#329 - John Michael Montgomery on 90’s Country + Turning Down The Offer to Go Pop + One of His Biggest Songs That Didn’t Go No. 1 + The Mistake That Ended His Time As A Waiter

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Speaker 1: Welcome to episode three nine with John Michael Montgomery. I mean, growing up, John Michael Montgomery was the man. Right now, John Michael Montgomery is the man. We learn a lot about him, but I'll just walk you through some some stuff. I swear massive hit for him, be my baby tonight. I can love you like that. I love you like that. I would make you sold the Gundy County auction. Babba blah blue bada this song. But probably when we talked about this a little bit, Life's to Dance which jam, so just so you can hear a little bit before you go into it. Uh. He was born five and Danville, Kentucky near Lexington. He talks about his family and how he you know you'll hear this, and how he learned how to play music. Also pretty crazy that his brother is also a massively successful country artist, and we talked about that. His brother, by the way, is half of Montgomery gentry. I mean John Michael Montgomery, last name Montgomery, the other name Montgomery, famous brother. Yeah, so though that's pretty cool. He and something we didn't talk about, but he has no smell at all. I forgot to ask him about this and it's not from COVID, Yeah, pre existing condition. He just has no smell. John Michael mcgomery cannot smell, so he was living COVID before it was even a thing. Someone wants poor deary, you're un on his pillow to make sure he wasn't lying, and he wasn't. But I mean, I guess you could pull that off and be like, I can't smell, but you really gotta commit to His daughter, Madison just got engaged to Travis Denning. We talked about his golf career, which I did not know he was as good as he was. And then he just celebrated a twenty s anniversary with his wife Crystal. But big fan of John Michael Montgomery really had a great time with this interview, and I think you will like it too, especially if you love a nineties country. So here you go. It is me with Mike and John Michael Montgomery. Al Right, we have a apparently a weed eater that just went off. I mean, is this the greatest timing ever that the weed or the whatever? The leafblower, what do you would you use? Right now? Winter is like here in snow is melting. I'm thinking it's probably more of a leaf blow yeah, I would think so too. Yeah, I don't think weed eaters are needed right now at this time. You're getting out of here anyway. And also as someone who used a weed eater a lot because added many jobs, but mostly I did golf course maintenance for a long time. Yeah, a weed eater is a little higher pitch. Yeah you know. Yeah, oh yeah, and uh it's a I hate weed eating. I'll just go ahead and tell you I got a guy that does that for me, and I'm so happy about it. Did you have any jobs growing up? Could you grow up in Kentucky? Right? Yeah? Like what kind of rural jobs did you have? Because I grew up in Arkansas and I had a lot of them. Oh yeah, a lot of similarities with Kentucky and Arkansas. You know. The I did everything from of course, a bad grocery is. I worked in my mom and dad. Even though they were musicians, they were butcher's. They cut meat and stuff. So I would you know, I did some of that. I helped build, uh, swimming pools like digging. Yeah, you're talking about a tough job. It sounds like that. You know, you gotta get down there and the bottom and you gotta take a a little paddle that forms the bottom smooth it out, so you know when you put the the bottle on it, you know, it's nice and smooth and everything like that. And I remember we hit and it's always in the middle of the summer, you know, people want to put it. Yeah, and it's like, uh, you know, the they got these stainless steel type walls that you put up their intersections, And so we're down in there and it's a hundred degrees outside and the sun shining and reflecting all that heat down on us while we're down in there. Now, you know, I was like, I don't know, it's probably eighteen seventeen, eighteen years old. Let me tell you something. I mean, we all pretty much stripped down to our underwear almost to do this job, you know, And a lot of times we did it in the middle of the night when it was cooler, of course, yeah, because I mean it was just so hot and your knuckles would get all war out, you know, from the paddles trying to And then I remember one time we uh uh, we didn't do a good enough job for the guy that owned the company. He pulled in there and shinned us. It was it was all. It was almost midnight. He comes in there, signs his light down and there walked down in there, starts taking his foot and just tearing the crap out everything. He's like, this is not good enough. We end up standing untill about four am in the morning. I was getting paid three dollars and thirty five cents a nur or something like that. That seems like, you know, I mean it, but I wasn't afraid to, uh, if somebody wanted to pay me to, you know, give me a job. I never did a job like I waited tables at Cheat Cheese, which I enjoyed, but I sucked at it. I mean I was you know, I wasn't afraid to tackle anything. And I put in a hunter and ten percent. I knew. I was like, I'm not gonna do this for the rest of my life, but you know, I'm gonna put a gift the best I got. But I remember turning twenty in a day and into Kentucky. You can serve alcohol and be a server in restaurant at twenty in a day, and uh, I love their h I love their chips. They had great chips at Cheat Cheese. You know, I don't a lot of people don't know what cheat. I don't, so Cheat Cheese is a it was. It was a big, huge Mexican chain restaurant. I mean they were everywhere. And uh. The rumor is is the guy that started chet Cheese he named it after his wife's big boots. I think that's what. Yeah, is this a rumor? You couldn't ask the guy. I I just know that that's what they said. Unfortunately, you know, a few years back to last Chea Cheese, I think they had uh let us uh issue with you know, a bunch of people getting sick and have put him out of business. But uh, but I loved the place because they had great chips and and uh and of course the bartender I knew pretty well he'd sneaked me a jumbo margharita. You know, I feel like it'd be hard to sneak a jumbo, like sneaking a small margarita, but sneaking a jumbo didn't feel very sneaky. Yeah, well, you know it's you gotta know sometimes uh you know, when uh it was slow, you know, I was a terrible server. So they My shift was from eleven am until like two or three and in the middle of the week. It wouldn't a hold a lot of people coming in on the weekends. Yeah, they don't put the A plus servers that day. Yeah, eleven and two or three on a Wednesday, yeah, they And so the evenings obviously the servers were I mean they would make five six dollars and tips, you know, And I was like, wow, you know, I'd make maybe thirty dollars. But I was singing, uh, you know, making music, playing music at night. So it worked perfectly for me, you know, because I went on stage at nine o'clock. I finished up about one am, and and I gave me just a little extra money to put a little gas in my car and you know, buy some you know, I didn't have to buy any food because we got food for Pitcher percent off there. So but I end up, uh, I had to end up quitting because, like I said, I was not very good at this job. So I had this couple and uh, their seven year old daughter came in. They sat down and they all ordered uh Dacre's and of course the little girl they ordered and not a dackery for her, like a like a virgin DACII. Yeah, I'd say, yeah, it's they call him not yeah, and I for out to write an auto down on you kidding. And so I go to the