# Randy Montana: Seven Years to “Beer Never Broke My Heart”

An episode of [Tony Mantor's : Almost Live..... Nashville](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1751194045), 13 Oct 2026, 29 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/c41d385f-64b2-4514-9415-b4d50130ce01/4b4c922c-f888-44eb-bfcf-b4d9017411a4/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=d1742151-672b-4e4d-997b-b4d50130ce0c

Randy Montana spent seven years rebuilding his career after his record deal ended. Then Luke Combs recorded “Beer Never Broke My Heart”—and Randy found himself standing in a packed stadium listening to thousands of people sing the words he helped write. In this episode of Almost Live Nashville, Randy joins Tony Mantor for an honest conversation about the work, uncertainty, and persistence behind a hit songwriting career. Growing up with his father, songwriter Billy Montana, Randy saw the struggle long before he saw the success. Those early lessons helped him navigate his own journey from recording artist to writing songs for other voices. Randy shares the experience of recording with Emmylou Harris, the heartbreak of a potential George Strait single that fell through, and the childhood fishing memories that inspired “Too Broke for a Boat.” He also explains why creativity requires showing up, how trusted collaborators help shape a career, and why having a hit doesn’t make self-doubt disappear. Through it all, Randy has found something he didn’t fully appreciate when he first dreamed of stardom: a career that lets him create music while being present for his wife and three children. For anyone pursuing a dream through setbacks and changing plans, this conversation offers a candid look at what it takes to keep going—and how success can turn out differently than you imagined. Follow Almost Live Nashville for more conversations with the people behind the music. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Before we start today's show, I
[0:03] Speaker 1: want to introduce you to Coast to Coast Heroes, my
[0:07] Speaker 1: new podcast debuting November 11th. For our military veterans, the
[0:11] Speaker 1: uniform is only part of the story. Behind it is
[0:14] Speaker 1: a person and a life shaped by service, sacrifice, and
[0:18] Speaker 1: experiences many of us may never fully understand. Through honest,
[0:23] Speaker 1: deeply personal conversations, you'll hear veterans share what they've faced,
[0:28] Speaker 1: what carried them through, and how they continue making a
[0:31] Speaker 1: difference beyond their military service. Their strength deserves more than
[0:35] Speaker 1: our gratitude. Their stories deserve our attention. Coast to Coast Heroes,
[0:41] Speaker 1: the people behind the uniform, the stories beyond the headlines.
[0:45] Speaker 1: Coast to Coast Heroes debuts November 11th. Please follow, listen,
[0:51] Speaker 1: and share. And most of all, get to know the
[0:54] Speaker 1: veterans because behind every veteran is a story and listening
[0:59] Speaker 1: is where understanding begins. Hi, I'm Tony Mantour. Thanks for
[1:04] Speaker 1: joining us today. Welcome to Almost Live Nashville, where music, entertainment,
[1:09] Speaker 1: and great conversations come together. If you haven't already, tap follow.
[1:13] Speaker 1: This way you stay up to date, never missing the
[1:15] Speaker 1: great conversation and guests coming your way. Today I'm sitting
[1:21] Speaker 1: down with a songwriter whose career is a powerful reminder
[1:25] Speaker 1: that success in Nashville rarely happens overnight. Randy Montana grew
[1:30] Speaker 1: up with a front row seat to the songwriting life,
[1:33] Speaker 1: watching his father chase the dream long before the hits
[1:36] Speaker 1: ever came. Randy eventually chased that dream himself, landing a
[1:41] Speaker 1: record deal, making music as an artist, experiencing firsthand the
[1:45] Speaker 1: highs and disappointments of the music business. But when the
[1:49] Speaker 1: artist's career didn't go the way he had envisioned, Randy
[1:53] Speaker 1: didn't walk away. He reinvented himself, kept writing, kept showing up,
[1:58] Speaker 1: And seven years after his record deal ended, he finally
[2:01] Speaker 1: broke through as a hit songwriter with Luke Combs' massive hit,
[2:05] Speaker 1: Beer Never Broke My Heart. Since then, Randy has continued
[2:08] Speaker 1: building a career around great songs, great artists, and something
[2:12] Speaker 1: that may matter even more than talent in this business, perseverance. Today,
[2:16] Speaker 1: we talk about the hits, the songs that almost were,
[2:19] Speaker 1: the disappointments nobody sees, the importance of family and why
[2:23] Speaker 1: sometimes the career you end up with can be even better.
[2:27] Speaker 1: than the one you originally dreamed about. Thanks for joining
[2:29] Speaker 1: us today.
[2:30] Speaker 2: Hey, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
[2:32] Speaker 1: Let's kick it off with your dad's Billy Montana.
[2:35] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[2:35] Speaker 1: He's a well-known songwriter.
[2:37] Speaker 2: Yes, sir, he is.
[2:38] Speaker 1: So you grew up with songwriting and country music literally
[2:41] Speaker 1: around you.
[2:42] Speaker 2: Yes.
[2:43] Speaker 1: What was it like growing up in that environment? And
[2:46] Speaker 1: when did you first realize how successful your dad was
[2:49] Speaker 1: at what he did?
[2:50] Speaker 2: You know what was cool? Tony was getting... You know,
[2:53] Speaker 2: I feel like my dad, you know, started... He was
[2:56] Speaker 2: getting songs recorded through the 90s, but didn't have his
[3:00] Speaker 2: first hit songs until the late 90s into the early 2000s.
[3:04] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[3:05] Speaker 2: And that was when when he started having some success.
[3:08] Speaker 2: And so I feel like I got a front row
[3:10] Speaker 2: seat to all of that. You know what I mean?
[3:12] Speaker 2: Like I watched him. I knew the dad that was
[3:16] Speaker 2: delivering pizzas to make ends meet for some extra cash
[3:19] Speaker 2: while he was chasing the songwriting dream, you know? Yeah.
