Eric Church teases his new single and reveals how he remembers lyrics!

Eric Church sat down with Elaina D. Smith on The Nashville Show to discuss his smash hit, Heart On Fire, shooting music videos and the trick Eric has for remembering lyrics.

In 2021, Eric released a two-album project, Heart and Soul. Did he have a gut feeling when he wrote Heart on Fire it would be a chart topper?

“I didn’t think about it at the time." He admitted. "When we made the Heart and Soul project, we were holed up in the mountains in North Carolina and my idea was to write and record a song a day so I would get up that day, write a song and record it that night, and start over the next day. Commit to the next song the next day. This was the first one.”

“So I really owe the whole project to this because I think people at the time were a little bit sceptical, my producers and band are looking at me going, why did you drag us six hours away to this place where it snows, cabins and it’s cold and there’s nothing else to do. When this song worked, everybody went oh okay, we’ll give it another day. It started the project off on the right foot, and it set the tone. Then COVID hit and kind of stalled everything for a year."

The last few years have felt like a fever dream for everyone, but it must be strange to make a record before the pandemic and only recently get to tour.

“It was bizarre to look back and think it’s been that long, weird gap we all had in our lives. Also unique, we were the first artists out in September and a lot of people thought we were pretty bold. We had some challenges with all the variants, not knowing what the cities were going to do. The way we did it, we kept playing, we were going to be there. It feels a whole lot better where we are now.”

“The first night of the tour in Kentucky, I hadn’t seen my band in a year and a half. The fans hadn’t been there, it had been close to 2 years since I'd been on the road. I started with a song called ray bans. It's about fans gathering. It was an emotional night. There were so many people just bawling their eyes out. That release, you finally are in this moment again. We’ve all been through a ton and lost a lot. It was a profound moment for me.”

Here in the UK, we're itching for an Eric Church tour. Especially after he was announced as a Country 2 Country headliner, but then had to pull out. So what can fans expect when they see "The Chief" live? For starters, you'll never see the same show twice - he changes the set list for every show.

"Every city needs to have a different set. Sometimes it’s minor, sometimes it’s major, it depends on my mood. The great thing about this entire project is there’s so much breadth, there’s so many songs that I’ve been able to pull them in and out. It’s been fun to do something different every night."

"One of the first songs I had in my career called love your love the most from 2008 maybe and we played it for probably a decade, and we just started playing it this tour and it was interesting to not play something for almost ten years and see people's response. Stuff like that is fun."

With all these set list changes, and his bulky discography - eight studio albums - it must be hard to remember all the lyrics right? Wrong!

“I have this magical device called a teleprompter and I’m proud to tell you I have that." Eric jokes to Elaina. "We play 34 songs and 32 songs, I learned from all of my peers who have been doing this a long time, they also have teleprompters and it helps you get a reminder every now and then. I want to play new stuff and I don’t want to be the artist that says, I would play that but I don’t know it very well. It helps me play more stuff I haven't played in a long time. A cheat sheet."

One of the great things about live music is when an artist will debut a new song or let you in on a secret. Eric Church fans have reported "Doing Life With Me" is going to be the next single. Can the man himself verify this?

“That is true, it was fluid trying to figure out where we’re going next. But for me, I’ve been doing this a long time, you get into the people who are your core group, your fox hole group, that’s your songwriters, producers, band or family, they’re my sounding board. I have a very tight group. That’s who this song is for, and for the fans too, they’ve been doing life with me too. It's a tribute to them too.”

As for new music, we might be waiting some time before Eric drops his next record.

“I’m very much still in this project a little longer, I don't know what to do next. It was so different and challenging the way we did it. Different kinds of albums or what, I can't just sit down and make an album, I've got to figure it out and let the creativity grow. As of now, I don't feel those things stirring yet, but I hope they do at some point in time.”

In the meantime, feed your thirst for Eric Church by checking out the music video for Heart On Fire, it's Elaina's favourite!

“We shot the ending live, it was pretty quick, 15-20 singing through the song, it was a quick day for me. Then it was a couple months before I saw it. It's also cool to look back. I had forgotten the Talladega video. I don’t remember that at all, it must have been a late night."

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