bartender, who sneaks me Margarita's, you know, And I told him, I said, hey, see that that mom and dad and a little girl over there at that table there, I said, I ordered three dacri's one I'm supposed to be anauted it. I write not on that ticket. He looks like, goes, no, that's a real dacri, he went. I went, uh, this is not good. I said that little girl's drinking a real dacri. So here comes uh. We called him Taco. He was floor manager, comes out there, and we tell him the situation, you know, and he goes over there and talks to him. He comes back and he's like, they're all cool. It's like we we you know, they were wondering why she was drinking it so fast. Yeah. So I was like, I probably need to find another gig, you know, another job this one right here. Probably I don't need to be serving seven year olds. Yeah, I just I'm not. I can't. I got a one track mind, basically, I mean, I can't shuffle other jobs. I'm terrible at what do they call it like multitasking multitasking awful? Added what would you be thinking? Would you be thinking about your music career all day? Is that what was really happening in your mind at the time when you're waiting tables or were you just like, I don't like doing this. No, I mean I enjoyed doing it. I enjoyed meeting the people. I just you know, the way my brain operates. I just it wasn't you gotta be able to multitask, could be a good server. I was the best. Yeah, I was the best server in the land. So you you know, you got three or four tables going on, and you gotta you know, I just wouldn't able to do it. I just I couldn't. It was like I can sit down with a guitar, or I'm sitting down with a video game, and I will master the guitar or the video game because I can spend hours at that one thing and never leave, you know. Or I can sit and watch a bobber for fishing for hours and run the day and wait for that thing to go under, and you know, and and I'm you know, I got the patients of job with that. But I can't I can't do multitasking. I mean basically it's easy to distract me from one thing. You know. Well, to be fair, I couldn't remember orders with that writing them down. I was a write down ye server. Other than that, yeah, that's pretty a plus. I do want to get to the video game thing. You play video games. I used to dominate them. I could. I just spent a lot of time on like no, like Nintendo four. Well. I started off with the Atari, you know, and then all that and then uh, I would you know, a lot of guys, you know, when they were when I was in high school and I was we'd go to the bowling Alley and Danville or someplace like that. There was always a lot of guys were hanging out, you know, out there checking out the girls. I was going into the uh, into the video game place in putting quarters in. It was was an ark. Arcades were huge back then, you know. And then you went in and and I would literally just take my quarters in there and just figure it. Play all these different video games a lot of times. And you know why, my brother Eddie was out chasing the girl, you know. But I just I loved video Still love them, Still love them today. I mean, but I think it, Uh, I think it was one of that that trade. Probably like when it came to playing music, I mean I was steadfast. I mean, uh, when I got a full time gig playing guitar singing at a club, I mean, it was like I was on it. You know, I'd be there when the doors opened up. I'd go up there and I practice a new song and this then I just it kept me focused. It was easy to focus on stuff like that, you know. And I but if I like, like, just like golf. I mean, once I started playing golf, I thought it was the silliest game in world. And when I played basketball and baseball back in high school, had somebuddies that played golf and I just laughed at him. And then I had a bass player, uh who I couldn't get to come to practice because he was all the time golfing, And I was like, what do you like about that? What? What is it? You know? He said, come with me one day. So I go out with him, and uh, I started slicing the ball, you know, like everybody does. And I played nine holes with him on his little course, and after that I was absolutely absorbed. I went to the practice range every day after that because I was like, I know, I hit this ball straight, you know, and I mean it was literally it was on. I mean I was just absolutely ate up with it and I started playing a hundred hundred fifty rounds a year. Stay yeah, I mean you know, I haven't been able to play much lately called back spasms, but love it. I mean I wish I would play every day if I mean, uh, I literally got down to about three handicapp I was taking lessons from I got a lesson from one of Harmon brothers. Like, I mean, everywhere I went, I got lessons. I was when I was thirty five years old. I love the game so much. I was playing on the Celebrity Pro tournament. Uh you were like legitimately good. And that happened because your bass player was like, hey, come play, I got you got so absorbed I've got Yeah. It was like there's just certain things that that gets me addicted to it. And once I'm addicted to it, my personality just takes over and it's just like I gotta get I can, I've got to master this. Were you a natural athlete high school? Well, I mean I was pretty good. But I mean, I mean I played basketball. I played okay, I mean, uh, I played a little baseball baseball board me. So I quit playing that. And I just love action. I like things that keep me, you know, give me action, you know. I mean, I loved football more than anything. I love of high school football, college football. Mom would never let me play. And you know, I remember when I turned eighteen years old. I was senior in high school and and I said, Mom, I'm going out for the football team this year, and you can't stop me because I'm eighteen years old now. And she was like, let's fine. She says, I don't want to hear you complaining when you break your fingers and you can't play guitar anymore. And I went, uh, okay, I didn't think about that. So I went to school, worked out with the guys and started saying, can I look at your fingers? And then yeah, it's like that, did you break any have you ever? Oh? Yeah? Man? I had this one, all these gross, gross stories about fingers and I mean, and some of them still were crooked and everything, and I was like, I guess I want to be playing football. I'm just gonna have to, you know it was bad enough to jam my finger when I was playing basketball. But now I just, uh, I don't know music. Obviously, being from a musical family, I remember coming home, had war sedishes, clean the house, make the beds, do my homework, and then I picked up my guitar and I would sit and listen to whatever song I loved or wanted to sing or play, and I would just sit there for hours and hours and hours. The thing that happened later but happened early with you with the guitar. Yeah, and so well, your parents were musician, as you said, you your mother and your father that they both played, did one sing. They were weekend mostly weekends. Uh, my mom played drums for my dad. Uh he had a hard time keeping drummers. And of course my mom's you know, the side of the family was you know, they were a little musical too, could sing and stuff, but dad couldn't keep a drummer in the band, you know. And uh so she said, well maybe I'll learned to play drums. And dad went He called her snooky, that was her nickname. He's human snookie. Women don't play drums. Well that was it, I mean, the next day there was a set of drums sitting in the living room when I came home from school and I went, it's on. Yeah, And she ended up being my dad's drummer and did a great job, you know, family band, and he she was a good singer too, of course, you know what I'm saying. And then