Eric Church Reveals The Six Most Important Songs Of His Career – And “Springsteen” Isn’t On The List

It may be his signature song, but it’s not one of the most important.

Of course Eric Church has a lot of “signature songs” at this point. That’s just what happens after two decades, 8 albums, and a fanbase as passionate as the “Church Choir” who know all of the words to every song.

There’s no doubt that each song he’s recorded has special meaning to Church in one way or another – especially given the fact that he’s had a hand in writing all but a handful of songs that he’s released over the years. (The actual number is five…extra points if you know which five those are without looking it up).

But there are certain songs that mark a turning point in an artist’s career, or songs that mean a lot to you whether they end up being commercially successful or not, that end up being just a little more important to you than the others.

Now, most casual country music fans probably think of “Springsteen” as the most important song of Church’s career. It’s by far his biggest hit, spending two weeks at #1 and having been certified 8x platinum so far. It’s the song he closes his show with, and the song fans expect to hear when he performs.

And along with the Chief album on which it lives, “Springsteen” helped rocket Church to superstar status, giving him his first #1 album and moving him into the conversation of the biggest names in country music.

But Church doesn’t consider “Springsteen” one of the most important songs of his career.

On the heels of the release of his latest album Evangeline vs. The Machine, which highlights the battle for the creative soul that goes into making music, Church was asked by the Grammys to name the six most important songs that he’s released. Some of them were important for professional reasons and some were more personal, but they all played an important part in shaping not only Eric Church the artist but also the man behind the aviators.

“Lightning”

This one’s not really a surprise, because if you’re familiar with Church’s story you’ll know that “Lightning” from his 2006 debut album Sinners Like Me was the song that scored Church his first record deal.

It also came at a time when Church was ready to leave Nashville and give up on music altogether. As he explained recently on the Sunday Sitdown podcast, Church recalled meeting with one exec who he thought was ready to sign him to a deal:

“I got the closest I thought I was gonna be. There was this guy, they were like, ‘Hey, we like what you’re doing, we’re gonna have a guy come down from New York, and we wanna sign you.’ And he flies in, and I think this is it. This is gonna be my moment.

And I walk in and I had four songs that are on my debut album, Sinners Like Me. And I’m feeling pretty good about ’em. I honestly was arrogant enough that I didn’t know which one I wanted to play first because I didn’t think I was gonna have to play two.”

But that’s not exactly how the meeting went:

“I play the first one, I’m like a verse in, and he kinda puts his hand up and I was thinking, ‘This is it. This is the moment. This is what you’ve been waiting on.’

And he goes, ‘Yeah I don’t like that. You got anything else?’

So we worked through this for like four songs, and he said, ‘I don’t know where you’re from, and I don’t really know what you did there, but I recommend going back and doing whatever that was.'”

Not exactly the reaction he was hoping for…

Well Church goes on to recall that he had, in fact, planned on going back home – but while he was sitting in the parking lot after the meeting he heard Kris Kristofferson’s “To Beat The Devil” on the radio. And he decided to stay one more day:

“The next day, I got signed to a publishing deal, as fate would have it. The next morning I went into a different meeting and played one song and got signed.”

That one song? “Lightning.” So it’s not really any wonder he considers it one of the most important of his career.

“Smoke A Little Smoke”

Another song that’s not really a surprise to see Church mention is “Smoke A Little Smoke” from his 2008 sophomore album Carolina.

At the time, Church had some minor success with the radio-friendly singles that his label had chosen to release to radio, but it wasn’t enough to keep the label happy – and he has admitted that they were thinking about dropping him.

But Church had been playing “Smoke A Little Smoke” at his live shows, and saw the crowd reaction to the song:

“They were tearing the walls down.”

But the label wasn’t keen on releasing a stoner anthem to radio (remember, this was 2010 – the first state didn’t legalize marijuana for recreational use until 2012).

Church stuck to his guns. In fact, he did more than that: He threatened to walk from the label if “Smoke a Little Smoke” wasn’t released as his next single.

“I went to the label, I said ‘This is what we’re putting out, or I’ll never make another album. I’ll never record for you again.’”

And when they were put in that position, they didn’t have much choice. But they did have a warning for Church:

“It’s your funeral.”

Well “Smoke a Little Smoke” became his next single – and despite the fact that the song’s radio performance was unremarkable (and there were radio stations that refused to play it altogether), sales of Chief’s music spiked and he was able to prove to the label that his musical instincts were correct.

In fact, it’s because he was right about “Smoke a Little Smoke” that Church says he was able to have the freedom to do what he wanted with the next record, Chief, which is still his best-selling album to date.

“Holdin’ My Own”

Unlike the others on his list so far “Holdin’ My Own,” from Church’s 2015 surprise album Mr. Misunderstood, wasn’t even released a single for Church. So it’s not because of what it meant to him professionally that makes the song one of the most important of his career, but more about how it was able to capture his journey throughout the years: