Why Eddie Money Didn’t Join Montrose
Fronting Ronnie Montrose’s band Montrose wasn’t among Eddie Money's many achievements – even though it could have been.
The pair discussed the possibility before Montrose hired Sammy Hagar as his singer in 1973, as Money, who died at 70 on Sept. 13, detailed in a previously unpublished interview with UCR from 2012.
“I thought Ronnie was really super, super-cool guy, but he was always so, so straight and always so cranky,” Money said. “He was a grumpy son of a gun if you wanna ask me. … I always respected him, but I’m always glad I wasn’t the lead singer of his band.”
He noted that he and Montrose had remained close up until the guitarist took his own life in March 2012. “I was with Ronnie about a year ago, and we sat down and we talked for about 20 minutes,” Money recalled. ‘Then he got sick, and I heard that he shot himself. You gotta be gutsy kinda guy to turn around and end your life. … He was great to talk to, always had great tales. He was a real gentleman.”
Several years before the reality TV show Real Money began airing in 2018, the singer said the idea of sharing his stories had been brewing for some time. "We were going to do a reality show and then the company folded,” Money explained in 2014. “What are they gonna do? Get pictures of me fighting with my wife and kids? I don’t really know. My life is like an open book anyway. Every time I do a show, it’s on YouTube the next day.
“I was teasing my audience about three months ago, and I said, ‘I’m sorry I drank that quart of vodka. I’ll try to give you a good show.’ … It wound up on YouTube and everybody thought that I was back out getting drunk and snorting coke, and I’m going, ‘What the fuck is everybody talking about?’”