me and Eddie, of course, when we got a little older, gott to become teenagers, we started joining the band, playing with him on the weekends. And uh, what roles did you and Eddie? Dude, Like, what did you guys sing it all? Were you just the background players? We sang? Yeah, I mean Eddie and I would when we were kids. They Dad would get me an Eddie up on stage and we'd seen a little elvis or something or uh you know, and it they it was kind of more of just for part of the show, you know, but that they got a singing at an early age, and we both could you know, hold a pitch pretty good at that age, and you know, the crowd loved it and everything. So we were just kind of part of the entertainment, you know. And Dad, uh, you know, Dad would do his uh opery stage. He dressed up like Dolly Pardon and readily and he stuff, you know, oh yeah's in there and come out and he'd put a blond wig on and do a Dolly parton song and then he'd do Loretta ly in and and then he you know, he had a little grand Ol operations because that's how he learned to play. He didn't have a TV growing up, so they listened to the grand Ol Opry on the radio, and he learned to play guitar and all that stuff by do and that. So he loved that. But uh, you know, they just played you know, everything from bf w s to skating rinks to you know, private parties on the weekends, and they dragged the kids along with them. Obviously, you know, it couldn't really afford the paper for a babysitter. We we had one from down to time, but you know, we we just grew up with it. And we had musicians coming over all the time, you know, and they leave at one am in the morning, so we'd you know, we'd uh, we'd get up a lot of times, would stay awake till one am, get up, go school next day, and sleepy eyed and all that kind of stuff. But it was fun. We moved around a lot around the country right, just for central Kentucky. I mean, you know, Dad had several different jobs. I mean he worked on television's. Uh, he had TV shops, he did butcher's, he drove a bulldozer. He he just the only thing he really stayed consistent at was playing and picking music. He loved it, you know. But the other jobs, a lot of times he didn't pay as much. And we rented a lot, so when the rent went up or he didn't make it money, we moved to a different place. So we moved around a lot. You know. Did he want to be a professional musician, Yeah, absolutely, I mean he he uh, you know, he even put out like a you know, a little forty five back in his day and everything like that. And he his dream was to play on the opera and his dream obviously was to make it in Nashville. But him and mom had kids really early. I mean they he was like twenty and he was, you know, eighteen or seventeen, you know whatever. I mean, it was so when you got when you have two kids and then a third one came along later, I mean, you just can't drop everything you're doing and go, well, you know, I want to try to be a star and see all later. Good luck, you know. So, I mean he stuck, he stuck around. Uh, Mom, just you know, they stuck around and you know, made their music around locally, and so they keep a roof over me in eddies head. And when we were young and uh and their sister or sister Becky came along later and and that's what they did. I mean. So one of the reasons that I, you know what, did not getting married till I was thirty was I I had the dream obviously like he did. And I just knew that if I got married at young age had kids, it was really going to make it hard for me to to make that happen, you know, harder to make it happen. Do you think you had the dream because it was your dad's dream or do you think you had the dream because you kind of got a taste of it playing with your dad. No, it was definitely, Uh, getting on stage, I didn't understand it. And you know, when I was a kid, getting on stage, it was just for fun. But then when I started playing guitar and I got on stage for the first time, uh with Dad and Mom as a rhythm guitar player, and I was back. I was a good background vocalist, and he let me sing a couple of songs. And I had these girls screaming at me. You know, I was like fourteen years old at the time for fifteen years old, and I was like, okay, uh so me singing and hoping the guitar, the girls pay attention to me. I couldn't get them to pay attention to me before. Uh So. I remember going back to I went and did this high school variety thing and I sang a Willie Nelson's song, Angel was flying too close to the ground, and I was trying to sound like him, hanging playing too, playing a little Mossburg a moss right guitar that the guy gave me. I got finished singing, and the state and the gymnasium all the screaming at me, and I was like, this is what I want to do. I went and told my coach Holliback I was playing basketball and I wouldn't start in anyway, but I told him, I said, coach, I just saw him the other day. As a matter of fact, we laughed about this, I said, and we'll have to quit the basketball team. He said, why that's it? Uh Playing my mom and dad's band, you know, and they play on Friday sometimes and I just I really love that and that's what I want to do and I can't. I had to make I have to make a choice. And he said, well, uh, that's just a silly dream. You just you know, blah blah blah. Then I've seen him a few years later when he retired at the uh he's doing security at the airport in Lexington and I think I might have been my second year out after Life's to Dance and all that. He went, he said, come up to me. He's like, I just want to tell you. I'll tell all my kids when after you made it, like, if anybody ever comes up to you and says, you know, don't you ever don't for don't everything. If you got dreams, don't let anybody ever tell you that it can't happen for you. And then he would tell him the story about that, you know, and uh, he says, because I told this young man one time, this dream, he didn't need to quit the basketball team and you know, and then he said it's John Michael Montgomery and all that stuff. So it was a fun story. He's a great guy, but it really was hard for me. I really like playing basketball for him, But you know, it just once once I get it, just takes that magical moment for me, just like when I hit that first golf ball and I was like, I get it now. I'm so blown away that you got that good at golf. I'm just my mind is blown that you were that competitive. But it does seem like, just as you're talking about things that your personality is to find and focus and and master, and it's pretty cool, Like I I can respect that. You know, when you talk about how you play guitar when you were younger, what what's the age difference between you and your brother? A year and a half. Wow, that's so close. Now. Did he have the same dreams to be a country star? I think we both actually, you know, wouldn't like we wanted to be famous right off the bat. We just love to get on stage and perform. And then we got better at it, and then we started our own band, a little three piece band with a guy bass player, guy a good friend of her, Tim Williams, and and we did that around Frankfurt in different places on the weekends, and then a uh, then a job full time five nights we gig opened up in Lectington and that was our dream, was like, are we good enough to do that? But what was it? Five nights a week? Was in a restaurant? Was that? It was a club, you know, club called Austin City Saloon, and you were like the house band. Yeah, and a guy named Greg Austin played there. Uh no relation of the Austin City Saloon and Greg Austin. I don't think they named it after him. But we used to go in there and watch him play. And uh, that's where I met Troy Gentry, I believe it or not. We me and him first met there. So you met Troy before your