Tim Montana

About Tim Montana

Tim Montana grew up in Butte, Montana, which is about as far from Nashville or LA as you can get while still being in the continental US. The town is known for copper mining and having a giant toxic pit lake, neither of which typically launch music careers. But Montana learned guitar young and absorbed everything from outlaw country to hard rock, which would later make sense of his somewhat hard-to-categorize sound.

He moved to LA in the mid-2000s with the kind of plan that doesn't really qualify as a plan—play music, see what happens. He started a band called Funktrap that leaned into rap-rock territory, which was already past its cultural expiration date but apparently no one told him. The band went nowhere in particular, but it got him playing shows and figuring out how the industry worked, or didn't work, depending on the day.

The breakthrough moment came when he pivoted back toward his Montana roots, literally. He started writing songs that split the difference between country and rock without committing fully to either. "This Country" became something of a calling card, eventually getting picked up for a Bud Light campaign. That kind of commercial placement is what keeps lights on and leads to other opportunities, which in Montana's case meant collaborations with people who had much bigger tour buses than he did.

His connection with ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons turned into a legitimate creative partnership. They co-wrote "Long Shots" and the chemistry was obvious enough that Gibbons stuck around for other projects. David Lee Roth also showed up on a track called "Mostly Stoned," because apparently Montana collects rock legends the way some people collect vintage guitars. These weren't just celebrity cameos—the songs actually worked.

He released "Long Shots" as a full album in 2021, with production help from multiple people who understood that his sound needed to be big without being polished into oblivion. The record featured collaborations with everyone from Charlie Sheen (yes, really) to members of Motley Crue and ZZ Top. It was maximalist in its guest list but the songs themselves stayed grounded in Montana's blue-collar perspective.

More recently, he's been the opener for bigger country and rock acts, which is the kind of steady work that matters more than streaming numbers. He also co-wrote "Devil You Know" which got some traction in the country rock space, and continues to split time between Nashville and LA depending on where the work is.

Montana occupies a weird middle space—too rock for mainstream country radio, too country for rock festivals, but with enough of both to keep building a audience that doesn't particularly care about genre boundaries. He's still playing, still writing, still finding people to collaborate with who probably shouldn't work on paper but do.

Montana's shows have a relaxed, participatory vibe. Crowds sing along on the hooks, he takes requests, and the whole thing feels more like hanging out than a polished performance. People stick around.

Known for Ain't No Tail on My Kite, Malibu, Halo, One Hell of a Ride

See Tim Montana Live