Monte Pittman

Monte Pittman is an American musician, songwriter and singer. Pittman juggles duties playing with Madonna, Prong, and most recently, Adam Lambert’s live band. He has just released his first solo album, The Deepest Dark. Pittman started playing guitar as a teenager. His guitar teacher was Robert Browning. Pittman’s first band was the 4-piece Myra Mains, headquartered in Longview, TX and released 2 albums Condition (1996) and Buried (1999). Pittman moved to Los Angeles in 1999 and worked at a guitar store as a salesman. He eventually quit to start teaching guitar lessons. Pittman’s third student was British film director Guy Ritchie, who had just received a guitar as a gift from his girlfriend, Madonna. Ritchie later returned the favor, buying Madonna her own guitar—and she began to take lessons from Pittman as well. Subsequently, Pittman was invited to join the band for Madonna's Drowned World Tour (2001). He has played in every incarnation of Madonna’s live band since then. Pittman shares writing credits with Madonna on the tracks Easy Ride from American Life (2003), 2007’s Hey You charity single and It’s So Cool from Celebration (2009). Additionally, Pittman has contributed performances to Madonna’s studio recordings, appearing on 2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floor (Like It Or Not) and 2008’s Hard Candy (Spanish Lesson). Pittman was introduced to Prong’s Tommy Victor by White Zombie drummer Ivan de Prume; the two hit it off, and Pittman joined Prong in 2000. He played guitar on their 2002 tour that spawned the live album 100% Live. Pittman handled guitar and bass duties for the 2003 album Scorpio Rising. On Prong’s 2007 release Power of the Damager, Pittman wrote 5 of the 13 songs and provided backing vocals alongside bass duties. He is also credited as an associate producer for the remixed version Power of the Damn Mixxxer which was released on May 2009. Pittman formed the rock band The Citizen Vein with musicians he had worked with previously—including Tommy Victor (Prong) on bass and Steve Sidelnyk (Madonna) on drums. After Pittman’s collaboration with singer Adam Lambert to write music for LA revue The Zodiac Show, Lambert joined the band on vocals. The group members all had other projects to juggle, and The Citizen Vein was put on hold indefinitely while Lambert competed on the reality television program American Idol. Lambert was the runner up on the show finale, but subsequently recorded and released his debut album, For Your Entertainment. Pittman is currently the musical director and playing guitar on Adam Lambert's sold-out GlamNation tour.