brother did. What was Troy was Troy? Did he live up there? Yeah? He was from Lecington, Yeah, and he was doing like I was. He was just going around to different places, getting up on stage, trying to make a name for himself and and we kind of got to be pretty good buddies actually, And uh then when Austin Gregg left, Austin City had got sold and another guy bought it out. He was having a hard time drawing a crowd in there, and my brother Eddie I told him, said, we can draw a crowd in there, so could you or was he just saying that to get the gig. Well, I think Edie was just saying that to get the gig. But he was Eightie was Eightie can he's the best he let me tell you, Eddie is he can be s He just full of it. I mean I love it because he can literally talk. I mean you have talk, you know, fish out of water. I may have fishing or whatever whatever the saying is. I mean, Eddie always had really cool cars because he just had that knack. I had pieces of junk that had constantly work on all the time. And I was like, man, he's got a good, cool, cool car. And then he traded it off for another cool car. But Eddie was really good with that salesman. He could call people up and talk to him and talk him into stuff. And so the guy gave us an opportunity and he says, hey, this guys, we gotta put a band together, because at the time we were disbanded. And I was like, okay, I said, we'll get Tim Williams. Edie's gonna play drums for me. That's what Eddie did for me, played drums, and uh Troy, I said, I asked Troy if you'd be part of the band, and he said yeah. So it was me, Eddie, Tim Williams, and Troy Gentry and we called it John Michael mcgomery in Young Country. And then we had a keyboard player is John Michael Montgomery and Gentry basically and exactly. And so I mean, the guy gave us, he said, I'll give you guys two weeks if you show we start bringing crowd here. We started packing the place. I mean, because I knew what kind of music that place Texas to Step and was getting really popular at the time. Greg Austin played a lot of songs and I would watch these people do these two steps Texas to Step in the line dancing. This is you know, ight six eighties seven, and I was like, what kind of dances that you know? And there's like Texas to Step and it was that it was beginning, begin beginning to sweep the country. And so I went in there, and of course I played a lot of George Straight stuff, and I mean I played, you know, we all sang every everything from Bob Seeger to George Strade. We we covered it all, and uh, I mean, and plus we were a bunch of young single guys that'd like to have a lot of fun. So it uk you know, college town. I mean we packed the place. I mean we started packing the place and then you know, so it became a good gig for us for a while. And then I tell on Sundays, me and Troy was trying to make a little extra money so we would actually get together and his dad on a little restaurant. We talked his dad and letting me and Troy go in there on a week on a Sunday because they weren't doing any business. He was thinking about closing it up. It's called the Grapevine, and uh, we asked him if he'd let us come here on Sunday and me and Troy would just do a little doo And he was the original Montgomery and I absolutely and every time i'd see Troy, I'd go, you know that we you were the firstry. He just my real big So what's that dynamic? Because did you move to Nashville first, And if you and your brother already playing together, why did you not doo up like well, I mean, here's here's where my head was when I was about twenty four or years old, playing five nights a week. I was like, I saw a lot of the musicians around town. They're thirty five, forty years old still, you know, and playing four and five nights a week, and I just didn't want to be that. I was like, I want by the time I'm thirty, I want to know where I'm gonna what I'm gonna choose. I'm not gonna continue trying to I don't want to continue playing clubs. I either need to go to Nashville and try to make a living sand demos, writing songs, doing something. But I don't want to be a nightclub or the rest of my life. Uh. And either that or I just need to go get a real job, you know, and have some kids and family and just enjoy music on the weekend down hundred degrees. I don't need the ground with the paddles. You're already good at it. Yeah and so literally, I uh um, I had made up my mind once I turned twenty five, I was gonna make a decision to move down here. Well, uh, just so happened. Nashville started looking for talent outside of Nashville, and uh and there was a guy up in uh Lexington that was doing a showcase for Atlantic Records, and the manager that guy stopped by the bar uh to listen to this song that that his artist that he got on that on Atlantic loved. So I sang it for him. Is called a Few Cents Shore. I wrote it and I got done and I said, well, how do you like it? He went, I like you. He's like, if you'll let me manage you, I'll get you on the Lamp Records. I'm like, wow, he said that. Yeah. Did you believe him? No? I mean, I just I was like, this guy is just telling me what I want to hear, you know, I mean. And I said, well, I said, it's a deal. If you you get me on Atlantic record, Yeah, sure, I'll let you manage me. You know. Estel Sowards was the name of the old coal mine or Eastern Kentucky guide silk shirt and a gold nugget, you know. And I was like, there's no way this guy's even gonna come through for me than if he didn't, you know. And I remember writing down in his Cadillac uh for the first time we run out of fuel because he believed it had that little extra fuel things. He believed that and right before we run out a fuel. He looks at He said, those dimples are gonna be worth a million dollars each. And I was like, I said, Estel, come home. I said, that's just silly. You know. The guy dreamed big. I loved it about him. You know, he had a little stutter and stuff had real devoys. So we I said, I said, you can't ever trust that extra fuel thing on their estill. I had to walk half a mile up a hill to a little white home, knock on the door. Didn't have no cell phones back then. This was and uh, you know, a little old lady is like, we run out a few rowing sixty five, know so, but did she have fuel? She called the uh fuel station that had whatever they called the Triple A. You know, they came down brought some fuel and everything like that. But was that your first time going to Nashville. No, I went to Nashville a long time ago, back in around eighty I'm thinking it was eighty four eighty five. I remember coming into town. We had this I had this guitar players, me and Eddie and Tim and and he was long haired rock and roller guitar player, you know, and uh, we come rolling into Nashville, and that's when Alabama had a huge Alabama signed there on the Division Street or Music Road, whatever it was. They had a huge store there and they their name Alabama was on top of it. It was just flickering and I was like, wow, that is so cool. I have got to go into their course, you know, tour straight linel Ritchie, Alabama. That's where I got all my chops from. And you know it was just like love songs and stuff like that. I mean, but uh uh no, I mean, I I just uh uh. It was fortunate enough. So getting back to the story, that's guy. They came up to see that guy singing and showcasing. It's right down the road from me, and uh this Uh they weren't impressed, I guess, and yeah by him. And so this guy comes into the bar and it's on a weeknight, so it's like, we could tell this guy from out of town. There ain't nobody in the bar. He didn't. He didn't look like he's never been there, hadn't seen him before. So I get done with a set and I walk over to him and he's like, yeah, he said, I'm uh from