Eddie Montgomery invited a few friends over for beers and burgers, and before he knew it, the local golf course was using his garage as a concession stand and he was holding his debut solo album in his hand. The party, needless to say, got a bit out of control.

A short equipment inventory at Eddie's Garage (oh yes, it has a name) includes every kind of grill you can think of (Little Green Egg, Big Green Egg, Blackstone griddle, etc.), several televisions, a dartboard and a disco ball.

"I heard about some of these restaurants selling their equipment out," the longtime Montgomery Gentry singer shares, going back to some of the economic troubles at the beginning of the pandemic, "so I bought this big glass refrigerator ... Of course it’s full of Jim Beam and ice-cold beer."

Ira Dean, Jeffrey Steele and Chris Wallin were a few of his quarantine friends who'd stop by regularly, and before long, the group started putting song ideas to paper. Ain't No Closing Me Down includes a love song about "my smokin' hot wife" called "She Just Loves Me" and a song called "My Son" that Montgomery penned for a movie titled Old Henry. Amid all this revelry, Montgomery actually accessed deeper emotions than ever before. He'll tell you he's not very good at expressing his feelings, but this new one does more than all right.

"Of course, I lost a couple sons, and so I used some of that and poured out my soul," he tells Taste of Country Nights.

The title track is called "Ain't No Closing Me Down," and it's more like what you'd expect from the Kentucky-bred country-rocker.

"I came up with ‘Ain’t No Closing’ Me Down,'" he begins, returning us back to his garage. Montgomery may be better at expressing emotion, but he's not going to park a conversation there long.

"When all that shut down, I started noticing people when we was hanging out in the garage, people come by looking and go, ‘You know you can’t do it.' And I said, ‘The hell I can’t. Hide and watch.’”

Ain't No Closing Me Down is available exclusively at Walmart and Walmart.com for now. Montgomery says he feels very lucky to be a part of the Average Joe's Entertainment and Walmart teams. One figures they'd all get a beer and a burger if they stopped by today. Everyone else does!

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"Down by the golf course, everybody started coming up on the golf course because you know everything was closed at the clubhouse," Montgomery says. "So they started coming to my house," he adds with a laugh.

“They’d come up and we’d give ‘em a cold beverage. And usually, we’d give ‘em a hamburger. The Fed Ex guy, give him a hamburger.”

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