Shows how much they know.
We all know how it goes when it comes to the music industry in Nashville. Everybody’s worried about who can make them the most money, and the actual music is often a distant afterthought as long as it sells. Especially in this age of TikTok and social media, if an artist has enough followers they can get a record deal whether they’ve ever picked up a guitar or set foot on stage or not.
And that’s not a new phenomenon. How many incredible artists over the years have you seen disappear because their label wouldn’t get behind them (I see it happening right now with some artists signed to major labels…not mentioning any names) while instead they choose to promote somebody who sings other people’s songs and look like they stepped out of a fashion magazine?
Let’s face it: Labels are good at making money, but they’re not always good at finding the best artists. And maybe that’s by design. What do they care as long as they’re making money?
But the result is some record execs looking pretty stupid when they pass up on an artist who then goes on to become a certified superstar – like the guy who passed on Eric Church.
Church is undoubtedly one of the biggest country artists of the past two decades. Put aside his 10 #1 singles, or the fact that he’s had two albums hit #1 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart. You can even put aside his Grammy nominations, his win for CMA Entertainer of the Year or his numerous ACM Award wins. But when it comes to not only filling arenas, amphitheaters and stadiums but also leaving his mark on country music and influencing the next generation of songwriters, Eric Church is in a league of his own.
Yet when he first got to Nashville, he was close to going back home.
Church has talked many times about moving to Music City and realizing that he wasn’t wanted on Broadway. He was a songwriter, and the honky tonks on Broadway were looking for bands to sing cover songs to drunk tourists. Not really his style, so it’s no surprise that it wasn’t a great fit.
But he quickly found a home just off Broadway, at the Fiddle & Steel Guitar Bar in Printer’s Alley, where he got to hang out with – and learn from – some of the greatest songwriters in country music. The guys who had written songs for the legends like George Jones and Waylon Jennings.
So when it came time to meet with the labels about a publishing deal, Church no doubt felt like he was up to the task.
The label execs. however, disagreed – and they weren’t afraid to tell him how they really felt.
Church recently sat down with Willie Geist for an interview on The Today Show, and during the extended interview released on the Sunday Sitdown podcast, Church recalled meeting with one exec who he thought was ready to sign him to a deal:
“I got the closest I thought I was gonna be. There was this guy, they were like, ‘Hey, we like what you’re doing, we’re gonna have a guy come down from New York, and we wanna sign you.’ And he flies in, and I think this is it. This is gonna be my moment.
And I walk in and I had four songs that are on my debut album, Sinners Like Me. And I’m feeling pretty good about ’em. I honestly was arrogant enough that I didn’t know which one I wanted to play first because I didn’t think I was gonna have to play two.”
But that’s not exactly how the meeting went:
“I play the first one, I’m like a verse in, and he kinda puts his hand up and I was thinking, ‘This is it. This is the moment. This is what you’ve been waiting on.’
And he goes, ‘Yeah I don’t like that. You got anything else?’
So we worked through this for like four songs, and he said, ‘I don’t know where you’re from, and I don’t really know what you did there, but I recommend going back and doing whatever that was.'”
Not exactly the reaction he was hoping for…
Well Church goes on to recall that he had, in fact, planned on going back home – but while he was sitting in the parking lot after the meeting he heard Kris Kristofferson’s “To Beat The Devil” on the radio. And he decided to stay one more day:
“The next day, I got signed to a publishing deal, as fate would have it. The next morning I went into a different meeting and played one song and got signed.”
He doesn’t mention it in this interview, but Church has previously said that the song that got him signed to a publishing deal was “Lightning,” which was later included on his debut album Sinners Like Me.
And the songs that the first guy heard and told Eric he should go back home? “How ‘Bout You,” “Pledge Allegiance To The Hag,” “Sinners Like Me” and “Two Pink Lines.”
Shows how much the labels really know…
