Sometimes getting fired is not such a bad thing……………

Kevin Montgomery at Hopetoun House in Scotland-Sept. 2000

Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the first time I set foot in the United Kingdom-and a turning point in my career, and more importantly, my life.
After my time with A&M Records, and five years in Los Angeles……..I moved back to Nashville at the behest of A&M to record for the Nashville division. I knew it wouldn’t work, so subsequently asked our of my record deal, publishing deal, and any “deal” really……and began a 5 year period of pushing carts at Sam’s(6 months), banquet serving at Opryland Hotel (2 years), delivering papers for the Tennessean (2 years, 7 nights a week, all night), and valet parking (4 years)-as you can see……the timeline means that many times I had two jobs.
During this time I got “I Won’t Close My Eyes” recorded by Martina McBride’s Evolution cd after seeing her producer Paul Worley in the parking lot of Sam’s one day. I also got a deal of sorts with Decca Records. They folded five months later. During one period I worked all night long delivering papers and then co-produced an artist on Universal Records-mostly on 3 hours of sleep a night.
So, here I was. In debt from the fallout of the A&M days……….working my butt off, and with not much of a plan. I was happy though.
I knew I had to figure something out quick.
So, as luck would have it…….I got myself fired from my valet manager’s position. I was the manager of 4 or 5 guys. I worked alongside them. Our boss was stealing tip money from us, and I confronted him on it. We called him “Fat Tony”-primarily because he was fat, and his name was Tony. A few days later, after warning me “not to bite the hand that feeds you”, he fired me. I think my reply to him was “my hands feed me biatch.”
Either way, I had been working six days a week valeting at the hospital, and five nights a week at Jimmy Kelly’s restaurant, so in one fell swoop my income was gone-I was later rehired after the main boss heard the whole story.
I remember going home that day. Jobless……freaking out…….feeling like a loser. At that moment I decided to go to England.
In the months prior, I, along with help from my friends had made “Another Long Story”, and whenever I would play a show in Nashville folks from England would show up. Bingo! I MUST have some sort of following there?
I had sold my beloved truck, and was bicycling to and from work so that I could pay for a “promotion” guy to work “Another Long Story” in the UK market. He basically did nothing, but was happy to take my money. So, I started doing his job. A week later I started getting airplay on Bob Harris’ BBC2 program. This gave me my start.
I had BBC airplay, but couldn’t find a booking agent to book a tour in the UK. Nothing.
So, the very first email I ever sent out was to a guy named John Graveling. A school teacher in England who was a Bob Harris fan. He had given me his card a few months earlier after a show at the Bluebird Cafe. After a few weeks of emails…….I finally said, “why don’t you book the tour?”……….he said, “I’ve never done that before,” and I replied, “so!?”
SO, two months later I flew to the UK for the first time. I had $100 to my name. I did 11 dates. The first show was at Chamber’s Bar in Glasgow, Scotland. We did a live session on Bob Harris’ BBC2 show. We had good crowds every night of the tour, and it was a completely life-changing experience. The crowds actually listened…….no talking……and they were educated on the music. I knew I had to come back.

In September of 2000 we called up a festival called Summer Nights in the Country to see if I could be on the bill. It was a long shot, but when John called them, they said, “wow! we just heard his song on the radio and had made a note to try to find who booked him,”……..so we succeeded in getting a slot. Little Feat, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle…………an incredible bill.
Robert Reynolds and Paul Deakin from The Mavericks were the rhythm section, and Pat Buchanan filled in on guitar. We subsequently toured the UK for three weeks. It was the first “band” tour, and that spurred me to form Kevin Montgomery and the Roadtrippers with Robert and Paul forming the core of the group.

One of my favorite memories of all of my time touring was the night we played for Paul McCartney at his annual Buddy Holly birthday party. Buddy and my dad were musical partners. A guy named Tony Bramwell had started doing some promo work for me in the UK. Tony was The Beatles road manager, and later an exec at Apple Records, and to this day is a close friend of Sir Paul, so he hipped Sir Paul to my music.
I got word that Sir Paul wanted me to come play the party. We had problem though. First, we had a date booked in Preston, England on Sept. 9th, and secondly, I was the only one invited, and I had a whole group with me that probably wouldn’t appreciate it too much if they were left at the hotel while I went and hung with McCartney.
So, I sent word back that I would come IF I could bring my whole band, plus opening act Jeff Finlin, and John Graveling-six extra people. We got word back that it was fine.
We showed up, cocktail party atmosphere……..about 200 people. McCartney came in after about 15 minutes. When Robert Reynolds saw him……he turned speechless, and stood there transfixed. It is the only time I’ve ever seen Robert Reynolds speechless!!! Ha!
Anyway, after a few minutes Sir Paul noticed us all standing together, decked out in our best duds, and said, “you lot look like a band,” and came right up to us. He spoke of John Lennon and said how he was trying to copy Buddy by wearing glasses, and was just a really pleasant fun guy. He said that he played the Adelphi in Preston-where we were supposed to be that night-with The Beatles. He was everything you would expect him to be.
Later in the evening a fella came up and asked what key I did “Wishing” and “Heartbeat” in. This sent alarm bells up. Uh oh, they were planning on using the house band for my songs instead of MY band! I knew the guys would be very disappointed, so I told them that when Sir Paul called me onto the stage……….just walk up and take the instruments from the house band. I knew it was very important to the guys, and felt like there wouldn’t be any problem once we got going.
So, they called me up, and we all strolled through the crowd together, jumped up on the stage, and very kindly went to the owners of the instruments and asked to borrow them. Pat Buchanan went to the guitar player, who very kindly relinquished his instrument-his name was David Gilmour of a band called Pink Floyd!!!!!!
We played “Wishing” with Paul McCartney and Heather Mills McCartney standing at the front of the crowd…….five feet from us. At the end of “Wishing” I leaned down to Paul and said, “do you want us to play ‘Not Fade Away’?'……..he threw his fist in the air and shouted, “yeah!”-it was an amazing feeling.
We jumped off the stage after our two songs, and the picture you see in this blog was taken. You can see the excitement on our faces.

These events touched off 10 years of almost non-stop touring in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Crete, Australia, Japan, two 50 States in 50 Days tours, many years of touring with Al Perkins,  the Roadtrippers, and 160 stamps in my passport.
I may not ever had made the leap of faith without “Fat Tony” firing me. So, thanks Tony.
I also want to sincerely thank the people of the United Kingdom for giving me a chance. My fans/friends in the UK gave me a direction and a focus, and without you I realize my life would not be the same.
I’ve gone a little long here, but I got inspired by the photos………………..Thanks, Kevin

Do you have a “I got fired, and it turned out to be the best thing” story? Please share yours in the comment section below.
“Some Comfort” from the forthcoming in progress new cd………….

Tagged as: "Another Long Story", 10th anniversary, 50 States in 50 Days, 50 States in 50 Days tour, Al Perkins, Apple Records, Beatles, Buddy Holly, buddyholly, California, Crete, Dad, Dave Gilmour, Decca Records, emmylou harris, England, Fired, Glasgow, Hopetoun house, house concert, Jeff Finllin, John Lennon, kevin montgomery, Kevin Montgomery and the Roadtrippers, Martina McBride, McCartney, Nashville, Pat Buchanan, Paul Deakin, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, Record producer, Reunion, Robert Reynolds, Sir Paul, Sir Paul McCartney, Sometimes getting fired is not such a bad thing, Summer nights in the Country, The Beatles, tour