Eric Church is touring on his “Outsider’s Revival Tour,” playing outdoor venues every night to packed crowds of loyal fans. Many of those fans whom are “Church Choir” fan club members. Over the years, Eric has garnered a rabid fan base through his music, style, and his ability to say what he thinks and be a total original.
Church recently shocked some fans tailgating before the show in Pittsburgh and Toronto when he drove up in a black SUV and got out to shake hands, take pictures, and chat with the fans tailgating.
Eric’s social media team posted a video of the moments he shocked fans on Instagram. In the video clip, Church is smiling, riding around the tailgate area before his concert, watching fans enter the venue. He suddenly stops, gets out of the SUV, and approaches fans. Many of them start to shout and shake his hand. The video then shows fans gathered around Church taking pictures and chatting.
His team posted along with the video, “Toronto and Pittsburgh were (fire emoji) during week 3 of #TheOutsidersRevivalTour! Thanks for letting us crash your tailgate on Saturday. Cincinnati and St. Louis, the revival is coming for you next!”
Many fans reacted to the post, including one who commented, Toronto was the frigging amazing, man!! Thanks so much for coming to our great Canadian town and playing on the Budweiser stage because it is my favorite Toronto venue!!!!” Another fan wrote, “Can’t wait to see him in Cincinnati again! One of my favorite performers.”
I had the opportunity to watch Church’s star grow from day one of his career when he released his 2006 debut album Sinners Like Me. I was also present when his career took a sharp turn making him a country superstar in the aftermath of his album 2011 release Chief. I was actually working in the same Nashville Music Row building as his management team. I saw the transformation happen when he donned his now-famous aviator sunglasses for the first time.
Eric has said some interesting things to me through the years in interviews. I gathered five of my favorite quotes from “The Chief” through the years.
RELATED: Eric Church 'Shocked' With Unhappy Fans After CMA Fest
2015 - On people listening to his records
Cooper Neill/Getty ImagesWhen releasing his Outsiders album, Eric said he wanted his listeners to hear the whole album in order of the recordings. He said, “We let the songs dictate what was next. There’s two songs on this album that if you pull them out of the album, I like ‘em, [but] I just don’t love ‘em near as much as if you put ‘em back in because of the space that they give the songs in-between and what I feel when I listen to the record. By themselves? Fine, but in its spot, I love ‘em. It’s an album. It’s start to finish. Shuffle is gonna aggravate me on this if people play shuffle because it’s not right. It needs to be listened to as an album.”
2016 - Talking about his song "Record Year"
Kevin Winter/Getty Images“There’s a line in the song, and it talks about ‘slowly planning my survival/in a three-foot stack of vinyl.’ It’s a great thing about music is it can become a point of therapy and healing.”
2015 - On the song "Talledega"
Rick Diamond/Getty Images“That’s the most interesting thing about the song is it’s about life, and it’s about freezing life and wishing you could freeze life, and we all wish we could do that. I’ve had a few experiences that will stand out forever. They usually involve music in some way that reminds me of it.”
2017 - On being patriotic
Rick Diamond/Getty Images
“Both of my grandfathers were World War II veterans. The way that I was raised was very much red, white, and blue and very patriotic, and I think that it’s the fact that what they give up is the real thing that’s very touching to me.”2020 - Backstage after winning Entertainer of the Year from the CMA in a year that no one toured
Jason Kempin/Getty Images“There’s not really been winners this year. I mean, nobody’s played, nobody’s done the things that we normally do. It’s been a year to me of losses. It’s been a year of managing those losses. So it was really hard for me to accept this award, which I have wanted forever, not for me for those people that work so hard. So for me, the hardest thing was to stand there in 2020 and understand that I won that award.”