[3:23] Speaker 2: So I got a front row seat to that and
[3:25] Speaker 2: I think it instilled in me that it was a
[3:29] Speaker 2: long haul thing.
[3:30] Speaker 1: Sure.
[3:31] Speaker 2: And that it was going to take a while to
[3:32] Speaker 2: the point where, I mean, when I started to get
[3:34] Speaker 2: into it, I remember my mom and dad kind of
[3:36] Speaker 2: looking at me like, are you sure? You grew up
[3:39] Speaker 2: in the house that your dad was doing that. It's like,
[3:42] Speaker 2: are you sure that that's something you really want to do?
[3:45] Speaker 2: But yeah, I think it kind of tempered my expectations
[3:48] Speaker 2: in a sense because I just knew how much time
[3:51] Speaker 2: he put in. You know what I mean? And I
[3:52] Speaker 2: knew just how long it took to get this ball rolling.
[3:56] Speaker 1: Let's continue on this path for a couple of seconds.
[3:59] Speaker 1: What's the greatest lesson that you learned about writing from him?
[4:03] Speaker 1: Not necessarily something he sat down and told you, but
[4:07] Speaker 1: something that you learn by watching the way that he
[4:10] Speaker 1: approached the business.
[4:12] Speaker 2: Yeah. It was, it was the treating it like it
[4:14] Speaker 2: was a job thing for sure. In that, like, I
[4:17] Speaker 2: felt like he always treated it like a farmer treats,
[4:20] Speaker 2: turning the dirt over planting crops, you know, planting the
[4:23] Speaker 2: seeds and hoping for a good harvest that fall. You know,
[4:27] Speaker 2: it's like, even when, even in those early stages of like,
[4:31] Speaker 2: when I was like kind of trying to get a
[4:33] Speaker 2: deal done, and stuff like that, I felt like I
[4:35] Speaker 2: saw how the, the nine to five aspect of writing,
[4:39] Speaker 2: you know what I mean?
[4:40] Speaker 1: Right.
[4:40] Speaker 2: I think probably the outside world probably thinks that we
[4:42] Speaker 2: sit around and wait for lightning just to strike us
[4:45] Speaker 2: right on top of the head and go like, Oh man,
[4:47] Speaker 2: that's a song, you know?
[4:48] Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
[4:49] Speaker 2: But it's not, man. It's, it's work and it's showing
[4:51] Speaker 2: up every day. It is. I love the, the, somebody said,
[4:55] Speaker 2: it's like, man, if you sit there and wait for
[4:57] Speaker 2: the muse, you've got to go meet it. You know
[4:59] Speaker 2: what I mean? Right. You've got to be there when it,
[5:02] Speaker 2: when it happened. So early on, it's like, and that's
[5:04] Speaker 2: a struggle. It's like running a marathon. Yeah. Where you've
[5:07] Speaker 2: got to train your body to get to that point.
[5:09] Speaker 2: Just like you've got to train your mind to, you know,
[5:12] Speaker 2: be able to buckle up, you know, four or five,
[5:14] Speaker 2: however many hours to write, you know, it's truly a muscle.
[5:18] Speaker 1: When you were first signed as an artist, did that
[5:20] Speaker 1: opportunity come to you as a songwriter and then realizing
[5:24] Speaker 1: they wanted you as a recording artist as well? Or
[5:27] Speaker 1: was the artist first and the songwriting came alongside it?
[5:31] Speaker 2: You know, I feel like it was a combo of
[5:34] Speaker 2: both things. Clay Bradley, who is high up at BMI now,
[5:38] Speaker 2: at the time was head of A & R at Sony.
[5:40] Speaker 2: This was back in the mid-2000s. I think it was 2006, 2007,
[5:44] Speaker 2: right around there.
[5:46] Speaker 1: Okay.
[5:47] Speaker 2: He heard a demo that I had sang that we
[5:49] Speaker 2: were pitching. I think we were trying to get a
[5:51] Speaker 2: Jason Aldean cut or something like that. He heard the
[5:53] Speaker 2: demo and cold called me the week of my wedding.
[5:56] Speaker 2: I was getting married. I was in North Carolina, and
[5:58] Speaker 2: he was like, Hey, man, he's 100 miles an hour.
[6:00] Speaker 2: And he was like, Hey, man. coming to my office
[6:02] Speaker 2: right now. And I was like, man, I'm in North Carolina.
[6:04] Speaker 2: I'm getting married and I'm going on the honeymoon next week.
[6:07] Speaker 2: I'll come when I get back. Let's talk. So he
[6:10] Speaker 2: took me over to Sony Pub and was like, basically like, hey, man,
[6:14] Speaker 2: this guy's going to get a record deal at some
[6:15] Speaker 2: point in time. And I'd been writing for a few
[6:17] Speaker 2: years at that point. And so, yeah, they heard the potential.
[6:20] Speaker 2: I kind of signed on as a writer with artist potential.
[6:23] Speaker 2: The idea was to get a record deal.
[6:25] Speaker 1: Now, you had some success as a recording artist. Was
[6:29] Speaker 1: there a point when you thought your career might take
[6:32] Speaker 1: a different direction? For example. the songwriting for other artists
[6:36] Speaker 1: could become more important or even more important than being
[6:40] Speaker 1: the person out front. For sure.
[6:42] Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, just from playing in a band and
[6:44] Speaker 2: through college, it's like, I loved the performing side of it.
