<\/p>\n
Pop\/rock group Train<\/span><\/p>\n Credit: Jasper Graham<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Since coming together more than three decades ago, the Multi-GRAMMY winning Train has turned out a steady stream of iconic hits like \u201cMeet Virginia,\u201d \u201cDrops of Jupiter,\u201d \u201cHey Soul Sister,\u201d \u201cMarry Me,\u201d \u201cDrive By,\u201d and more. <\/p>\n Stronger than ever, the San Franscico-based band just wrapped up its busy Summer 2025 Tour with plans to get some time off and take a much-needed break. But the group made a quick stop in Nashville first to play one final show. And they made a little bit of history by performing on the Grand Ole Opry. <\/p>\n The stage of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a9 Grand Ole Opry, photos by Chris Hollo<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the Opry\u2019s 100th<\/sup> anniversary,\u201d noted lead singer, Pat Monahan, during a backstage interview before the show. \u201cAnd I think they\u2019ve opened it up to some artists who may not fit the genre of country. But they know our music well enough to know that on every album there is something reflective to what Nashville, Texas, and all of these southern states do, and how much I admire southern rock and country artists..\u201d <\/p>\n Monahan has also spent some time in Nashville and made connections with fellow singers, songwriters, and artists.<\/p>\n \u201cI write songs with Vince Gill, he\u2019s a friend. And many of the people who are members here and have performed countless times are friends of mine. But it\u2019s such a universally important place that friends from San Franscisco, New York, and Seattle have also been congratulating me because they know we\u2019re performing here for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n Opry shows feature eight to ten different performers with each doing two or three songs. When the announcement came that Train was coming out next – the applause reverberated through the building. <\/p>\n For the first song, Monahan, backed by a string quartet, did a soulfully beautiful rendition of \u201cMarry Me.\u201d <\/p>\n Pat Monahan, lead singer for Train, sings “Marry Me” with a string quartet backing him at the Grand Ole Opry.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a9 Grand Ole Opry, photos by Chris Hollo<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n The group followed it up with their fast-moving, ukele-driven \u201cHey Soul Sister.\u201d It\u2019s one of Train\u2019s most recognizable hits and had the entire Opry audience singing along. <\/p>\n Train makes its debut on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN – September 19, 2025<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a9 Grand Ole Opry, photos by Chris Hollo<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Train makes it’s Grand Ole Opry debut, Nashville, TN – September 19th, 2025<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a9 Grand Ole Opry, photos by Chris Hollo<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Then, for their final number, Train wrapped things up with the powerful \u201cDrops of Jupiter.\u201d It was so well-received, the crowd rose to its feet and gave Train a standing ovation. <\/p>\n \u201cDrops of Jupiter,\u201d was the first single from Train\u2019s 2001 album (of the same name), and has special meaning for Monahan.<\/p>\n \u201cMy mom had passed away and it was a hard record to create and there was a lot of pressure that we didn\u2019t have a single,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI fell asleep one night and woke up and wrote the song in fifteen minutes. I\u2019m pretty sure my mom wrote it, I just wrote down the words. It was really beautiful and I was just telling someone that with one of the lyrics, at the time I wrote it, I thought I was singing it to her. It\u2019s the line \u201cAre you lonely looking for yourself out there?\u201d<\/em> But I think she wrote that to say to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Drops of Jupiter<\/em> was extremely successful, winning the group two GRAMMY-Awards, including one for Best Rock Song. <\/p>\n Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the album and the band plans to commemorate the event with the release of a special edition that will include five new songs. Monahan has about 70 songs he\u2019s written, but wants to take time to go through them and find just the right five that are \u201cgood enough\u201d to add to the album. <\/p>\n A prolific songwriter, Monahan says ideas come from many different directions and he never knows what might be the spark that leads to a song. Train\u2019s quirky \u201cMeet Virginia,\u201d which first put the group on everyone\u2019s music radar in the late 90s, is a perfect example. <\/p>\n \u201cAt the time, we were playing a softball game against the Counting Crows and halfway through the game, my bass player at the time, showed up with his girlfriend. They had just come from a wedding and she was wearing high heels. And she was better than everybody else at softball. So, I was like, somebody\u2019s gotta write a song about that.\u201d<\/p>\n And so he did, although he didn\u2019t use the woman\u2019s real name, using Virginia instead.<\/p>\n Monahan says most of Train\u2019s songs fall under sort of a \u201cromantic comedy\u201d umbrella. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a romantic comedy guy. I think when you come to a Train show, it should be a romantic comedy. You should have a reason to be emotional or cry, and you should also laugh. But you should always leave feeling like you went through a big story with a lot of different people in it.\u201d<\/p>\n Taylor Locke, Jerry Becker, Pat Monahan, Matt Musty and Hector Maldonado of Train perform at Auckland Town Hall on May 28, 2025 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Dave Simpson\/WireImage)<\/span><\/p>\n WireImage<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Monahan and his fellow band members are still having fun with the music. Earlier this year, they did a collaboration with Italian musician, DJ, and electronic music producer DJ Gabry Ponte on a song called \u201cBrokenhearted.\u201d It has a pulsating, dance-fusion type tempo accentuated by Monahan\u2019s exceptional vocals. It\u2019s been interesting to see people\u2019s response to it. <\/p>\n \u201cWe opened our shows with it this summer and nobody knew it,” he says, \u201cbut everybody was like \u201cYeah!”<\/p>\n It\u2019s nice to still be hitting new milestones some thirty years after it all began. Their Opry debut marks the latest, then early next year, their tour will include a stop in a country they haven\u2019t been to yet.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to India and I\u2019ve never been there, so I\u2019m really excited about it. And we\u2019ll go to Dubai while we\u2019re there. I have been to Dubai before and it\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n In the meantime, though, he\u2019s looking forward to a little time off. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m excited to take a break, play a couple rounds of golf, see some friends I haven\u2019t seen for a while, and then get those five songs ready for next year.\u201d <\/p>\n In between all of that, Train has a new Christmas album coming out in October. It\u2019ll have two or three new original songs including one called \u201cRainy New York Christmas.”<\/p>\n \u201cI think that one\u2019s really cool,\u201d Monahan says. \u201cThey\u2019re all really fun. They\u2019re like romantic comedies about Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n The music never stops for very long. <\/p>\n Pat Monahan of Train performs at Auckland Town Hall on May 28, 2025 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Dave Simpson\/WireImage)<\/span><\/p>\n WireImage<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.forbes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pop\/rock group Train Credit: Jasper Graham Since coming together more than three decades ago, the Multi-GRAMMY winning Train has turned out a steady stream of iconic hits like \u201cMeet Virginia,\u201d \u201cDrops of Jupiter,\u201d \u201cHey Soul Sister,\u201d \u201cMarry Me,\u201d \u201cDrive By,\u201d and more. Stronger than ever, the San Franscico-based band just wrapped up its busy Summer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2044902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2044901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Trains-Pat-Monahan-On-Songwriting-New-Music-Playing-The.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2044901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2044902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2044901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2044901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2044901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}