Eric Church Hilariously Fails Trying To Freestyle “Round Here Buzz” In Des Moines – “Iowa’s A Pretty Hard F’ing Rhyme”

Moments like these are why we love him.

Fresh off the announcement of two dozen new tour dates in 2026 last week, Eric Church has been on a roll with the Free The Machine Tour. After kicking the tour off in Pittsburgh, which featured a powerful rendition of “Monsters” in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder, the “Record Year” singer has hit the likes of Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Boston and even led a “Go Pack Go” chant while performing “Springsteen” during his recent trip to Green Bay.

As we all know by now, you never really know what to expect at an Eric Church concert. You might get a fairly standard show (though those are pretty few and far between with the Chief), but there’s a very high chance you at least get anything from an out-of-left-field cover to a deep cut you haven’t heard since you last listened to the B side of Carolina. Simply put, Church always keeps the crowd on its toes.

Over the weekend in Iowa, it was actually Church surprising himself.

After performing the entirety of his new album, Evangeline Vs. the Machine to begin the show, Church followed it up with past hits such as “Springsteen,” “Drink In My Hand,” “Smoke a Little Smoke” and even some rare deep cuts from Soul, “Lynyrd Skynyrd Jones” and “Look Good and You Know It.”

As the night began to come to a close, the North Carolina native decided to give the crowd an acoustic rendition of his 2017 Top 5 hit, “Round Here Buzz.” In typical Church fashion, he tried to include the state in the third verse, but quickly realized there aren’t too many words that actually rhyme with Iowa.

In case you forgot, the third verse is as follows:

“I never had big-city eyes
Hell, I’ve never been east of Dallas
Got no idea where you are now
Or if you ever got that penthouse palace”

During the performance, however, he fully committed to changing Dallas to Iowa, and it resulted in this hilarious reimagining.

“I never had big-city eyes
Hell, I was born in Iowa
And as you’re going through it in real time
You realize Iowa’s a pretty hard f****** rhyme”

Church would knock himself, telling the crowd, “Too slow,” before taking a second to laugh and diving straight back into the pre-chorus.

You have to love the fact that he can take a big swing and miss trying to change the lyrics of one of his biggest hits and laugh it off like that. It’s moments like these that reconfirm just how great of an entertainer he truly is… hilarious, mistakes and all.

Watch here:

@meggie0332Eric Church 9/27/25♬ original sound – Megan

Free The Machine Tour Dates

Oct. 2 || Detroit, Mich. || Little Caesars Arena || Marcus King Band
Oct. 3 || Lexington, Ky. || Rupp Arena || Marcus King Band
Oct. 9 || Indianapolis, Ind. || Gainbridge Fieldhouse || Marcus King Band
Oct. 10 || Grand Rapids, Mich. || Van Andel Arena || Marcus King Band
Oct. 11 || Cleveland, Ohio || Rocket Arena || Marcus King Band
Oct. 23 || Salt Lake City, Utah || Delta Center || Charles Wesley Godwin
Oct. 24 || Boise, Idaho || ExtraMile Arena || Charles Wesley Godwin
Oct. 25 || Spokane, Wash. || Spokane Arena || Charles Wesley Godwin

Nov. 6 || Vancouver, B.C. || Rogers Arena || Charles Wesley Godwin
Nov. 7 || Portland, Ore. || Moda Center || Charles Wesley Godwin
Nov. 8 || Seattle, Wash. || Climate Pledge Arena || Charles Wesley Godwin
Nov. 13 || Sacramento, Calif. || Golden 1 Center || Charles Wesley Godwin
Nov. 14 || Fresno, Calif. || SaveMart Center || Charles Wesley Godwin
Nov. 15 || Inglewood, Calif. || Intuit Dome || Charles Wesley GodwinThe post Eric Church Hilariously Fails Trying To Freestyle “Round Here Buzz” In Des Moines – “Iowa’s A Pretty Hard F’ing Rhyme” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.