from a boat owned by Atwood's grandfather who helped support the group financially in the early years. The group began as a hobby for the singers, but they gradually gained in experience and popularity. By 2007 they had enough of a following to pursue music full-time. During this period, the Rupp brothers and Atwood formed the core of the group, with Atwood singing lead tenor. Other members of the group came and went. Current member Rob Lundquist, another Minnesotan, joined in 2008.

For much of the group's history they worked with many talented bass singers, but did not have a full-time committed bass voice. In 2007 Chris Foss (currently a member of Cantus) sang with them. Elliott Robinson was added as bass in September 2008, and was replaced in June 2009 by Troy Horne. Later that year, Horne left to rejoin The House Jacks. To replace Horne they turned to Tim Foust, who first sang with them as a guest on their 2010 tour. A Texas native, Foust was then pursuing a career as a singer/songwriter of country music and had recently released a solo album, but was not ready to sign on full-time. Matthew Tuey sang with the group in the interim of 2011, until Foust joined them full-time in January 2012.

In 2012, Matthew "Austin" Brown was working on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship as a featured singer in their production shows. When Home Free joined the cruise as a guest performing group, they met and became close. Brown, who was born in Tifton, Georgia, let Home Free know that he would be interested in joining the group if they ever had an opening. At the end of 2012 lead singer Matt Atwood, who had gotten married the previous year, and his wife were expecting their first child. Finding the group's touring schedule incompatible with family life, and having an opportunity to take over his family's real estate business in Mankato, Atwood made the decision to retire from the group. Home Free then invited Brown to join as lead tenor. He sang his first show with the group in October 2012, and became full-time in January 2013. In 2015 they made a guest appearance on Kenny Rogers' holiday album Once Again It's Christmas on the track "Children Go Where I Send Thee"; a music video was released in November 2015.