Atlantic Records. He's like, uh, I was over there listening to this guy and he didn't impress me. And he's so I asked the waitress, I said that there, you know the place. Anybody is singing around here, and she said, well, the best singer in town's right down the road here, John Michael Montgomery. And he went really and I said, uh, so, whoever that waitress is, you still don't know who. Thank you very much. We have on the phone right now. And uh but I was like, well, I appreciate, and he said, you know what, I just after that said she she's right, She said, I got the rest of them coming over and you know, and that's Uh. What does your brother think about that? That? Okay, you're gonna go sign to Atlantic? Does he follow you down? Yeah, I mean he's been my um where did he come with you? Yeah? He come with me. I mean we we went to Nashville together. We did everything together. You know, he had of course, he had a life. I mean he had kids and married and all this stuff. But anytime we did music anything like that, I mean, we did it together. I mean he played drums for me. But once I started coming to Nashville, I was playing at Austin City five nights a week. He had to kind of hold the roost down there because I now was recording Life to Dance from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then I would drive back and and Thursday, Friday and Saturday I would sing it Awesome City, and so you know, he was him and Tim and and Troy and all on what Troy. I think Troy might actually had to did it on gig at that point. But you know, then I would come in and you know, because I still had to make a living. I mean, you know, I was making a hundred fifty bucks a week, you know, and I wouldn't getting paid anything to record at that Yeah, and so anyway, I can't. I did that for you know, I mean a year. I did that for a year because they had a big change over in the Atlantic Records and Rick Blackburn ended up taking over the whole thing and the other guy left this and then we changed producers. You know. Doug Johnson came into the picture, and I think basically was the reason that I have a career today. I mean, he brought Life to Dance. I love the way you loved me, uh beer and bones. I mean, he he was very instrumental. I mean, he looked around because the guy left Atlantic was the guy that's supposed to produce me, and once he left her, I had found new producer. Right. Well, you talk about last Dance, which was your first single, but I was looking it up and you can correct me if I'm wrong. And again, there are a few songs you have a bunch of according to depending on which chart you like, you have seven number one? How many do you think you have? How many do you claim because it's different wherever. Yeah, Well, on Billboard, I think it was fourteen or no Billboard it was like seven. And then we had the other one that everybody all the heck, what was it called, Well, let's just say eight, just for ourselves. I had fourteen number one's on the other one, which is the one that's the other one all Montgomery all the time that chart there was Billboard and then there was bill Board only went by what they you know, you couldn't call Billboard up in order the stations up and like a media base, there was a Yeah, it was basically the chart that Nashville used when all these stags they would call in and then they would add that's where they could call in and get ads for I cannot cannot believe, I can't think of that name. It was. It was huge, it was it was huge. It was as big as Billboard. But it was basically what Nashville went by as a number one. Not the public. Well let's go with fourteen number one because all that's all the same to me. So your first song, uh, Lives to Dance. All I did was like at the Billboard chart and I think that's the song that I associate with you the most. That and probably Grundy County Auction, but Lives to Dance and Billboard it did not go number one, which was wild to think that that song, which is the song that I associate you in my childhood with um. But when that song hit, is that a song that got bigger as time went on? Well, I just think it's like, uh, first of all, I didn't want that song to come out first. I wanted I Love the Way You Love Me to come out first, because I was like, that's a that's a love song. Did they say, no ballad, no love song? Well they explained it to me. It's like look and I was used to singing George Strait Keith Wheel Life to Dance is a philosophical kind of song about I just never had really singing a songs like I didn't even know if I was good at saying a song like that. But Doug Johnson said, hey, this song is perfect for you and it's a perfect one to come out with, and I just was like, well, we'll probably be lucky to break top forty with it, you know. But hey, I mean, what do I know. I'm new, these guys know what they're doing, so let's do it. You know, I like this song. I just you know, I've gravitated towards the love song or the good old hardcore country, you know, heartbreaking song. And so sure enough, broke top forty, top thirty. Took forever to get up there, and it uh finally broke Top five, went to the number four, and I mean, of course I was thinking, wow, I got a top five, you know. And but most people, just like with me and Bob Seeger and some old and uh people, can't believe how many of those big rock bands had big hits but they didn't go No. Number one. Yeah, Errol said, didn't have a number one until Armageddon the movie like I love song way later, and they had so many massive songs, massive hits that never went to number one, and you would think every one of those were number ones. And I think Bob Seeger was kind of the same way. I mean, yeah, I mean he just I couldn't believe that all those big hits he had wasn't number one hits, but they weren't. What's kind of the same way for Lives of Dance and Beering Bones and a few others. They uh they some of them, you know, get obviously better as time goes on, and they get bigger as time goes on. And like, for instance, right now, when I go and do a show, Uh, in the nineties, everybody wanted to come and hear me singing Lights of Dance and I swear and the other the way he loved me and and uh um. But now everybody wants to come and hear me sing sold to Grundy County Auction because that next generation that were a little bitty kids when those songs were out are now going to the bars and places and and going out, and they want to come and hear me sing that song, you know, And I mean it's actually bigger than I swear. It's uh probably out all the numbers. It probably out performs in every way too, I mean which I mean it's I remember when I did Be My Baby Tonight Atlantic Records, especially Rick, they went, that's a stupid song. We you're gonna you don't you want that? I said that I grew up listening to buck on ones and people like that. I'd like, people love those kind of songs. And when Be my Baby Tonight went number one, I think one number one. Yeah, when I came out with the next album and I had sold to Grundy County Auction there, Rick was like angle hearing nothing from me. I would think that if you're playing a show and you know. We talked about the difference in number ones, but also like career defining songs that you could just get up and go. When I was in the crowd, just sings the rest of the whole they can sing the rest of the song. They I'm surprised at how uh popular that song became. It still surprised me today. I didn't realize how much uh it meant to a lot of people out there that struggled in their life, had struggles in their life, and you know, and I would, uh, they'll I still do meet in Greeks, but I do a lot of meeting Greeks back in the nineties, and the people that would come up and tell me their personal stories. I mean, I