[6:48] Speaker 2: We'd go to fraternity parties and bars and stuff like
[6:51] Speaker 2: that and play these three, four hour sets. And I'm
[6:54] Speaker 2: love that you know kind of why I dropped out
[6:56] Speaker 2: of school because I was like this is a lot
[6:57] Speaker 2: more fun than going to class you know and so
[7:00] Speaker 2: yeah man it was getting the record deal was the
[7:03] Speaker 2: goal at the beginning for sure like I had aspirations
[7:06] Speaker 2: of being a country artist that was having hits on
[7:08] Speaker 2: the radio and um getting a taste of that through
[7:12] Speaker 2: being on Mercury records there and getting to make a
[7:14] Speaker 2: record with Jay Joyce. And man, those experiences were unbelievable.
[7:18] Speaker 2: And I wouldn't trade, I wouldn't trade those for the
[7:20] Speaker 2: world because they shaped me into the, being the songwriter
[7:24] Speaker 2: that I am now, because I felt like I had like,
[7:26] Speaker 2: especially early on, it's like, man, a lot of these
[7:28] Speaker 2: guys I was writing with, it's like, we have record
[7:30] Speaker 2: deals at the same time. Right. You know what I mean?
[7:32] Speaker 2: It's like, they knew me as an artist as well.
[7:34] Speaker 1: Right.
[7:35] Speaker 2: But yeah, that, that transition happened. You know, I had
[7:37] Speaker 2: the deal for three or four years and put out
[7:40] Speaker 2: a couple singles and nothing ever really took off and
[7:43] Speaker 2: was kind of forced to start just writing, which I
[7:46] Speaker 2: wasn't scared of because I had gotten, you know, along
[7:49] Speaker 2: the way, like even when I had a record deal,
[7:51] Speaker 2: I had gotten a few outside cuts while I had
[7:53] Speaker 2: the deal. Right. It didn't scare me, but also you're
[7:57] Speaker 2: kind of starting fresh too, in a sense, in people's
[8:01] Speaker 2: eyes in town, you know? Yeah. Sure.
[8:03] Speaker 1: Absolutely.
[8:04] Speaker 2: You got to go from being a failed artist, basically,
[8:06] Speaker 2: to like, all right, now I'm Randy Montana, the songwriter,
[8:09] Speaker 2: you know, so that takes a while.
[8:11] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[8:11] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[8:12] Speaker 1: It's amazing you say the word fail because sometimes failure
[8:15] Speaker 1: can lead to success.
[8:17] Speaker 2: No doubt.
[8:18] Speaker 1: So looking back now, what did that chapter teach you
[8:21] Speaker 1: about yourself and about the music business in the way
[8:25] Speaker 1: that it works? For sure.
[8:26] Speaker 2: I mean, what it taught me about myself was, and
[8:29] Speaker 2: looking back, even at a young age, I am proud
[8:31] Speaker 2: of persevering through that change because it took time. I
[8:35] Speaker 2: didn't just start having hits immediately. It was from where
[8:39] Speaker 2: my record deal ended. It was seven years before I
[8:41] Speaker 2: had my first radio hit as a songwriter. So man,
[8:45] Speaker 2: proud of just sticking through that. I felt like that,
[8:48] Speaker 2: that taught me a lot about myself looking back. Right. Right.
[8:52] Speaker 2: But yeah, just the ability to like, cause you kind
[8:54] Speaker 2: of think differently then.
[8:55] Speaker 1: Exactly. Exactly.
[8:57] Speaker 2: The songs become different because it's like, man, I'm not
[8:59] Speaker 2: writing a song for myself anymore. Right. It doesn't matter
[9:02] Speaker 2: what I want to say. Right. Or how I want
[9:04] Speaker 2: to say it. I mean, that goes into your style
[9:07] Speaker 2: as a writer, but you've got other people in mind
[9:09] Speaker 2: when you're writing these songs. So that took some getting
[9:12] Speaker 2: used to.
[9:13] Speaker 1: Along the way, you had a chance to sing with
[9:15] Speaker 1: Emmylou Harris.
[9:16] Speaker 2: I did, yeah.
[9:17] Speaker 1: What a combination, Emmylou Harris, and you co-wrote the song
[9:21] Speaker 1: with your father as well.
[9:23] Speaker 2: Yes.
[9:23] Speaker 1: How did that all come together? And what did you
[9:26] Speaker 1: learn from it?
[9:27] Speaker 2: Jay Joyce had a relationship with Emmy as friends. You
[9:30] Speaker 2: know what I mean? Like they were friends. Right. And
[9:33] Speaker 2: had worked together previously. And we were looking for a
[9:36] Speaker 2: female voice to feature on that song with me. I
[9:39] Speaker 2: think it's Last Horse. And so he asked her to
[9:44] Speaker 2: come do it. And I could not believe she said yes.
[9:47] Speaker 2: Listening to my dad's music growing up, I was familiar
[9:49] Speaker 2: with her. Right. You know what I mean? That California
[9:52] Speaker 2: country movement. You know what I mean?
[9:55] Speaker 1: Sure.
[9:56] Speaker 2: The Eagles and all that stuff, Jackson Brown. So I
[9:59] Speaker 2: was familiar with her, you know? And so anyway, man,
[10:02] Speaker 2: you know what was cool for me is that she's
[10:04] Speaker 2: a lot older than me and she's been around for
[10:06] Speaker 2: years doing it. But just that she would come in,
[10:09] Speaker 2: listen to a song and go, yeah, I like this song.
[10:11] Speaker 2: I have no clue who this guy is. She didn't
[10:14] Speaker 2: know me from Adam. And so she took the time
[10:17] Speaker 2: to come in, to learn the song, come in and
[10:19] Speaker 2: do some incredible parts, man. And just, I think it
[10:22] Speaker 2: just showed that it's about doing it for the love.
[10:25] Speaker 2: You know what I mean? This is not about, I
[10:27] Speaker 2: had this discussion when I was on my soapbox last
[10:30] Speaker 2: night with my wife a little bit and we're talking
[10:32] Speaker 2: and it's like, it's never been about money. You know
[10:34] Speaker 2: what I mean?
