Eddie Mongtomery Still Feels Troy Gentry’s Presence in Montgomery Gentry

It’s been almost a year since Montgomery Gentry‘s Troy Gentry‘s sudden death on September 8 from a helicopter crash. For Eddie Montgomery, who initially formed the duo with Gentry, moving forward without his friend and partner has been painful, but he insists he didn’t have another choice.

“We’d talk about it over Jim Beam – seems like everything’s always over Jim Beam for some reason – but we said if either one of us ever go down, we want the other one to keep MG brand, keep it rocking,” Montgomery tells PopCulture.com. “And so that’s I guess what we’ll do; that’s only thing we’ve ever done. We really don’t know anything else. And to me, the greatest feeling in the world is music.”

Still, Montgomery admits continuing to helm the band without Gentry hasn’t gotten easier with time, at least not so far.

“It’s been tough,” Montgomery concedes. “I ain’t gonna lie about it. It’s been on the heart – me and T have been through a lot together. Me and T put this together; it wasn’t Nashville put together. This was two buddies and two friends, two brothers who ran up and down the road and had each other’s backs and got in a lot of trouble sometimes and done a lot of stuff we shouldn’t have done and loved it. And a lot of it I’d like to do over again.

“You always hear that saying of people getting older, they’re going, ‘Well man, I wish I’d of done that, I wish I’d of tried that.’ Well, I think at the end of my life when the good man upstairs comes calling I’m gonna be going, ‘You know, maybe that one I shouldn’t have done,’” he adds with a laugh.

More than just musical partners, Montgomery and Gentry were longtime friends, both from Kentucky, who stuck together through thick and thin.

“I love living life, and T’s with me every day,” Montomgery maintains. “We’ve been through a lot together. Hell, we’ve got each other out of jail, done a lot of things we shouldn’t have. And a lot of them, hell, I’d like to go again. I miss my brother every day out on stage. About 33 years together and looking to my left all the time, so it’s a little different now. There isn’t a day that goes by I don’t think about him and I know he’s here.”

Montgomery Gentry will spend much of the next few months on the road. Find dates at MontgomeryGentry.com.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Terry Wyatt