They had received helicopter invites to go for a helicopter joyride, Troy Gentry decided to do it. On Sept 8th the helicopter had engine problem and crashed at 1pm, Pilot was killed on impact but Gentry lived for an hour after being rushed to the hospital where he later died from his injuries, he was only 50.
“A little piece of my soul got lost there,” Montgomery, 54, tells PEOPLE. “It was a horrific day; it’s something that you never get over.”
“Me and T, we’ve known each other longer than we’ve known our wives,” he says. “Nashville didn’t put this duo together, we did. We were friends before we were ever in the music business.” Montgomery continued: “We were outdoors guys. We’d hunt and fish. Mostly we’d go around and listen to a lot of bands and think how we could make ourselves better.”
The two of them had been friends for 30 years and had discussed what to do if the other died first. “We said to each other, ‘Hey, we want Montgomery Gentry to keep going,’” Montgomery says. “It’s weird, I always thought it was going to be me that went down first.”
In late January 2018 Eddie Montgomery plans to tour and says about moving forward: ” Even though Gentry’s place on the stage will now stand empty “He was more than just a singer. He was a brother and he was always there. As far as I’m concerned, we’re still making music together.”