[10:34] Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
[10:35] Speaker 2: The money's always been secondary. Right. It's always been about
[10:39] Speaker 2: the love of creating. It's like that feeling of a
[10:42] Speaker 2: song coming together or a track coming to life in
[10:45] Speaker 2: the studio. It's like if you could bottle that feeling
[10:47] Speaker 2: up and sell it, like you would be the richest
[10:51] Speaker 2: human on earth because it's just euphoric. You know, for
[10:54] Speaker 2: those of us that have felt it, it's just like
[10:56] Speaker 2: it's a euphoric feeling. So like you spend your whole life.
[10:59] Speaker 2: Once you feel it, you spend your whole life chasing
[11:01] Speaker 2: that dragon. Yeah. She was still out there doing it,
[11:03] Speaker 2: you know, and I think that that's pretty cool.
[11:06] Speaker 1: Yeah. You mentioned sitting on your soapbox, but talking about
[11:09] Speaker 1: the business. What has been your pinch me moment when
[11:12] Speaker 1: you either got a song cut by someone you looked
[11:15] Speaker 1: up to or you had a chance to have a
[11:17] Speaker 1: conversation with someone you grew up listening to? What has
[11:21] Speaker 1: been that one pinch me moment you say, wow, this
[11:24] Speaker 1: is cool?
[11:24] Speaker 2: There's definitely been a few along the way. Mm hmm.
[11:27] Speaker 2: There's definitely been a few, but I think the main
[11:29] Speaker 2: one was, so my first radio hit was a song
[11:34] Speaker 2: called Beer Never Broke My Heart. Luke Combs recorded it,
[11:36] Speaker 2: debut single off of his sophomore album. Right. So we
[11:40] Speaker 2: were at Nissan Stadium, which is the stadium here in
[11:43] Speaker 2: Nashville that they do the big night of CMA Fest,
[11:46] Speaker 2: you know, during the summer. Me and my wife were
[11:48] Speaker 2: standing at the front of house and the soundboard, like
[11:50] Speaker 2: they're in the middle of the stadium and the stadium's
[11:52] Speaker 2: back and everybody's singing every word to the song. And
[11:57] Speaker 2: I think that was euphoric. It was so euphoric. I
[11:58] Speaker 2: still don't know why I did this. There were some
[12:00] Speaker 2: younger guys standing to my left. Man, they were just
[12:03] Speaker 2: sipping a beer and enjoying the evening, you know. And
[12:06] Speaker 2: in the middle of the song, I leaned over to
[12:08] Speaker 2: one of them. I said, hey, man, I wrote this song.
[12:10] Speaker 2: And he looked back at me and he said, no way, man,
[12:13] Speaker 2: I did too. Yeah, yeah.
[12:16] Speaker 1: I've been in situations like that.
[12:21] Speaker 2: And Tony, that's exactly how I wanted that to go, man.
[12:23] Speaker 2: You know what I mean? Like, looking back, that's perfect. Yeah,
[12:26] Speaker 2: that's the pinch me thing. And of course, it's meeting
[12:28] Speaker 2: people and stuff like that is definitely it. But I
[12:31] Speaker 2: think seeing that, like, man, you can't manufacture that. You know,
[12:34] Speaker 2: you can't manufacture that moment.
[12:37] Speaker 1: That's right.
[12:38] Speaker 2: Those have been the, you know, those things you can't,
[12:41] Speaker 2: like you said, can't buy.
[12:43] Speaker 1: When you wrote that song, you sit down, you sing it,
[12:45] Speaker 1: you write it, you have a vision for it as
[12:48] Speaker 1: if you were going to do it. And then, of course,
[12:50] Speaker 1: you demo it. When that actually got cut, did it
[12:53] Speaker 1: go in a different direction or did Luke bring it
[12:56] Speaker 1: to a different level than you thought it could be?
[12:58] Speaker 1: For sure.
[12:59] Speaker 2: I mean, it was headed that way from the demo.
[13:01] Speaker 2: Like it had that we had that guitar riff that
[13:03] Speaker 2: kind of like bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. It
[13:07] Speaker 2: was written over that with a with just kind of
[13:09] Speaker 2: a floor on the floor loop going. But man, I mean,
[13:13] Speaker 2: if you're putting numbers on it, it's like our demo
[13:15] Speaker 2: is at like a three and then, you know, the
[13:17] Speaker 2: record's at a 10, you know? So, yeah, it kind
[13:21] Speaker 2: of exploded, you know, like the track and the sound. So, yeah,
[13:25] Speaker 2: it was quite a departure from the demo.
[13:26] Speaker 1: Now, unfortunately, Nashville is a town that's filled with rejection.
[13:31] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[13:32] Speaker 1: Songs get passed on all the time. Deals change. Opportunities disappear.
[13:38] Speaker 1: You mentioned it took you seven years to get that
[13:41] Speaker 1: first radio cut. Was there ever a period of time
[13:45] Speaker 1: in that seven years where you question, should I keep
[13:48] Speaker 1: doing this?
[13:49] Speaker 2: Oh, Tony, I think about it sometimes now when I'm
[13:52] Speaker 2: driving home. You know what I mean? Like, I'm like, yeah, yeah.
[13:55] Speaker 2: I see those guys cutting grass and I'm like, man,
[13:56] Speaker 2: that doesn't look half bad. You know what I mean? So. Oh, yeah.
