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I’m talking about Eddie Montgomery, and let me explain:  A few months back, Eddie’s son had a nasty ATV crash that wasn’t life threatening, but he did trash his shoulder in three places.  While Eddie was visiting the bone specialist with his son, he mentioned some hip pain he was having, and the doc said he should get an X-ray.  Then Eddie explains:  “he pulled me to the side, away from my son, and said, ‘I don’t kow about your hip, but you need to go to a prostate doctor immediately, because I see a shadow there.’”  What a wild way to find out you have cancer!  But how lucky, because Eddie’s dad died of the disease at age 52.

So she’s been branded “the woman who ditched her husband right after he announced he has cancer.”  I’m talking about Tracy Montgomery, the wife of Montgomery Gentry’s Eddie Montgomery.  According to his tweets, she couldn’t deal with his prostate cancer and decided to file for divorce.  But here is her statement:

“There are two sides to every story.  Despite what is being said, Eddie’s cancer had nothing to do with my decision.  Its’ what the public doesn’t know that finalized an extremely difficult decision that I was forced to make.  I’d like to thank everyone for their kind words and support during this traumatic time…” etc.

So we may never know the real story here.  The obvious guesses based on this statement are that either he cheated or she did.  (Or that he has developed a problem, like substance abuse.)   And while most scorned women would want to set the record straight, think about this:  If your income relies on fans still liking your (ex)husband, sometimes it’s just good business to keep mum about these things, as tempting as it would be to publicly bust the guy.  Again, let me emphasize that this is all just guess work.

First the Cubby the bear controversy that Troy Gentry had to apologize for.  And now, an announcement from Eddie Montgomery that he’s been diagnosed with prostate cancer.  We don’t know any details, other than his statement, which I will give you word-for-word:

“Yes, rumors have started. And the truth is I have recently been diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. I will be undergoing surgery to remove the cancerous tumor in December. I will be back in January ready to rock for all the fans! Please keep my family and I in your prayers.”

Now I can’t say for sure, but the fact that he’s planning to be back on the road just one month later suggests that this was caught early and he’s going to be okay.  But either way, we’ll be thinking of him.

There’s a new movement afoot to revoke Montgomery Gentry’s Home Depot Humanitarian Award as details come to light about Troy Gentry’s 2006 bear-shooting incident.

This is a video compiled by a group that was involved with the court case a few years back regarding a bear named Cubby. To make a long story short, Troy was convicted for his role in shooting this tame animal (that was tagged as killed in the wild) at an animal reserve. At the time, I remember thinking this was kind of lame, but I’m no hunting ethics expert, so I didn’t really get all that fired up. But watching this video, I have to admit I got a little queasy. Here’s why. Cubby’s owner decided it was time to off him because he needed some expensive dental work. So he made a deal with Troy where Troy payed $4000-something bucks to shoot Cubby, who was tame enough to eat out of humans’ hands, in a one-acre fenced area. What creeps me out is the part of the video where Troy, in camo on a hunting stand, acts super-excited when he shoots Cubby at close range with his bow, like “what a score”! Of course the people who brought this to light are seriously biased, but this video is hard to watch all the same. You have been warned.

Thoughts? Opinions? Hunters want to chime in about whether this is cool or not? Let’s discuss. I kind of feel like the Humanitarian award is a separate deal and shouldn’t have anything to do with this, but I do feel differently about the Cubby incident after watching that video.

With all of these country stars getting sober these days, here’s a different take on drinking.  Eddie Montogmery says the line in the new Monty G song “Long Line of Losers”  that says “I was born with a shot glass in my hand,” is actually almost literally true.  Eddie says his house growing up was a non-stop party.  His parents, who were also musicians, would often bring the bar home with them.  There was a lot of music and a lot of drinking going on at all hours, and no one seemed to mind if little Eddie joined in.  He says at one point he remembers saying to himself, “I wonder how come no kids are allowed to come to our house?”  While Eddie can joke about it, things didn’t turn out so fun for his brother John Michael Montgomery, who has struggled with addiction throughout his adult life.

It’s a dream come true for Eddie, who has always wanted to open a restaurant in his hometown of Herrodsburg, Kentucky.   It’s called Eddie Montgomery’s Steakhouse, and it’s a place that serves steaks, owned by Eddie Montgomery.  It actually sounds really nice:  a big log-cabin type place with stone fireplaces and top notch cuts of beef.  The best part is that Eddie says he plans to have lots of live, local music there, since nowadays there aren’t that many places for new bands to cut their teeth.