If You Ever Stop Loving Me

Album: You Do Your Thing (2004)
Charted: 30
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Songfacts®:

  • Montgomery Gentry's biggest crossover hit was this Bob DiPiero, Rivers Rutherford and Tom Shapiro penned number. The song was not only the duo's first ever country #1 but also reached #30 on the Hot 100.

    Shapiro and Rutherford also wrote the Brooks & Dunn hit "Ain't Nothing 'Bout You" in 2001.
  • The song's protagonist has the "bank man, the boss man, the lawman, all tryin' to get their hands" on him, even though he's done nothing wrong. But he maintains that as long as his lover stays with him he can handle anything. DiPiero discussed the song in an interview with The Boot: "I think Rivers and Tom and I were totally in the same place when we sat down to write this song. We're really unique individuals, and to have a wife and someone who gives day in and day out ... we realized how lucky we are. I think we were all in that same universal space of 'I'm all right, I'm OK, ain't nothing but another day, but only God knows where I'd be if you ever stop loving me.'

    I think it's a strong man being vulnerable in that song. This is a guy saying all the hard things he's been through and all the hard roads he's been down. The heart and soul of that song is the truth. I can deal with anything, except you leaving me. That's what I love about that song.

    It's rockin' and, of course, for Montgomery Gentry it was the perfect match and the perfect fit ... perfect timing and perfect record."
  • Rutherford wasn't a big fan of the song in its earlier stages. It was built on a guitar riff that he came up with, but after a while it started sounding too much like a rock-and-roll hit instead of a country hit. Shapiro reluctantly shelved the partially written tune. But when DiPiero joined them on a fruitless songwriting session, Rutherford suggested they pull out the song and try again.

    "And so we finished it together," Rutherford told Jake Brown, author of Nashville Songwriter. "It dawned on me about two-thirds of the way through writing it that, 'You know, I'm producing Montgomery Gentry, this is perfect for them.' So I played it for them, they loved it, and we wound up with their first #1, and I got to produce it. Frankly, in the middle of the song, when I started thinking this would be really good for Montgomery Gentry, we started putting English on the ball, trying to aim it more towards them."

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