Train’s Pat Monahan On Songwriting, New Music & Playing The Grand Ole Opry

Pop/rock group Train

Credit: Jasper Graham

Since coming together more than three decades ago, the Multi-GRAMMY winning band Train has turned out a steady stream of iconic hits like “Meet Virginia,” “Drops of Jupiter,” “Hey Soul Sister,” “Marry Me,” “Drive By,” and more.

Stronger than ever, the San Franscico-based group just wrapped up their busy Summer 2025 Tour with plans to get some time off and take a much-needed break. But they made a quick stop in Nashville first to play one final show. As it turns out, they made a little bit of history by performing on the Grand Ole Opry.

“It’s the Opry’s 100^th anniversary,” noted lead singer, Pat Monahan, during a backstage interview before the show, “and I think they’ve 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,” he said.

Monahan has also spent some time in Nashville and made connections with fellow singers, songwriters, and artists.

“I write songs with Vince Gill, he’s a friend. And many of the people who are members here and have performed countless times are friends of mine. But it’s such a universally important place that friends from San Franscisco, New York, and Seattle have also been congratulating me because they know we’re performing here for the first time.”

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, there was thunderous applause.

For the first song, Monahan backed by a string quartet, did a soulfully beautiful rendition of “Marry Me.”

The group followed it up with their fast-moving, ukele-driven “Hey Soul Sister.” It’s one of Train’s most recognizable hits and had the entire Opry audience singing along.

Then, for their final number, Train wrapped things up with the powerful “Drops of Jupiter.” It was so well-received, the crowd rose to its feet and gave Train a standing ovation.

“Drops of Jupiter,” was the first single from Train’s 2001 album (of the same name), and has special meaning for Monahan.

“My mom had passed away and it was a hard record to create and there was a lot of pressure that we didn’t have a single,” he recalls. “I fell asleep one night and woke up and wrote the song in fifteen minutes. I’m 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’s the line “Are you lonely looking for yourself out there?” But I think she wrote that to say to me.”

Drops of Jupiter was extremely successful, winning the group two GRAMMY-Awards, including one for Best Rock Song.

Next year marks the album’s 25^th anniversary 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’s written, but wants to take time to go through them and find just the right five that are “good enough” to add to the album.

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’s quirky “Meet Virginia,” which first put the group on everyone’s music radar in the late 90s, is a perfect example.

“At 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’s gotta write a song about that.”

And so he did, although he didn’t use the woman’s real name, using Virginia instead.

Monahan says most of Train’s songs fall under sort of a “romantic comedy” umbrella.

“I’m 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.”

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 “Brokenhearted.” It has a pulsating, dance-fusion type tempo accentuated by Monahan’s exceptional vocals. It’s been interesting to see people’s response to it.

“We opened our shows with it this summer and nobody knew it,” he says, “but everybody was like “Yeah!”

It’s 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’t been to yet.

“We’re going to India and I’ve never been there, so I’m really excited about it. And we’ll go to Dubai while we’re there. I have been to Dubai before and it’s awesome.”

In the meantime, though, he’s looking forward to a little time off.

“I’m excited to take a break, play a couple rounds of golf, see some friends I haven’t seen for a while, and then get those five songs ready for next year.”

The music never stops for very long.