Randy Montana delivered the latest chilling ghost story on the latest episode of God’s Country. The singer-songwriter — whose writing credits include hits by Luke Combs, Parker McCollum, Carly Pearce and other mainstays in the country genre — sat down with hosts Dan and Reid Isbell to “talk songwriting, turkey hunting, and how an angel named Rattlesnake Ricky saved his and Dan’s lives.”
Montana’s ghost story is “the best ghost story we’ve heard so far,” the Isbell brothers said in their description of the latest episode of their newly-debuted podcast. Together, the trio also “discuss the approach they took to writing ‘Better Together,’ which had a five-week run as the number one song on country radio.” Combs included “Better Together” on his 2019 album, What You See Is What You Get.
“It was the strangest thing,” Montana said. “You would be kind of looking over here, and you just see that little head, like a blonde little…honestly, like, you kind of just don’t even think anything of it until this woman knocks on our door, (an) older woman. she was — I just remember she was an older woman, and she was talking to my mom. They were talking for a while, and I go up to the front door. And now, years have passed. I’m probably — I’m in my teens at this point in time. Probably like, mid-teens. …So, my mom’s talking (to) this older woman, and she’s like, …I’ll never forget, she goes, ‘my aunt and uncle and cousins lived in your house,’ in the 50s or 60s or whatever it was. She goes, ‘yeah, actually my cousin died in this house. He was 7 years old and he’s buried at the bottom of your driveway.’”
Dan and Reid — who have written music for Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Scotty McCreery, Jon Pardi, Lainey Wilson and others — started their weekly podcast this year. Guests appearing on the show so far include HARDY, Dustin Lynch, Colbie Caillat and others. HARDY also shared haunting ghost stories during his conversation with the Isbell brothers on God’s Country.
“One of our favorite things about country music has always been how intertwined it is with the outdoors,” Dan and Reid Isbell said in a statement when God’s Country launched. They hope to “bring the outdoor enthusiast or country music lover an up close and personal look into the minds of some of the best songwriters and artists of the genre — a place where they can be honest about struggles, relationships, their connection to the outdoors, the music business, family, whatever they feel comfortable talking about. We can’t wait to see where this partnership will lead and who this podcast will reach.”
The iHeartPodcasts/MeatEater show is available anywhere you listen to podcasts, including in the iHeartRadio app. Select country stations will broadcast the show between 7-11:30 p.m. local time on Sunday evenings. Find God's Country here.