Montgomery Gentry Photo Courtesy of Columbia Records
January 5, 2007 — When Montgomery Gentry signed their first recording contract, Eddie Montgomery knew he needed a signature look, but it took some time to come up with the long coat and big hat he's now known for.
"When I first signed a recording contract, the studio put a stylist with me," Eddie tells Larry Vaught of the Advocate-Messenger in Danville, Ky. "They brought all these clothes in, and I said, 'I don't dress in all that stuff.' They asked me what kind of jeans I wore and I said, 'Wrangler. I want them this way.'" So Eddie set about creating his own look. A Civil War buff, he liked the long style worn then and got a seamstress in Missouri to copy a coat for him from a photo in a book.
As for the hat, Eddie says, "I wanted a hat as big as Charlie Daniel's that looked like Waylon's." He estimates he may go through a thousand hats per year because he gives so many away at charity events and to military personnel. He also almost always throws at least one hat into the crowd at each concert.
"Sometimes I may see a little kid singing who knows all the words to our songs. If that happens, I will give the hat to that kid," he says. "You can have all the awards in the world, but there's no bigger honor to me than seeing a little kid loving your music and singing every word to it."