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Eric Church: Wrong About Clemson, Right About His Music

Maybe He Should Stick to Music, Not Sports Predictions

Before Monday (Jan. 11) night’s 2016 College Football Playoff game, Eric Church had a few minutes to play catch and catch up with ESPN.

He predicted that Clemson University would beat the University of Alabama.

“I’ve seen both these teams play," he said. "I’ve been on the sidelines at Clemson, and I’ve been on the sidelines at Alabama. I’ve been in both locker rooms. I think that Clemson’s been building for this. I think Clemson’s got a great chance to win the game. For me, I’m gonna go with Clemson.”

Clemson did not win, but some good came out of the day -- namely, Church’s performance before the game.

And in his interview with ESPN before that show, Church talked about his decision of making an album without calling advance attention to its release.

“I didn’t go out there any hype it. This is the first interview I’ve done. But I wanted it to be about the music,” Church said of his November release of Mr. Misunderstood.

“You can never pick when inspiration’s gonna strike," he explained. "I hate where you’re told, ‘Here’s your window of when you make an album.’ It doesn’t work that way. I picked up the guitar and started writing, and one song led to another song. I realized I may have a record here. It chose its own path."

As for the way he distributed the music -- via snail mail to his fans first -- he said he was just trying to change the conventional way of doing things.

“The way the music industry works, the people who get the music first are the labels, the press, and radio. The last people to get it are the fans," he said. "We tried to reverse that.”

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