"John Michael Montgomery emerged as a bona fide country hunk in the surge of honky tonk country musicians in the 1990s and even after the country music scene began to cool off he continued to make waves with his romantic ballads.Born in Danville, KY (near Lexington), Montgomery learned to play the guitar from his father, a local musician, and first took the stage when he was just five-years-old with his father's band (which also featured his mother on drums). Montgomery was a regular on the local music circuit by age 15 and two years later took the reigns as lead singer of a group with his father and brother subsequent to his parents' divorce. While playing on the honky tonk circuit after high school graduation, Montgomery was discovered at a Lexington venue and signed with Atlantic in 1991. His debut album followed one year later on the heels of lead single, ""Life's a Dance,"" which made the Top Five and was followed by Number One single ""I Love the Way You Love Me."" In 1994 Montgomery issued his second album, Kickin' It Up, which went multi-platinum on the strength of three Number One Singles- ""I Swear,"" ""Be My Baby Tonight"" and ""If You've Got Love.""In 1995 Montgomery proved that three times was a charm with a successful third album, John Michael Montgomery. The record continued his string of Number One singles with ""Sold (The Grundy Country Auction Incident)"" and ""I Can Love You Like That"" but the singer was forced to undergo surgery to repair his vocal chords shortly after its release. In 1996 he returned with What I Do Best and a greatest hit compilation followed one year later. The smooth album Leave a Mark came in 1998, followed by 1999's Home to You and 2000's Brand New Me. By this point Montgomery was transitioning away from country and into adult contemporary and the trend continued with 2002's Pictures, 2003's holiday effort Mr. Snowman, 2004's Letters from Home and 2008's Time Flies. "