was just like, oh, wow, well, you know, I mean, you don't realize how much when you grow up singing other people's songs in the bar and then all of a sudden you create your own. You don't realize how much they can mean in people's lives until you start getting the personal stories. And then at that point I was like, wow, okay, I get that song a lot more now than I did back then. I love the Way you love Me the three week number one. This is your second single, right, so if I'm right and you can correct me, Life to Dance comes out first, and then I Love the Way It comes out second. Is that right? Yeah? Okay, let's play a clip here for everybody. Everybody knows it, but just for my sake, you kind of got your way there. You have to put out your love song that you're waiting on. Did you feel that after the success of Life to Dance that that song like you you had a great feeling about that. I was when that song came out after the success of life to dance and of course, uh, hearing Bob Kingsley say my name on the Top forty Countdown was probably the highlight of my life back then. That was, you know, I loved that man, and and listening to that every weekend at Top forty Countdown. And then when I Love the Way You Love Me went number one. Uh. I was actually writing back. I was back home on the Lake Harrington, back there with some buddies and Frank Myers, who wrote co wrote, I swear was right we were. He came up to write with me, and I finally told Frank. I said, you know we had a little cassette player. You know, we've put stuff down, I said, Frank, Bob Kingsley is about to mention that I got the number one record on American Country Countdown. He's like. I was like, I'm just gonna have to take a break. I ain't worth the craft of being right, and I'll just be honest with you. He said, that's fine. He said, could you listen to this song real quick? I think it's perfect for you. He said, I co wrote this a few years ago, and I can't get to get it pitched anymore. So I carried around with me and it was I swear and you pitched it to Scott Hendricks, who you know, uh produced that album because I swear on it, and I was like, I love it. And but when it went number one, hearing Bob Kingsley say my name and I had a number one record, I mean, it was an incredible moment. I mean that was probably as big as when I heard Life of Dance on the radio station that would you know out on you randomly heard it somewhere that wasn't home. Yeah, but I cheated on it because I was playing golf with one of the radio guys here and we got done playing golf and and he was like, he said, so, what did it feel like you here? You're strong on the radio. I said, I haven't heard it yet. He went, it's like we played all the time. I said, I don't live down here a little bit Kentucky and uh, And I said, I haven't been able to catch it up there to either, And he goes, so he makes a phone call to the guys that I got John Mic on the car played lots of dance. Next we're getting ready top and have some wings and stuff and everything's so I mean, it was. It was a cool feeling. And after that, it's like you know, when you buy a new car, you see the same car everybody's got one. After that, hearing it everywhere, and but that's got to be cool. Though it was, it's just it's it's everywhere. You probably here at the grocery store, probably hear it in the car. The craziest thing, even today, it's and I agree to you, other artists will tell you this. I can't tell you how many times I've walked into a truck stop or I've walked into any of these other places that they're playing the music on the speakers that one of my songs are playing. I mean, and I know they're not playing me seven it's just uh, it's just kind of like wow, it's just I mean, I've walked into places. I can't tell you how many times that happens, and it's just the coincidence. It's the most well you when you have so many number one songs that were songs of a generation. I mean, there's only so many songs that I can hear and it assigns me back to where I was at that time. And I'll lot of your music does that I mean, you mentioned I swear and it started with you. But then I remember All for One also singing it, you know, but it started with you right like you had the song, you sing the song. Did they approach you or they approach your label or the wrong this? This is what happened with that song. And you know, I had Rick Blackburn, he you know, we he want to meet with me one day. So I met with him and he was like, look, he said, what do you think about going pop with the song? You going me? Going pop with it? Interesting? And I just told him, I said, Rick, I don't care anything about it. I'd like, I said, I'm I don't want to be a pop singer. I'm like, um, I think the song is definitely good enough to go pop. But I'd said, just to be honest with you, I just I'm happy with where I'm at. I want to be considered a country music singer and not a cross over any of that kind of stuff. And he said, well, he said, I have to tell you there's another group open, uh the Atlantic New York is going to put out or and b uh section that's they want to put it out. And I was like, let him do it. You know, and he's like, he said, well, I just wanted to ask you, talk to you about it first, and obviously he I guess he just didn't want me to be surprised. Were you happy? Were you unhappy that they were doing it? It was it so out of your control that you were just like, you know, I just I really felt like the song was was bigger than me anyway. I thought it was just the song exploded. I was like, Wow, this thing is huge. But I kind of felt like, you know, uh, the song deserves to be heard by another genre or another you know. I mean, it's just that good. And I just wasn't interested in being that person to go over and cross over into the pop world with it and all that kind of stuff. I just, uh, you know, I just never did have any desires for that. And so when it came out, I was like was I was actually I kind of wanting to see how they did it. You know, It's like, how are they going to do this differently, you know than I did, you know, and it's going not be a coffeecat or whatever. But they pulled it off antly. You know, I'm gonna play a couple of clips. This is your version four weeks at number one on the country chart. This thing sat number one for a month, which is wild to think about. Here is I Swear, which this song again reminds me of being a young teenager and having nobody want to slow dance with me. That's what the song reminds me of, like, all right, slow dance time. Not a single girl, not a not a one. I know exactly where you're coming from me And here is all for One's version I Swear. But the crazy thing is it happened again because you put out I Can Love You like that, and here's a clip of that a year later. It's only a year later. So was it the similar circumstance? No, completely different. And it's funny because we were having a get together at Rick Blackburn's home in the backyard and I ran into one of the Awful One guys and a couple of them, Yeah, they had came to Rick place too, and they were I forgot what the celebration was for. Uh, it was for us artists. But and all the big New York guys were in town, l A guys were in town everything. And I remember talking to the lead singer, you know, and we were just He was like, we're talking about being a studio and I said yeah, I said, I just cut another cutting, another big old ballot. I said, you guys order here. I said, it's He said really, I said yeah, yeah. I said, yes, cal I can love you like that. He went, We'll just finished that song. I went what They went, Yeah, we just finished that song too. So what we figured out the publishing company and I think the co writer was Steve Diamond on that song, I