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John Michael Montgomery
Montgomery was one of the biggest stars of the 1990s, trading on his smooth baritone voice and hat-wearing "country hunk" looks. His records tread a well worn line between middle of the road rock, New Country and line-dancing Honky-Tonk. Like many of his New Country contemporaries, his music often owes more to classic rockers like the Eagles and Bob Seger than to anything recorded by Merle Haggard or George Jones. Starting with his first major label release in 1992, Montgomery stayed in the charts, achieving multiplatinum sales and crossing over to the pop charts. When country music leveled off and cooled down in the later part of the '90s, Montgomery's career did as well.
One of a seeming army of "hat acts" that defied the country music mainstream in the 90's, Montgomery singled himself out of the crowd with his skillful, genial vocals and an uncanny knack for picking hits. He was sidelined for a while with a throat ailment that required surgery but the plucky country star fully recovered and returned to performing.
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Artist Biography - John Michael Montgomery
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 Part of the '90s wave of honky tonk hitmakers that brought country to new commercial heights, John Michael Montgomery made his name primarily as a romantic balladeer. Yet despite his sometime adult contemporary leanings, his vocal style remained solidly grounded in country tradition. Montgomery was born in 1965 in Danville, KY, near Lexington and learned guitar from his father, a local musician. He first performed in public at age five with his father's band, which also featured his mother on drums. By 15, he was performing regularly on the local scene and at 17 became the lead singer of a group with his father and brother after his parents divorced. Following high school, he played around the local honky tonk circuit and was discovered at a favorite venue in Lexington, which led to a contract with Atlantic in 1991.Montgomery issued his debut album in 1992, titling it after the lead single, "Life's a Dance." The song rocketed into the Top Five, and its follow-up, "I Love the Way You Love Me," went all the way to number one, helping the album climb into the country Top Five.
"I'm a very grounded person, very level headed. I'm not the kind of person who wants to be a superstar," explains John Michael. "I don't have that kind of personality. I like making records and staying in the Top 40, and having my core of fans I've built up over the last few years who come to my shows. All I wanted to do was what I needed to become an established artist."
By keeping the home fires burning brightly, John Michael stays in touch not only with his working-class roots, but also those of his fans. And it's also a way of life that enables him to appreciate even further how lucky he is to have scaled the pinnacle of country music success.
"There's times that I'll go for days, and I'll forget what I do for a living," he says with a chuckle. "I'm over in the garage messing with my remote-control airplanes, or out on the golf course, or I'm in the woods hunting, and then all of the sudden, I'll just stop and go, wow -all those things that I can do, and the things I have are because of everything that's happened to me. And when I'm back in the house, and I'm eating dinner with my wife and kids, I think about how that's really what It's all about. So I wake up every day just humbled that I have life so good," he concludes. "I work very hard to try to keep my life balanced and level, and make it the same way for my family. I never forget where I came from, and what I have will never go unappreciated.
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For more information , enjoy the official homepage of John Michael Montgomery
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