Randy Montana Will Watch and Learn From Taylor Swift

Randy Montana is no stranger to large tours. The singer-songwriter hit the road with Sugarland and Little Big Town last fall, and now he's one of the lucky men who will spend a portion of the summer on Taylor Swift's Speak Now world tour.

"I'm so excited, I can't wait," Randy told The Boot last week. "I met Taylor at a photo shoot, and she was great. She was so nice and complimentary and personable. You get why she's as big as she is. She always remembers people. You walk away from a conversation with her going, 'Man, she's really great.' I'm sure she has that impression on everyone."

Randy acknowledges that the tour will put him in front of more than '1,000 Faces' (to borrow the title of his own tune) on any given night. "Doing the Sugarland thing, it's like you're doing club dates and then all of the sudden you're in a sold-out arena or an amphitheater," he says. "That was such a big adjustment. Then here we are again, we've been playing five months of clubs and then you're jumping onto a stadium stage, which is even bigger. There's going to be 50,000 people out there. That's really, really exciting."

Even if you saw Randy on the Sugarland tour, the Nashville native promises his set on Taylor's tour will give you a different experience. "When it's a full band set and it's long, I change up covers," he explains. "I like to keep that fresh with the band for our sake, because you do play so many dates a year. You want to keep everyone growing and getting better as a band. When it comes to something like this, where I'm doing 20 minutes, I've got my five songs that I know I'm going to play. However, if something seems like it isn't working as well, then I'll switch it up. This is just acoustic. I'm taking two guys out with me, so we're doing a little trio thing. They'll play mandolin and lap steel, so it will be a little different."

The opportunity is one that Randy plans to use as a learning experience. "I love watching anybody's show," he says. "Whether it's Chris Knight or a Sugarland show, you pick up different things that people do on stage when you see it work. That's how we all learn. You learn how to play guitar by mimicking a song that you're listening to. It's the same thing with a live show. I enjoy watching people live. It may be something the band does or it may be something that they do personally on stage, an action or something. You pick up little things that would work for you. You can't go too far outside of the box. And Taylor's obviously done a lot right to get where she's at."

Randy had the chance to spend some time with his fellow openers at the same photo shoot where he met Taylor. "That was cool," he says with a laugh. "I'm good friends with David Nail and Frankie Ballard. I got to meet James Wesley for the first time and Danny Gokey. I know Charlie Worsham really well, we've hung out. We're all in that same spot, for the most part. They're all great. They're all just as excited. They can't wait to get out there. It's big for all of our careers, especially just starting out. It's great exposure."

Randy is on the road with Taylor now. Get a full list of dates here.