1965年的1月20日John 出生在 Danville, KY（肯塔基州）的一个乡村音乐家庭.他的父母分别在乐团演奏吉他和敲鼓。哥哥(EDDIE MONTGOMERY..MONTGOMERY GENTRY的成员只一)在父亲的教导下，5 岁的John在他父母的一场音乐会上初次登台。走进了乡村音乐的殿堂。他在15岁的时候就开始加入当地的乡村乐团。并且当他的父母两年以后离婚后，他开始与他的父亲和兄弟组成了一个乐团。他在奥斯汀市酒吧演唱时被星探发现。在1991年，他签约到大西洋唱片（Atlantic Records）。1992年发表了第一张专辑《 Life's a Dance》，此专辑晋升到了乡村音乐榜的前5名和流行音乐榜的前30名。并成为当年唯一一个处女唱片大卖超过100万张的新人.之后又以4首冠军歌 "I Swear," "Be My Baby Tonight," "If You Got Love," "I Love the Way You Love Me, "等奠定了他在乡村届天王的地位..并且从如日中天的Garth Brooks和Lynyrd Skynyrd手里抢到了不少的歌迷.
而且他有一个与众不同之处就是他跟大多数的乡村歌手不一样简直住在Lexington钓鱼,打GOLF而拒绝搬去乡村音乐的盛殿Nashville.
by Steve Huey
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 fathers 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, Lifes 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. That set the stage for 1994s Kickin It Up, a bona fide, multi-platinum blockbuster that topped both the country and pop charts and made Montgomery a star. Three number one country hits — I Swear, Be My Baby Tonight, and If Youve Got Love — sprang from the album as well as another Top Five hit, Rope the Moon. A self-titled 1995 follow-up also topped the country charts and kept Montgomerys hit streak alive with the number one smashes Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident) and I Can Love You Like That, plus more Top Fivers in No Mans Land, Cowboy Love, and Long as I Live. Late in 1995, Montgomery was forced to take time off for surgery to repair his vocal cords.Montgomery recovered in time to put out What I Do the Best in 1996. Friends and How Was I to Know both hit number two, and I Miss You a Little was also a Top Ten hit. A Greatest Hits compilation was released in 1997, and Montgomery returned in 1998 with Leave a Mark, which found him continuing to move into more polished territory. Cover You in Kisses and Hold on to Me were the Top Five hits this time out. Things got even smoother on the very adult contemporary-styled Home to You, which appeared in 1999 and whose title cut reached number two on the country charts. Still, Montgomerys crossover-friendly approach was beginning to affect his sales in the country marketplace. 2000s Brand New Me featured a higher percentage of up-tempo tracks, and it peaked at number two on the country charts; plus, his duet with Alison Krauss, The Little Girl, gave him another number one hit. His next album, 2002s Pictures, was an attempt to move into more mature, adult territory.