Montgomery Gentry’s Eddie Montgomery Proud of Their Musical Legacy

It’s been almost 20 years since Montgomery Gentry released their freshman Tattoos & Scars album. In the following two decades, Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry became known for their unapologetic lyrics, their rock-infused country sound, and perhaps most of all, their on-stage chemistry that helped them sell out venues everywhere they went.

“We’ve just been who we are and what you see is what you get,” Montgomery tells PopCulture.com. “We’re not for everybody. We knew that when we came out. And we didn’t try to be. We didn’t color coat anything. We’re living. We’re gonna live life and that’s what we loved about it and that’s what we still are.”

Montgomery Gentry’s music became one of the leading influences for artists who wanted to color outside the lines of traditional country music. But the men were less concerned about their inspiration to others, and were just proud to carry a torch that others carried before them.

“You had Charlie [Daniels], you had Hank [Williams], you had Merle [Haggard] and Waylon [Jennings] and Willie [Nelson], so I reckon we just kind of took off in that way,” Montomgery muses. “There for a long time, there were a lot of love songs and my brother [John Michael Montgomery] was involved in all that. There was a bunch of the love stuff, and me and Troy came out with hillbilly shows, and of course we were who we were. We didn’t care.”

Montgomery Gentry is still making music, albeit with the loss of Gentry, who passed away in a helicopter accident on Sept. 8, 2017. Although Montgomery is determined to continue on without Gentry, insisting it’s what his former partner and friend would have wanted, it doesn’t make the loss any easier.

“It’s been tough,” Montgomery tells PopCulture.com. “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.”

Montgomery Gentry has plenty of shows on the calendar throughout the rest of 2018. Find dates by visiting the band’s website.

Photo Credit: Getty images/John Shearer