When inspiration hits, you gotta take advantage of it.
And that’s apparently just what Eric Church did on a recent golf trip.
On an episode of the Fire Pit Podcast, Manning brothers Peyton, Eli and Cooper, along with some other guys on the trip, told the story about a golf trip to the 2022 Open Championship that ended with a song that Eric couldn’t just help but write – even though he tried not to.
Speaking about the song, Eric said:
“It was a place I’d never been in. I’d never seen terrain like that. We’re in a castle. It had just a vibe.
I didn’t mean to do it…I even tried to stop it. I thought, ‘No, no, I’m not doing this.’
And it just kept going. And it was late at night, and I was jetlagged so who knows what that means. But I got up and got out my iPhone and just started recording.
I had the full song by, you know, I sent it to some people the next morning.”
Ben Weprin, founder of boutique venture capital firm AJ Capital Partners (and one of Eric’s partners in his new Nashville bar, Chief’s) talked about Eric’s inspiration for the song – and waking up to a new song from Eric the morning after he wrote it:
“We got Tuesday night into Newcastle (Ireland). Eric had written a song that he was inspired by the mountains, and we went to Percy French, which he does what Eric does, and sent it to me and woke up and he had this song and I was like ‘Holy fuck.’
It was unbelievable too. Percy French is this writer and it was this name of our restaurant there, and he wrote this whole thing, which is like, he’s this cyborg. It’s insane.”
But one thing all of the buddies agreed on: This was out of character for Eric, who usually likes to disconnect from music and his career when he’s doing something else.
Says Peyton Manning:
“There’s no doubt about it, when Eric goes on a trip like that, the times I’ve been around him, he is there to get away from the music for awhile.”
And ESPN’s Taylor Zarzour agreed:
“I don’t have anybody in my life that’s better at being where their feet are than him. He doesn’t look at his phone for the longest amount of time. He’s not one of those guys that subconsciously texts and doesn’t even realize he’s doing it.
He is so present at all parts of his life and I’ve taken a lot from that. And he’s especially good at that when he’s disconnecting from his professional life.”
But sometimes, the inspiration just hits and you can’t stop it. And the result was a brand new song from Eric Church called “Ain’t The Only Ghost in Town.”
Check it out:
