Montgomery Gentry Share Their Secret to Staying Friends

Montgomery Gentry have been performing together for more than 16 years, and they've revealed the secret to their success as a long-lasting duo.

"We don't talk," Eddie Montgomery jokes to Rolling Stone Country.

The duo, made up of Montgomery and Troy Gentry, recently released their eighth studio album, Folks Like Us, and throughout their time as a band, they've learned a few tricks for keeping things peaceful, even when they may have creative or personal differences.

"I guess it's just the friendship that developed before coming to town," Gentry says. "We know what buttons to push, what not to push, when we can dig a little harder or when we need to back off and give each other some space. It's like any other relationship — knowing how to respectfully treat your partner.

"Be open-minded. And, first and foremost, you have to respect your partner," he adds. "You can't get respect unless you give it first."

After so much time together, both men have a good backup plan if things start to go downhill: blackmail.

"We've joked that we have videotape of each other from back in the day," Montgomery says. "There is some out there that we go, 'Oh god, we hope it never resurfaces ...'"

Folks Like Us hit stores on June 9, and Montgomery Gentry say that their song selection process (the project includes tracks from Chris Stapleton, Wendell Mobley, David Lee Murphy, Bob DiPiero and others) is very collaborative.

“For the most part, we agree on everything,” Montgomery tells The Boot. “I think, one, because we’ve known each other for so long, [and] we’ve got a lot of similar tastes in music. [Gentry] is a little more traditional and a little more Southern rock-ish, to where I’m a little bit more contemporary, but between my vocal style and his vocal style, we can pull it off, doing what I love to do and what he loves to do.”

Folks Like Us is available for download on Amazon and iTunes. The duo is spending the summer on the road in support of the album; all of their concert dates are listed at MontgomeryGentry.com.

Montgomery Gentry + Other Artists Who Have Suffered Terrible Tragedies