If this right here isn’t what country music is all about, then I don’t know what is.
Back at Country Radio Seminar 2015, Eric Church debuted a new song he was working on about Alzheimer’s.
“I’m gonna play something nobody’s heard and I’m still writing and I still write songs and I don’t know if it’ll ever be cut or anything, but I just wanna play something new.
When I was 10 years old my grandfather who the Chief album was named after, got Alzheimer’s which is a horrible disease. And the hardest issue I had with it was continuing to have a relationship when you see that person doesn’t remember you. And I was scared of it, I feared it, and this song addressed that.”
A gut-wrenching tune, especially for anybody’s who’s ever had to watch a loved one struggle through Alzheimer’s, Eric concluded his intro by saying, “not exactly a party number,” with a sarcastic grin.
Titled “I Know Who He Is,” the song was eventually cut (fantastically by the way) by William Michael Morgan for his debut album Vinyl. Casey Beathard is listed as the sole songwriter on the track, so it’s a little fuzzy whether or not Eric actually had a substantial hand in writing it, although he collaborates with Casey on a ton of stuff, including many of his new ones.
Either way, I know it’s not really his style to go back and cut old songs, but I would’ve loved to hear Eric record this song.
And no shade to William Michael Morgan’s version, it’s fantastic.
