Montgomery Gentry’s Eddie Montgomery Opens up About Troy Gentry’s Passing

Montgomery Gentry will soon be back on the country music scene with Outskirts, a seven-song EP, releasing June 14 — the last project Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry worked on before his tragic death in September 2017, involving a helicopter trash while on tour.

“That was the last thing me and T got to do,” Montgomery told PopCulture.com. “And I tell you, I didn’t know really what to do with it. We found the songs that we wanted to put on the CD, but we had a few extra, and we went ahead and cut them. And the thing about it is, in a studio, when we do sessions, producers and musicians like to cut ’em in threes. So we had the songs we found and then our producer said, ‘Is there anything y’all wanna put on?’ And of course, me and T grew up in honky-tonks. He was a big Patty Loveless fan, so ‘You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive,’ she did that and T wanted to do that.”

Montgomery has continued to tour in Gentry’s absence, knowing that’s what his former partner would have wanted, even though it hasn’t always been easy.

“For the last 30-plus years, I’ve been looking to my left. Me and T-Roy put this deal together, Nashville did not. We were friends and brothers before Montgomery Gentry,” said Montgomery. “Everybody knew us as at the bar. There’s not a day don’t go by that I don’t miss him. Of course, most of our band’s been with us over 20 years, or 25. That’s the thing, it’s bittersweet all the way around, because that’s our family on the road. And we’ve been through bus fires, we’ve been through personal things, all of us.”

Montgomery Gentry released Here’s to You in 2018, which became in many ways a tribute to Gentry. The record included the single, “Better Me,” released after Gentry passed away.

“When we even talked even talked about coming out with a Here’s To You CD, we talked to Angie, his lovely wife, and I talked to the label and all them,” recalled Montgomery. “And Outskirts, of course, is the last thing we had. There’s probably a few other things we’ve gotta go back that I’ll probably bring up later on, stuff that we probably cut that we never released is out. But right now, Outskirts.

“And I think everybody’s always, whether it’s label management, or the fan club itself or whatever, going, ‘Hey man, if there’s anything else, man, “you and T had made, will you please put it out?’” he continued. “‘We want to hear it.’”

While Montgomery Gentry still feels the loss of Gentry, and likely always will, he’s still happy to be doing a job that he loves, and grateful that the fans still come to hear their music.

“I get to play music,” said Montgomery. “I think music’s the greatest healer of all. I tell you, I wish all our world leaders would just sit down and shut up and listen to music.”

Photo Credit: Getty images/Terry Wyatt