Eric Church has been in the songwriting game for awhile. Before breaking onto the Nashville music scene with his 2006 debut Sinners Like Me, he had written for the likes of Terri Clark and Dean Miller. The “Drink In My Hand” singer has certainly put in the time honing his craft. Today, however, Church fears that songwriting is becoming a lost art in Nashville.
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Eric Church Says Today’s Artists “Skip” the Songwriting Process
Church discussed his early days as a songwriter during a recent interview on the How Leaders Lead with David Novak podcast. The GRAMMY nominee recalled introducing himself to a man who had written for some country heavyweights like Waylon Jennings and George Jones. The veteran songwriter took a liking to the “new kid,” introducing Church to “all the old dogs in town.”
“That was my workshop. That was my woodshed,” said the “Two Pink Lines” singer. Every day I would go write with these guys, and I got better, and I got better, and I got better.”
He continued, “And in those rooms they challenged every idea. They challenged every turn of the phrase, and it taught me how to look at things a different way than I would have if I had taken a different path.”
Today, many artists choose paths that circumvent the songwriting process altogether, Church said.
“A lot of new guys now, they skip that process,” he said. “They go on TikTok, they write a song, it’s out. They never go through the craft part. Is this the best that I could write this idea? Is this the best song that it could be?”
Why Church Couldn’t Get a Gig on Broadway At First
Eric Church is fiercely dedicated to originality. So dedicated, it turns out, that it almost cost him his career in Nashville.
It’s pretty standard fare that aspiring musicians have to pay their dues by singing other people’s songs when they first arrive in Nashville. But Church wasn’t looking to play covers.
“And I couldn’t get a gig on Broadway,” the “Homeboy” singer told CBS Mornings. “Nothing. I couldn’t even bartend on Broadway.
He continued, “They didn’t want original music. They wanted you to play whatever the songs were at the time. I didn’t really do that. I was a songwriter.”
Featured image by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