[13:59] Speaker 2: Because it is, man. It's I think in your mind, too,
[14:02] Speaker 2: you know, you you have this goal, right, of having
[14:06] Speaker 2: a hit song. Right. think you think on the on
[14:08] Speaker 2: the other side of that that you'll feel differently and
[14:11] Speaker 2: then you do and then it happens and then you're
[14:12] Speaker 2: like man i still feel exactly the same as i
[14:15] Speaker 2: did before and you just want to do it again
[14:17] Speaker 2: so it's just it's it's the wheel of it all
[14:20] Speaker 2: you know it's just it's that wheel and so guys
[14:23] Speaker 2: do this stuff for years man and yeah that's right
[14:26] Speaker 2: years and years because it's just in us to keep
[14:29] Speaker 2: to keep going of course through that period like there's
[14:32] Speaker 2: there were definitely a Yeah, sometimes when it's just like,
[14:34] Speaker 2: you just feel like I was just writing in a
[14:36] Speaker 2: dark basement and the lights were not on and just
[14:40] Speaker 2: nothing was happening.
[14:41] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[14:41] Speaker 2: That's why so much I feel like what we do
[14:43] Speaker 2: is not only the mental game of being creative, but
[14:46] Speaker 2: the mental of just almost being dumb about it. Yeah, yeah.
[14:51] Speaker 2: To the point of like, well, yesterday was yesterday. Tomorrow
[14:53] Speaker 2: is tomorrow. Right. All I can do is what I
[14:55] Speaker 2: can do today and strapping your boots and going again.
[14:58] Speaker 1: So Nashville is, and I'm glad that you brought that
[15:01] Speaker 1: up yesterday and today. Because Nashville and the music industry
[15:06] Speaker 1: is a series of ups and downs. Today, you're talking
[15:10] Speaker 1: about a potential deal. Tomorrow, it could completely fall apart.
[15:14] Speaker 1: How do you find that comfort level so it can
[15:17] Speaker 1: be smooth where you don't have any extreme highs or
[15:21] Speaker 1: any extreme lows so you can keep writing your songs,
[15:25] Speaker 1: pitching them, and then letting the chips fall where they fall?
[15:30] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's that's very difficult. And I think I kind
[15:33] Speaker 2: of didn't when I first started out and was, you know,
[15:37] Speaker 2: like wide eyed greenies could be. I never understood how
[15:41] Speaker 2: the vets that had been doing it for so long
[15:43] Speaker 2: seemed so not like in the middle of hot points
[15:46] Speaker 2: in their careers seemed very nonchalant about the things that
[15:49] Speaker 2: were going on in their career. Because I'm sitting there going,
[15:51] Speaker 2: it's like, God, I'd give anything. To have going what
[15:54] Speaker 2: you've got going and you're not doing the jumping jacks
[15:58] Speaker 2: and the backflips that I would be doing if I
[16:00] Speaker 2: had that going. And I think that I don't know.
[16:03] Speaker 2: You almost got to train yourself mentally to kind of
[16:07] Speaker 2: just let things roll off your back. I don't know
[16:11] Speaker 2: any other way to put that. I know that's strange,
[16:13] Speaker 2: but it's almost like you just got to snap and like,
[16:16] Speaker 2: forget about it. You know what I mean?
[16:17] Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
[16:18] Speaker 2: Almost just set it off to the side to where,
[16:21] Speaker 2: you know, it's like, oh, you might have the next
[16:22] Speaker 2: so-and-so single or whatever. And I don't believe those things
[16:26] Speaker 2: until it's like, I see that. It's like, okay, they
[16:29] Speaker 2: went for ads and we got some ads this week
[16:31] Speaker 2: on the radio. That's right. I guess we've got the single,
[16:33] Speaker 2: you know? And so yeah, not letting the excitement of
[16:36] Speaker 2: the maybe like just be all you think about during
[16:39] Speaker 2: the day, you know?
[16:41] Speaker 1: Oh yeah, the worst thing you can do is, and
[16:43] Speaker 1: I've had friends like this, they think something's going to happen.
[16:47] Speaker 1: What do they do? They start telling everyone that it's
[16:50] Speaker 1: going to happen like it already has. And then boom,
[16:53] Speaker 1: it fell apart. Major disappointment, major hurt. So of course,
[16:59] Speaker 1: it's very important to stay away from those type of
[17:01] Speaker 1: situations so you can focus on your day-to-day process of
[17:05] Speaker 1: writing songs. With that said, is there a song where
[17:09] Speaker 1: it looked like everything was going to be great, but
[17:12] Speaker 1: then all of a sudden it just fell apart and
[17:14] Speaker 1: it was devastating?
[17:16] Speaker 2: Yeah, and it was a heartbreaker because it was like
[17:20] Speaker 2: my first big cut I ever got. I wrote a
[17:23] Speaker 2: song with Steve Bogard and Kyle Jacobs. This was a
[17:27] Speaker 2: long time ago. Kyle has since passed. Steve's just an
[17:30] Speaker 2: amazing dude, but George Strait recorded the song. At the time,
[17:33] Speaker 2: I was in my deal on... I was either in
[17:37] Speaker 2: my deal or fresh out of it on Universal. And
[17:40] Speaker 2: so George was on Universal too. He was on the
[17:42] Speaker 2: MCA side. I was on the Mercury side. Right. So,
[17:46] Speaker 2: so yeah, so I get, I get a phone call
[17:48] Speaker 2: and it's like, I mean, it's from somebody at the
[17:50] Speaker 2: label and they're like, Hey man, I just got out
[17:52] Speaker 2: of a meeting and I think you've got the next
[17:53] Speaker 2: George Strait single. Wow. And something in the next two
[17:57] Speaker 2: weeks fell apart. Like, don't ask me what, but like,
[18:00] Speaker 2: I mean, you know, he, I'll never forget. He called
[18:03] Speaker 2: me in my car and I almost wrecked. You know
[18:05] Speaker 2: what I mean? Like I was so excited. Yeah. To
[18:07] Speaker 2: this day, I have no clue what happened, but it
[18:10] Speaker 2: did not happen. And yeah, I think that was kind
[18:12] Speaker 2: of the, I used to have a joke with my
[18:14] Speaker 2: dad about, am I in the club yet of being
[18:16] Speaker 2: a songwriter? Everybody has those stories of just like these, like,
[18:20] Speaker 2: it's this surefire thing. It's getting ready to happen, dude.