believe if I remember right. But anyway, they were like, hey, let's pitch this song to both of these guys at the same time. And there was really no competition. I mean they had their side, I had my side, and so we put it out the same time and both songs, both both covers, were huge. You know, did you guys ever performed together? We did? Uh? We performed once on the Grammys back in the probably yeah, somewhere around in there. I remember I had a cold. I shouldn't even been on been there, but I I had to go with my first time, so I didn't. I didn't sound that good when I did my part. But well, you have fourteen number ones, I mean you have you have an entire set list of I'm gonna roll through some of these just just for the sake. I'm jealous. You have a sweet teat by the way. I saw you drinking it, and I was like, dang, I wish I had a sweet time right now. Um, I Love the Way You love We touched on this one I Swear, as we mentioned, a four week number one, another multi week number one be My Baby Tonight. But between this and sold to Grandy County Auction, that's a lot of words. I mean, you're you're constant with the words. It's it's it's it's an easier song to sing than I Love the Way You Love Me because you don't think about it. You're just rambling wrapped to him and boom boom boom, boom boom. Where when you're singing a love song, it's it's a process. If you're you're, if you say so, it sounds like a lot of words that you know, it sounds like a lot of words you're trying. Yeah. But the thing about I Swear, which uh it actually could have been number one long uh. At that time period, all the radio stations, the big p ones as we call them, had put a twelve week limit on songs period, not just the number one, but period. Yeah, tol you twelve weeks on the charts, and you were just going by by that's how much, that's how popular the country music. And I mean it's forty weeks now, it's now nowadays. Yeah, And it's like I was thinking this thing, could you know. I mean because back in the day, in the fifties and sixties, and you had those guys, I mean, they'd be they'd have a number one to last for six months, some m old guys. And I was thinking, man, this song could pull that off. And then all of a sudden, the new rule was on a lot of these P one stations. Uh, twelve weeks, uh, and we pull it. We don't care how popular it is. And so they pulled I swear after the fourth week and being number one a fourth week, twelve after the four weeks number one, they pulled it, not because it couldn't have still been number one. I was like, man, I say justice for John. That's what I back on there. Man. I was I was gonna hope, hope, maybe eighty Arnold record or something. You know, if you've got love from I can love you like that, like that I sold the Grundy County auction incident. Not didn't. Hey, pretty lady, want you to give me a sign again? Anybody to make him out. I never say incident. I'll be honest with you. Mostly it's always Grundy County. Sometimes if I'm really feeling it, I'll say sold to Grundy County auction. I never say incident. To be honest with you. I forget that the incidents. I mean, I'm reading I wrote it down, but I now be honest sold and yeah, you know. And then I remember when I put that song out and I did the video. There the director of the video producer whatever you were calling me, he called me up. He went he was trying to find a stockyard, you know. And he was like, John, I cannot find a good stockyards are all made out of blocks and this and that. And he's like, I want an old fashioned wooden style. You know where it? When that, I said, oh yeah, I said Lancashire, Kentucky, just right up the road from me. I was like, uh, I went to school there and everything. I used to walk by that place every day. I said, it's a cool little stockyards. He goes in checks it out fall in love with it, and we do the video right there, and I had all these uh of course it's in Garrett County, Lancaster Is So I had all these people with the video going up. I can't believe you wrote that song and you didn't call it Garrett County instead of Grundy County. Where's Grunge County? I was like, I said, look, I said, I didn't write the song. I just sang this song. I said, Uh, if I would have wrote the song, I would have figured out a way to make a Garrett County. But I said, it's Grundy Onny Tennis, I think, but I'm not sure. There's a lot of frint of counties up there. But I said, uh, but you know they they got after me. They thought, well, I can't believe you're doing it. You're doing a song here in Gard County and you didn't even don't even mention two thousand, the Little Girl number one, three weeks and the five just got worse every night. Behind there. You know, I'm looking at you here. Is it is your Kentucky blue? Is that what the vest is? Is it? Is it purposefully Kentucky blue? Or is it just you just got a lot of blue. Well, I do have a lot of blue, but the wife picked this out for me this morning. It's nice. It's a good job. Wait are you she in town? Yeah. So one of my friends is Travis, who is marrying your daughter, and so I hated that his team won last night Georgia. I can't you know what but I did. You're like every other SEC guy, you know, but more times than not, they hate Alabama. You know, Alabama than Georgia. You know. I got a keyboard player from uh you know, he lives in Mount Julie, had a very of facts and he's from Louisiana, l s U. I mean, just uh, you know, and just can't stand Alabama. Well I don't like I don't like either one of them. But I did bet on Alabama. So I was a little upset that they lost last night. Well when you got a little money on it, yeah, and George has had it too good. Then the spreads the only thing you're pulling forth and I thought that we gotta cover three points. But Georgia one like the Braves won the World Series and then the Bulldogs won the National Championship. Travis had it too good. He got engaged, like life's going too different. Just hopefully they'll finally quit crying about losing to Alabama and you know and all that. Oh my god. You well you were at his place last night. Yeah, you gotta stayed there. And what was that like during the game? Was he pretty intense? Let me tell you something. You people, they know if when you grow up in Georgia, you are brought up specifically mainly on Georgia football, and I mean, uh, that's where he was. I mean he just absolutely standing up, can't sit down. I mean he's cussing the refs. I mean he's cussing me about the refs Twitter last night in the game. I mean he's like, you might as well just might as well just quit now and just if you're gonna call it like you know what I mean he was. He was more entertaining than the game. Was it time? Actually? But you know, I got a lot of Georgia friends, a lot of talented people from Georgia. You're in Nashville and everything, obviously, so my son Walker and Travis. I mean it's like when you come to Nashville, it's like Georgia's everywhere, you know, So they get to hear about Georgia all the time and the dogs and and everything, you know, so we need more Arkansas here, les U. One of my dearest friends is Matt Jones, who does Kentucky sports radio. Yeah, and he won. Everything he writes is about Kentucky all the time, and I'm like, dude's top because that's my career and my guy. That's a good point. That's a good point. Well, he does a great job at and he's you know, he's got it going pretty good up there now. And he uh uh he knocks a far out of golf ball too. I mean he but he's yeah, you know Kentucky. I did. Yeah, we played in the first year they had the I'm a Members of champions Trace, which now holds that yearly golf p g A event the barber Stall, and it's usually held during the the the Open Championship, but they moved it a week