‘Friends' fuel Montgomery Gentry

‘Friends' fuel Montgomery Gentry

By Ben Scott
Special Correspondent

After years of touring and charting more than a dozen Top 10 singles, country duo Montgomery Gentry has built a loyal fan base. Or friend base, as Eddie Montgomery calls it.

"We don't call them fans. We call them friends,” Montgomery said. "We've got really hard-core friends that follow us anywhere they can have a good time.”

The friends are bound to have a good time when Montgomery and Troy Gentry perform at 8 tonight at Riverwind Casino in Norman.

And if a Montgomery Gentry friend is lucky, he might find himself in the Jim Beam Room, the sponsored common area that follows the duo through their tour schedule. That's where Montgomery and Gentry hang out before shows, often with fans and other artists. And, of course, Jim Beam.

"We don't hide on our buses,” Montgomery said. "We get out in the middle of it. We let people come back and hang out in the Jim Beam Room. You have to be 21, of course. But we've met a lot of cool people. It makes for a talking room instead of everyone sitting on their butts.”

Should a friend find himself in the Jim Beam Room, don't expect uninhibited rock star behavior. Montgomery said elaborate tales of the duo's hard partying have been exaggerated.

"You know, it's like one of those stories that goes around and round and by the time it gets back to you, it's plumb out there,” Montgomery said. "We like to have fun. We'll have a glass of iced tea or a glass of Jim Beam.”

As for the actual show, Montgomery said, anything can happen and usually does.

"I remember the days when everyone was entertained at a show,” he said. "Nowadays, people got to pay good money for their tickets and their albums. We want to make sure they got their money's worth.”

Montgomery Gentry is touring in support of its latest disc, "Some People Change.” The new single, "Lucky Man,” is a melancholy tune about a reformed whiner that, when he really thinks about it, has a pretty good life. The song has already made an impression with Montgomery Gentry friends.

"It's already in the top 40, and it hasn't even been released,” Montgomery said.

While many songs on the country charts focus on touchy-feely love, Montgomery Gentry prefers the gritty tales of blue-collar America. They usually record material from other writers that resonates with them.

"We grew up in honky-tonks and bars and listened to people's stories,” Montgomery said. "It's just the best song that we go with. I wish every day that everybody was in love, but it just doesn't work like that. People work, and they live, and they party on the weekend.”