[18:22] Speaker 2: He goes, buckle up, dude. It's getting ready to get wild.
[18:25] Speaker 2: And then nothing happens. And so I remember when that
[18:27] Speaker 2: happened and I processed it and got over it or whatever.
[18:30] Speaker 2: I looked at my dad and I was like, so
[18:31] Speaker 2: am I in the club yet for being a song,
[18:33] Speaker 2: you know, for being a legit songwriter, you know? And
[18:36] Speaker 2: so he's like, yeah, buddy, you're getting a full dose
[18:39] Speaker 2: of it.
[18:39] Speaker 1: So my story on that was a Garth Brooks cut. Yeah.
[18:43] Speaker 1: I was like this close to getting it.
[18:45] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[18:45] Speaker 1: And then it just fell apart.
[18:47] Speaker 2: Yeah, man.
[18:48] Speaker 1: You just never know. So how did you use this
[18:51] Speaker 1: rejection where it all fell apart on you to light
[18:54] Speaker 1: that fire so you got more aggressive and just attacked
[18:58] Speaker 1: it to keep going and moving forward?
[19:00] Speaker 2: For sure. I mean, it definitely does. And it takes
[19:02] Speaker 2: time to get over it. You know, it takes time.
[19:05] Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I grew up playing football and
[19:08] Speaker 2: soccer and baseball and all kinds of sports. And so
[19:12] Speaker 2: it's like I always had that. I was a quarterback
[19:14] Speaker 2: in high school. We threw the football a lot. So
[19:17] Speaker 2: I threw some interceptions, of course, as we were throwing
[19:19] Speaker 2: the football. I always had an ability even then to
[19:21] Speaker 2: kind of like, all right, that was the last throw.
[19:24] Speaker 2: That was a bad throw. I'm not going to do
[19:25] Speaker 2: that again. Next drive, let's go throw it down the field.
[19:29] Speaker 2: So I attribute that kind of that competitive fire innately
[19:33] Speaker 2: in me to get back up and go, no, we'll
[19:36] Speaker 2: get it. You know what I mean? We're going to
[19:37] Speaker 2: get it.
[19:37] Speaker 1: With everything you've accomplished so far, was there a particular
[19:43] Speaker 1: song that you wrote It might not have been the
[19:46] Speaker 1: biggest song in the world or charted the highest, yet
[19:49] Speaker 1: it got heard. People liked it. And it really meant
[19:53] Speaker 1: something special to you.
[19:56] Speaker 2: Yeah, actually, yeah, man. I was on a writing trip
[19:59] Speaker 2: where it was a bus run and I saw a
[20:02] Speaker 2: kid and his dad. We were somewhere in Maryland where
[20:05] Speaker 2: the river's dumping into the ocean. there and i saw
[20:08] Speaker 2: a kid and his dad fishing on the bank and
[20:10] Speaker 2: i thought about when i was a kid i grew
[20:13] Speaker 2: up here in nashville and there was a lot of
[20:15] Speaker 2: saturday mornings in the spring my dad would get me
[20:18] Speaker 2: up real early and we would go bass fish off
[20:20] Speaker 2: the bank and i just i just related to that
[20:23] Speaker 2: dad and his son out there sitting on the bank
[20:25] Speaker 2: and i wanted a boat so bad you know what
[20:27] Speaker 2: i mean as a kid yeah so i jotted down
[20:30] Speaker 2: an idea in my phone and the idea was too
[20:32] Speaker 2: broke for a boat okay back to town and uh
[20:35] Speaker 2: Sat down with an awesome songwriter, Josh Thompson, and my
[20:38] Speaker 2: buddy Neil Medley. Yeah, we wrote that song. So it
[20:41] Speaker 2: had a super personal meaning to me. Yeah. Man, I
[20:44] Speaker 2: felt that. And it really speaks to the whole thing.
[20:47] Speaker 2: And it speaks to my dad, too. You know what
[20:49] Speaker 2: I mean? Yeah. Him and my mom's favorite song. So yeah,
[20:52] Speaker 2: it was an album cut. It never came out as
[20:54] Speaker 2: a single or anything like that. But as far as
[20:56] Speaker 2: super personal, I really relate to that song. Yeah.
[21:00] Speaker 1: Now, if you could go back and talk to your
[21:03] Speaker 1: younger self, before singing with Emmylou Harris, before writing any
[21:08] Speaker 1: of the hit songs, not knowing where this musical journey
[21:11] Speaker 1: would take you, what would you say?
[21:14] Speaker 2: Just don't be in such a hurry. Don't wish things
[21:18] Speaker 2: to move quick. And just be patient in any stage
[21:21] Speaker 2: of it that you're at. It's just enjoying where you are.
[21:25] Speaker 2: Trying to be present where my feet are in the moment.
[21:28] Speaker 2: Early on, you spend so much time dreaming about like, well,
[21:31] Speaker 2: maybe once I get here, once I get here, once
[21:33] Speaker 2: I get here, you know, and there's no point in that.
[21:37] Speaker 1: Yeah. If you could give one piece of advice to
[21:40] Speaker 1: a songwriter coming into Nashville, what would you tell them
[21:44] Speaker 1: and what mistake would you tell them to avoid?
[21:47] Speaker 2: I would tell them to get out and about, meet
[21:50] Speaker 2: a bunch of people. find your core group you know
[21:54] Speaker 2: whether it's three or four other songwriters and spend a
[21:58] Speaker 2: lot of time writing with those guys like develop a
[22:00] Speaker 2: thing you know what i mean like develop this crew
[22:04] Speaker 2: and really just dive into that because you guys will
[22:07] Speaker 2: all you'll all start getting publishing deals and then you'll
[22:10] Speaker 2: also get in record deals and that's how it'll happen
[22:13] Speaker 2: i've worked with the same people for years and.
