Eric Church is the subject of the newest exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Eric Church: Country Heart, Restless Soul, which chronicles the country music singer/songwriter’s path to stardom, was unveiled on Wednesday evening (July 12) during an invite-only opening reception.
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“I have such respect, immense respect for this place, for this room that we’re in,” Church said in the Hall of Fame Rotunda. “For what’s been built here, not just in country music, but in all of music history. It is very special and very unprecedented. I am honored to be here.”
The exhibit follows Church’s journey from North Carolina to Tennessee to pursue a music career. Artifacts include his high school yearbook and acoustic guitar he played as a child as well as stage outfits, awards, tour memorabilia and handwritten lyrics to “Smoke a Little Smoke” and “Monsters.”
Eric Church: Country Heart, Restless Soul also shows Church’s influence and impact as a songwriter. The exhibit states that Church “wrote or co-wrote all but four of the nearly one hundred songs he has recorded and released.” It further highlights the artist’s “small, trusted network of songwriters,” featuring Jeff Hyde, Luke Laird, Jeremy Spillman and Casey Beathard.
“There’s not many people that know who they are and what they’re going to say like he does,” Beathard is quoted saying in the exhibit. In another display, Thomas Rhett credits Church for his own songwriting. “He’s one of the biggest reasons…that I wanted to write songs in the first place,” Rhett said.
Another artifact on display is the working bridge to Luke Combs’ “Does to Me,” on which Church is a featured guest. The song was written by Combs, Ray Fulcher and Tyler Reeve and a screenshot shows the lyrics typed on Combs’ phone. “This is the original bridge we text wrote the morning Luke was coming to sing the demo because we didn’t know we didn’t have one,” Reeve is quoted saying. “Obviously, ‘pile of things’ became ‘first fish catchin’ Zebco 33.’” Church recorded vocals for the bridge on the final cut of the song, the exhibit stated.
Props from the video for Church’s 2019 hit “Some of It,” tour memorabilia, awards, his signature Ray-Ban sunglasses and trucker hat, childhood photographs, and the purple suede jacket he wore when performing the national anthem with Jazmine Sullivan at the 2021 Super Bowl are also on display. Handwritten notes from Taylor Swift, George Strait and Bruce Springsteen also made the exhibit.
“This is an unbelievable honor for me,” Church added. “The people that I love and respect are here … and [those] very incremental to me being here. I will say that there is something to doing it your own way, and you can still get to where you want to go if you do it that way.”
Eric Church: Country Heart, Restless Soul runs through June 2024.
(Photos by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)
