5 Biggest Takeaways From Eric Church’s Recent ‘Billboard’ Interview
Parenting, ticket scalping, the creative process and what’s next. Eric Church talks about it all in a new interview with Billboard. Here are five of the biggest takeaways.
Parenting can be challenging for touring artists, but parenting is challenging for everyone.
“A five-year-old and a two-year-old are always going to have their challenges,” Eric tells the publication. “But yeah, I do okay with it. They’re with me on tour, and that is such a big thing, because I’ve been around long enough to see these artists that check out for periods of their life. I feel like it becomes harder for them to be a parent or to feel like they’re in control of their life when they’re checking in and checking out.”
Taking the kids on tour was an easy decision.
“For me, as hard as it has been at times, logistically it’s just something my wife and I have always decided we had to do,” Eric continues. “The Mr. Misunderstood album does not happen if my kids aren’t out on the road with me or I don’t have a relationship with them, because you can hear it in the album. Because that’s a part of my life; it’s really easy for me to walk out on that stage and feel pretty comfortable when I sing that stuff, because I’ve lived it.”
In honor of ‘Chief’ being released 6 years ago, the Greatest Hits playlist has been updated to feature the album! https://t.co/avfibPu0ni pic.twitter.com/Ak8B0xtB7d
— Eric Church (@ericchurch) July 31, 2017
Eric gets animated when asked about his crusade against ticket scalpers.
“I hate that scalping exists,” the singer says. “I wish artists didn’t have to [fight] it individually. I wish it was more collective. But I don’t think it ever will be. The only way it’ll ever be solved is if every person cares enough individually to make it incredibly hard to scalp tickets. And if everybody does that, it’ll make it collectively harder.
As for his efforts to minimize scalping at his shows, Eric is proud of the result.
“Because we were able to look back and really dissect it,” he says. “Did we keep every scalper out of the building? Hell no. But what we did do was we made it very hard for them to get the prime tickets.”
And what’s next for Eric Church? For now he’s taking some time off at his family’s North Carolina mountain retreat.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” he tells Billboard. “I don’t have answers yet. That’s what I’m here to think about, honestly.”
Read the entire story here. Stay up on all things Eric Church here.
Teddy McDonald is a fun-lovin’ country music fan man living in Nashville, Tennessee.
