Eric Church Reflects on Watching Other Artists “Flying Past” Him Early in His Career

Eric Church didn’t find success immediately in his career. The country singer recently appeared on the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast, and recalled the challenge of watching other musicians surpass him in the early days of his career.

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“Early on, the thing that aggravated me is, we’re out there grinding and working hard, and I believe in our music, and I think it’s good, and then I’m seeing all these guys who have a hit,” Church said. “You don’t even know them now, but at that time, they were all flying past me and they were the new thing. They’d win the award, they would get nominated, all that stuff.”

At the time, Church said he took those situations personally, admitting, “I wore a chip on my shoulder for a while with that stuff.”

Eric Church Talks Healthy Competition

In retrospect, though, Church said he’s come to respect compeition.

“A lion knows a lion,” he said. “I know the ones that I’ve encountered that are good and are real, and I know the ones that aren’t. It won’t be long before the other people realize the same thing.”

The artists who are on his level, Church said, are “the ones that are fun to get there and mix it up with.”

“You actually look at him and go, ‘Yeah man, that’s a dude.’ It’s a good thing,” he said. “It’s a good thing when I go to make a record, or I go to write a song, I know that dude‘s out stalking around. That’s good. It’s a competition. It’s a good thing.”

Though he’s experienced success now, that doesn’t mean Church is free from career struggles. Instead, there are just new challenges to face.

“You’re going to go through that time when you have the number one album in the world. You have the number one song in the world. You have the number one tour in the world,” Church said. “And then 10 or 15 years later, you’re going to have a great album. You’re going to have a great song. You’re going to have a great tour. But it may not be the number one of all those things.”

Amid that situation, Church admitted, “keeping your s**t together can be tough for people.” That’s why, he said, “I respect anybody that does something for a long time successfully.”

Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research