Tracy Lawrence knows the price of fame, but for the music video for a song called “Price of Fame,” the hitmaker wanted a friend who knows the cost as well — if not better — to join him. Eddie Montgomery of Montgomery Gentry makes a cameo on the new song and video.
Lawrence and Montgomery go back three decades, to a time when Eddie was selling merchandise for his older brother, John Michael Montgomery. It was long before Montgomery Gentry scored a record deal and started releasing hit songs to country radio.
“I was really close to T-Roy,” Lawrence says, referring the late Troy Gentry, Montgomery’s longtime musical partner who died in a helicopter crash in 2017. “Me and Eddie have been friends a long time, and that whole thing just really messed me up.
“There was nobody else that I wanted to sing this song with me,” Lawrence adds. “Eddie’s lost his dad, his son in the last few years, plus his partner … He has an understanding of what it’s like to lose and the cost of this business and what you have to give up for it.”
Rick Huckaby and Brad Arnold of rock band Three Doors Down helped Lawrence write “Price of Fame,” a song that will appear on Hindsight 2020 Vol. 2: Price of Fame when it drops on Aug. 13. It’s a personal lyric for the 53-year-old “Time Marches On” singer.
“There’s a whole lot of me that I’ve had to give away,” he sings.
“I just feel like I missed a lot of family things,” he says, reflecting with appreciation, not self-pity. “But at the same time, I’m a much harder person than I was. I’m not the sweet-natured kid that I was when I got to town, with the big eyes and the dream and everything. And life will generally do that do you no matter what field that you’re in, but you know, you have to harden up as you go through this business because there’s a lot of sharks in the water.”
Furthermore, Lawrence’s family — particularly one daughter — has really struggled with how people treat you different when they learn you’re famous, or that your dad is famous. The mid-tempo reflection might not be one everyone can relate to on a literal level, but anyone who’s dreamed understands the cost.
“Price of fame is an expensive thing / You’re gonna pay if you play this game, boy / All these dreams, no they don’t come cheap / Everything you sew you may never reap / Price of fame is an expensive thing / Price of fame is an expensive thing,” the two men sing at the chorus.
The second of three albums Lawrence has planned for 2021 also features a collaboration with Tracy Byrd, and as he looks ahead to Vol. 3, he’s hoping to partner with a few more of his ’90s and early ’00s hitmaking friends.
Look for Lawrence on the road a lot as 2021 draws to an end. He says his voice is as strong as it has been in years — something he credits to a long break brought upon by the pandemic.
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