ahead this time, so it's actually going to whoever wins that gets to go to the Open. So it's become really important now. But first year they had it, uh me and him, Tubby Smith, a couple of other guys were on the same team together and we tied. We had we lost in a card playoff. Okay, we shot, I forget what it was under We lost to a card playoff to the number one sponsor of classics, Ye Classics. So no no questioning about that at all, you know, no conspiracy theories there. I'll keep minding for you. You don't have to say, I have mine for you. You know. But I was talking to Luke Bryan, who's also a Georgia guy, and I was talking about the game, and He's like, I feel like I've been in a prize fight. He goes, it was so emotional. It is physically I'm tired. I feel like I've been boxing twelve rounds. Well, i'll tell you what. You know. Our coach, coach Tuops. I mean I played golf with him too, and he's you know, coach Tuops. I know him. Well, he's a great guy. But you're glad he didn't leave, huh. You know. But I mean he has been so good for Kentucky football because I'm a clauset. I mean, everybody loves basketball up there, but I've always loved college football better than anything in the world. He has done a remarkable job. And uh, but we we've we've played some rounds together and just an enjoyable guy. But he's fiery. I mean he you know, and he has turned Kentucky around into when they have close games where they usually lost, like how how mommy would play close we wouldn't win. Yeah, and that's been we call it the coach Uh. It's a curse from when we had Joker Phillips. No no, no uh. Back when in the fifties we had Paul Bear Bryant and he went Levin and Old even beat Oklahoma. They had already made named Oklahoma the championships, so it didn't matter. But we beat Oklahoma in the Bowl game back then, and the rumor is of the UK basketball won a national championship. They gave Rup a brand new Cadillac and they gave Paul coach Bryant h a little watch and he said see y'all later by And so we've been cursed ever since. Well I think Mark coach Stoops has have finally lifted that curse. We beat Tennessee in Florida and all that over, you know, And I mean we love you know well, you know how it is you look SEC grow up SEC. You know, we love to see SEC teams do great. We think it's the best, you know, in the world. Arkansas is starting to show some signs of we won nine games, you know, I mean they gave didn't they give Alabama pretty good game right at the very end. I think that they gave them the best game all year. So that was, uh, you know, that's a good sign. I mean. Now, now we're getting in Texas and Oklahoma coming at some point, at some point, some point, you know, and so it's uh, it's they're about to get rid of awakening Texas and Oklahoma are They're coming into a whole different Welcome to big, big boys. Yeah, I mean, you know, the bottom line is, I mean, it's just there's no doubt about it. If you look in the NFL, the amount of SEC players it's in the NFL, it's just I mean, there that's worth. I mean, it's a it's a it's a very talented, very talented what do you call a conference? This has been Sports Talk with John Michael, Bobby coming at your quarter past every hour. We'll get the weather next. Well, listen, I I appreciate you coming by. Oh absolutely, man. I always just a big fan of yours. I appreciate that man, thank you. I'm you know, I'm trying to not I'm trying to um keep keeping the aging, you know, stay from catching up with me so fast. I'm losing ground a little bit, you know, getting ready turn fifty seven. We don't. I don't think you gain ground on that though. I think that's something that you just lose ground and you accepted or you don't. Yeah, I'm kind of unfortunately, kind of having to accept that, I guess. But uh, I'm enjoying life, you know. I mean, it's gone by fast, I can't. You know, it's hard to believe, Well, this year is my thirtieth year out on the road. When I think Life of Dance came out in September of n it's hard to believe that that's been thirty years ago. I mean, it's just like wow, Okay. And then of course I've got two kids that are one's getting married and the other ones you know, down here writing songs and this and that and trying to make a living in a music business too. And I mean it's just like it's just unbelievable how fast it goes to buy. So, you know, I enjoy get to be once in a while. Tell my story and I appreciate you allowing me come on and do that. Are you kidding big fans? Let's go over to read who gets one awkward question at the end of every interview? Read our video? Guy, what is your one question? Alright? I can't prepared this time. Oh no, alright, now just one question? Um, who are some of your musical like inspirations? Growing up? Well, I mean I grew up my dad. Obviously I watched him on stage. He was a great entertainer. But listening to the radio all the time, you know, I mean it was no doubt George Straight, loved George Straight when he came out and I think it was seventy nine. Alabama came out around in seventy nine and eighty. Uh. Lionel Richie obviously, I mean I wore his cassette tapes out. I mean I said, cassette tapes, that's correct, we had and uh and of course loved Journey and loved the Eagles. Uh uh, you know Bob Seegars. I mean, I just I grew up in an era which I think you know, from the seventies and eighties that was just absolutely incredibly rich with just all this incredible music. And and now I hear it a lot on commercials and stuff. You hear these seventies and eighties big hits from that day. They're using it to get people to buy the product. I'm like, you know, there's a reason why that music was that good. It had me too, I mean I loved it, and I just feel like, you know, no doubt about it. I mean it, Uh, it really helped me when I became I had to go in the studio for the first time to see if I even knew how to sing or and cut a song. I never recorded anything in my life, and I up, they're seeing less of dance. And I heard myself back on these speakers. I'm going, I look at producer, I'm going, is that any good? Do I sound like that? Did you? Did you play by ear? Just by ear? I mean I wanted to be a piano player. I loved piano, and I went and got some lessons. But you know, we moved around a lot. Moving the piano was not easy. So uh we had we had no old brown log stove and it was heavy and that was about the uh. It took up the place for a piano to keep us. Dad carried that thing around everywhere we went. You know, you know we we had we lived in a double wide and this two hundred fifty pound old cold burning so we put in this double wide. I don't know how we didn't burn the plate, but anyway, Now you know those guys, uh, I just wore out their cassette tapes. I mean just loved it. And I remember getting you know, the greatest hits the Eagles came out with the first time and all that stuff. And when I'm in the car, my pickup truck today, if I listened to the radio, listened to my old classic favorites, I just love that's what you meant to say. That says that wrong. Yeah, you you mispronounced my name and you said old classic favorites when you're supposed to say Bobby Bones show. But okay, whatever, you just didn't say an accent. It's probably accent. Yeah, I get that a lot. Hey, John Michael, thank appreciated man, Thank you so much. Just a real treat. And you guys can follow uh John Michael Montgomery on Instagram. I don't know often you're actually posting stuff yourself, but I'm gonna say it's you all the time. My wife is she's got my back on this, you know. So the brother got my back, my wife's got my back or got you got two backs, that's not true. You have a back in the front. You got their soar backs. John Michael Montgomery, Hey, great to see you. Thank you.