[22:14] Speaker 1: Years how do people find you this way they can
[22:17] Speaker 1: keep up with you with your musical journey Yeah, I.
[22:21] Speaker 2: Mean, I'm on Instagram and I'll post stuff. Obviously, like
[22:23] Speaker 2: when we do this, it's like I'll post something like this.
[22:25] Speaker 2: I don't post a ton. I like to, I guess,
[22:27] Speaker 2: lurk on there is what it's called.
[22:29] Speaker 1: Okay.
[22:29] Speaker 2: I'll post some things every now and then. So yeah,
[22:32] Speaker 2: that's about it.
[22:33] Speaker 1: Do you have a website?
[22:34] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's a randymontana.com. I don't know if
[22:36] Speaker 2: it's even still up and running, but we don't update it.
[22:38] Speaker 2: I just stick to the Instagram.
[22:40] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I get it. Now, when you look back
[22:42] Speaker 1: at your journey that you've had so far and there's
[22:45] Speaker 1: still more to come. Mm-hmm. You grew up watching your
[22:48] Speaker 1: dad write hit songs, became an artist yourself, sang with
[22:52] Speaker 1: Emmylou Harris, written songs that have become major hits. You're
[22:56] Speaker 1: building a career in music. What are you most proud of?
[22:59] Speaker 1: And what do you hope people will remember about the
[23:02] Speaker 1: songs you've left behind?
[23:03] Speaker 2: Oh, man, that's a great point. That's a great question.
[23:07] Speaker 2: Most proud of, man, you know, probably most proud of losing,
[23:12] Speaker 2: you know, going through the process of losing a record
[23:14] Speaker 2: deal and then turning into a hit songwriter. that's been
[23:17] Speaker 2: a journey, you know, like we were talking about earlier.
[23:19] Speaker 2: It's like, man, that's, that's been such a journey. So
[23:21] Speaker 2: I'm proud of that. I didn't make it work in
[23:23] Speaker 2: the artist thing where I first started, but able to
[23:26] Speaker 2: pivot and to make it work in the songwriting world.
[23:29] Speaker 2: And then what was your second question?
[23:30] Speaker 1: The songs you've left behind. What do you hope people
[23:33] Speaker 1: will remember?
[23:34] Speaker 2: Oh, songs, man. I just, I just hope there's a
[23:37] Speaker 2: little flair of difference to them, you know, like we're,
[23:41] Speaker 2: Maybe you listen to it and people that know me
[23:43] Speaker 2: or know my songs would go like, oh, yeah, these
[23:45] Speaker 2: all make sense that he was all a part of
[23:47] Speaker 2: these songs. You know, don't leave my print on them.
[23:50] Speaker 2: You know what I mean? There's a common thread.
[23:52] Speaker 1: Now, when you're decompressing, you're going into your own little world.
[23:57] Speaker 1: You're just blocking out the world. What are people going
[24:00] Speaker 1: to see you doing?
[24:01] Speaker 2: I love, uh, I love to fish. I love the outdoors.
[24:05] Speaker 2: I love to hunt. Um, yeah, I've got a trip
[24:07] Speaker 2: coming up with my father-in-law. We're riding motorcycles in Alaska.
[24:11] Speaker 2: I'm really excited about that.
[24:12] Speaker 1: Well, nice.
[24:13] Speaker 2: Honestly, man, like when I'm out on the lake or
[24:15] Speaker 2: in the woods, like my brain kind of just focuses
[24:18] Speaker 2: on that. It can kind of turn off everything else
[24:20] Speaker 2: and I'm just focused on what I'm doing. And that's
[24:23] Speaker 2: a good feeling, you know, as opposed to my mind
[24:25] Speaker 2: going everywhere. Like, oh man, I should be somewhere else
[24:28] Speaker 2: right now. You know?
[24:30] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[24:31] Speaker 2: No.
[24:31] Speaker 1: What's the next chapter for Randy Montana?
[24:33] Speaker 2: Next chapter. Man, I just, I hope to continue, continue
[24:37] Speaker 2: writing great songs and continue getting songs cut and building
[24:41] Speaker 2: new relationships with new artists. And that's my favorite part
[24:45] Speaker 2: of being a writer is the getting a front row
[24:47] Speaker 2: seat to a lot of these artists' careers. You know,
[24:50] Speaker 2: it's like I've gotten to watch Luke Combs take off,
[24:53] Speaker 2: Riley Green.
[24:54] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[24:54] Speaker 2: I've been friends with them for over a decade now.
[24:57] Speaker 1: Right.
[24:58] Speaker 2: It's like, Getting a front row seat to their rise
[25:01] Speaker 2: to stardom is so much fun. And to be a
[25:03] Speaker 2: part of that is super cool. And so it's like,
[25:06] Speaker 2: I want to see that again. I want to see
[25:08] Speaker 2: guys like Zach John King. I want to see that
[25:11] Speaker 2: guy win because he's a talented dude. First of all,
[25:15] Speaker 2: great human, but secondly, super talented. And so it's like,
[25:19] Speaker 2: it would just be great to have a front row
[25:20] Speaker 2: seat to his rise.
[25:22] Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's great. And I also think that
[25:24] Speaker 1: you brought something up that some people sometimes misunderstand. about
[25:29] Speaker 1: the music business. You've been around for 10 years watching
[25:32] Speaker 1: some of these people grow. There are people in Nashville
[25:36] Speaker 1: now doing exactly the same thing that the people you
[25:40] Speaker 1: watched that took 10 years to get where they are.
