Gonna need a studio version of this one.
About a week ago, Eric Church debuted a brand new song called “On the Road” during a benefit show in North Carolina.
He told the crowd he wrote the song earlier that day, inspired by his life traveling the country on a tour bus:
“I was thinking about, I’ve got this picture in the back of my bus of Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson, and it was the last time Merle Haggard ever walked off stage. He died right after that.
I was looking at it, and I didn’t plan to do this, but this being a special thing, I thought about my life on the road. And I was on the road at the time. So this is a new song. It’s called ‘On the Road.'”
And last night during his show in Noblesville, Indiana as part of his Outsiders Revival Tour, Church closed out the concert with the new song once.
“On the Road” is a clearly personal song for Church, talking about some of the experiences he’s had in his career – both the good and the bad:
“I’ve seen the devil stop a show in Vegas
I’ve seen those angels get their forever wings
I stood on stage with Kris and a red-headed stranger
And I’ve played the last show in Texas with the King
Livin’ my dreams I know
On the road I’ve come far
Rode in a thousand towns writing on my guitar
On the road, they say it never ends
But I know one day I’d do anything to do it all again
On the road”
The song also falls in line with Church’s recent comments that he made about what he wants to do once his Nashville bar, Chief’s, opens later this year, when he said that he wanted to play raw, acoustic shows that focus on real-world themes like the loss of his brother and the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting:
“I want to do a show that talks about Vegas. It talks about my brother. It talks about things in my life. I’m not going down there to play ‘Drink in My Hand.’ It’s going to be stuff that’s very raw, very real, and it’s just me onstage.
It’ll be Church on Broadway.”
If this is a taste of what he’s got up in sleeve, I can’t wait.
