Remember When Eric Church Brought Lzzy Hale To The CMT Awards For “That’s Damn Rock & Roll”?

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Eric Church is never one to shy away from a statement.

Let’s put some context around this one…

The year is 2014. Country music is, to put it nicely, dabbling in other genres…

Guests at the 2014 CMT Awards included Jason Derulo, John Legend and Lionel Richie, and as a whole, the genre was quickly moving away from it’s roots and trying to become more like the Pop, R&B and Hip-Hop sounds dominating the radio and streaming of the time.

Some of top songs of the year were FGL’s “This Is How We Roll”, Jason Aldean’s “Burning It Down”, Dustin Lynch’s “Where It’s At (Yep, Yep), Thomas Rhett’s “Get Me Some Of That”, and Chase Rice “Ready, Set, Roll”. FGL has remixed “Cruise” with Nelly the year before and dominated the airwaves yet again and everyone seems primed to jump on the crossover wave they had started.

Except for Eric Church.

Church said something along the lines of “Yeah, I’ll bring someone outside of the genre too, but it ain’t in the direction you’re all heading. I’m bringing Lzzy Hale.”

Lzzy Freaking Hale.

For those who don’t know, she’s the badass lead singer and guitarist for Halestorm, the hard-rock/heavy metal band, since 1997. Even if that music isn’t your style, there is no denying this girl is a walking vocal powerhouse with overwhelming talent.

They performed “That’s Damn Rock and Roll,” which is already a middle-finger to the fakes and frauds of the music industry, but hit the nail right on the head when done in front of all these people playing the game and doing what the suits want.

I mean, come on… that is how to get your point across. No need for long-winded speeches or whiny comments, just a song that sums it up sung with another who’s not afraid to do it her way, and screw you if you don’t like it. They just do the dang thing and know that people will notice.

This is why we love the Eric Church. This is why we love Lzzy Hale and people like her. Real and true, no fluff and filler.

All. Hail. The. Chief.

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