[25:43] Speaker 1: And their time may not be far away either. It
[25:47] Speaker 1: takes time to build that musical career. I've got a
[25:50] Speaker 1: saying about my musical career. It didn't turn out exactly
[25:54] Speaker 1: the way I planned it, but I can live with it.
[25:56] Speaker 1: How do you feel about Where everything didn't turn out
[25:59] Speaker 1: exactly as you planned, but you're still doing very good.
[26:03] Speaker 2: For sure. Yeah. Because if you'd asked 22-year-old me how
[26:07] Speaker 2: things were going to go, it would not be the
[26:09] Speaker 2: way that it went. Yeah.
[26:11] Speaker 1: Yeah, me too.
[26:12] Speaker 2: It definitely would not be the way that it went.
[26:14] Speaker 2: But I'm blown away day in and day out because
[26:17] Speaker 2: it's like, man, I've got three kids, you know, and
[26:20] Speaker 2: I've gotten to watch them grow up. I've been present.
[26:23] Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
[26:24] Speaker 1: Sure.
[26:24] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yes. I think I really would have looked back
[26:27] Speaker 2: with regret had I been gone on the road all
[26:30] Speaker 2: the time and not gotten to see, not gotten to
[26:33] Speaker 2: spend as much time as I have gotten to spend.
[26:35] Speaker 2: And they're spoiled because they think it's like, you know,
[26:37] Speaker 2: my schedule is pretty flexible. You know, I can take
[26:39] Speaker 2: off large blocks of time. It's like, there's plenty of
[26:42] Speaker 2: people in corporate america that do not get the option
[26:45] Speaker 2: of going we're just gonna go hang out at the
[26:46] Speaker 2: lake for three weeks that's right but being a songwriter
[26:49] Speaker 2: it's like man you you can you can block off
[26:51] Speaker 2: time to take off and so it's like my kids
[26:53] Speaker 2: it's like they're gonna grow up and they'll be like
[26:55] Speaker 2: when they get their jobs they're gonna be like how
[26:57] Speaker 2: did dad have all this time to just hang with
[26:59] Speaker 2: us you know what i mean and so um but
[27:02] Speaker 2: i'm yeah selfishly i'm super glad and blessed to see that.
[27:07] Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely. So when you take time off to decompress,
[27:11] Speaker 1: just to get away from the Nashville hustle and bustle
[27:14] Speaker 1: of music, you take a couple, three weeks, whatever the
[27:17] Speaker 1: timeframe may be, whatever you want it to be, then
[27:20] Speaker 1: reality kicks in and hey i've got to get back
[27:23] Speaker 1: to work now work for you is different it's picking
[27:27] Speaker 1: up a guitar creating music so how do you get
[27:30] Speaker 1: your mindset back to productivity after such a long time
[27:34] Speaker 1: it's so.
[27:34] Speaker 2: Funny you say that i was literally i was on
[27:36] Speaker 2: the phone with my buddy hunter phelps uh and we
[27:38] Speaker 2: were talking about that exact same thing because we took
[27:41] Speaker 2: trips at about the same time this summer and uh
[27:44] Speaker 2: And we were saying, I was like, I was telling him,
[27:45] Speaker 2: I was like, I wrote all last week, you know,
[27:48] Speaker 2: and then I wrote, and obviously writing this week. And
[27:51] Speaker 2: today was like the first day where I felt like, oh, okay,
[27:54] Speaker 2: everything's firing on all cylinders now. Like it takes a
[27:57] Speaker 2: minute to like go, oh yeah, this is how you
[28:00] Speaker 2: do it, you know? And so, yeah, it definitely, it
[28:03] Speaker 2: definitely takes a minute, but it's kind of fun. You know,
[28:05] Speaker 2: I'll be honest, like it's kind of fun to sit
[28:08] Speaker 2: down and be like, how do we do this again?
[28:10] Speaker 2: You know?
[28:13] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So in closing, what would you like
[28:16] Speaker 1: to leave the audience with that you think is important
[28:19] Speaker 1: they know about you?
[28:20] Speaker 2: I don't know. I feel like one, I'm just so
[28:23] Speaker 2: grateful and blessed to have had the success that I've had.
[28:26] Speaker 2: And if it all ended tomorrow, that would be OK.
[28:28] Speaker 2: You know, I think I just want to know that
[28:31] Speaker 2: you don't have to be the most. I've never felt
[28:32] Speaker 2: like I'm the most talented guy in the room, but
[28:35] Speaker 2: I've stuck it out. You know what I mean?
[28:36] Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
[28:37] Speaker 2: There's a lot of value in just continuously showing up.
[28:40] Speaker 2: That's right. There's always people that are more talented and
[28:42] Speaker 2: that have had more hits and all that. Right. And
[28:45] Speaker 2: I'm okay with that. You know what I mean? Yeah.
[28:46] Speaker 2: I'm okay with my role, you know? Yeah.
[28:48] Speaker 1: Well, this has been great. I really appreciate you taking
[28:51] Speaker 1: the time to join us today.
[28:53] Speaker 2: Tony, thank you so much for having me, man. Seriously.
[28:55] Speaker 1: Oh, it's my pleasure. Thanks again. A sincere thank you
[28:58] Speaker 1: to our guests for sharing their journey with us today.
[29:01] Speaker 1: And thanks for spending part of your day with us.
[29:04] Speaker 1: We hope today's conversation gave you something to take with you.
[29:08] Speaker 1: If you haven't already, remember... Tap follow so you never
[29:12] Speaker 1: miss the great conversations and guests still ahead. You can
[29:16] Speaker 1: always reach us at media at plateau music dot com.
[29:19] Speaker 1: Thanks for being part of what we're building here on
[29:22] Speaker 1: Almost Live Nashville. We'll see you next time.

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