When you think of Eric Church, you probably envision him and his signature look that’s usually brought together by a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses. He even has a song titled “Through My Ray-Bans.”
It’s part of the “Chief’s” persona now, thought it wasn’t always meant to be. Country fans might think that some marketing executive way back when said, “Let’s have Eric Church wear sunglasses, that’ll make him look cool,” but that’s simply not the case.
So why has Eric Church worn sunglasses throughout most of his career? As it turns out, the decision to sport shades indoors (and like the famous Corey Hart song, at night) is a very practical solution to a problem that Church experienced early on in his career, as he told Today’s Willie Geist on a recent episode of Sunday Sitdown:
“I wear contacts, and I’m 6’3”, so on these little stages they have these par can lights. I’ve always had a condition with my eyes where they don’t lubricate real well. It’s not a big deal… until you put a contact in and stand in front of par can lights. So every night, I was losing a contact, I was losing both contacts.
I was blind half the show. This went on for a while. Finally, one of my band members said, ‘Hey, have you thought about wearing shades tonight?’ Nobody cared. There were 15 people there. Nobody was at these shows. So my band member said, ‘Put the shades on.’ So I did it, and I kind of… it worked. I didn’t lose my contacts. It shielded the heat.”
Sometimes our idols and heroes are more like us normal people than we thought – just struggling with contacts and not wanting to wear glasses.
And even when he discovered the shades inside as a solution, the long-term plan wasn’t to keep them on forever. That being said, as Church continued to play more and more shows, and release more and more music, the shades became an essential item, and an accessory that provided him an extra boost of confidence.
Especially when his signature album Chief came around:
“It just started happening, and then I did it again. I would take nights off, you know? This wasn’t a thing. I didn’t go, ‘Hey, I’m gonna wear shades.’ I’d wear them a couple of nights, and if that worked, I’d take them off… then the contacts would pop out again. So I just started wearing them.
Overtime, it became a little bit of, I don’t want to say a cape. But it became a little bit of a cape. Because I was able to put the shades on, and after I’d play a couple of shows, (it signified that) it’s showtime. It gave me a different mentality. It gave me a different mindset.
And then it stuck, once Chief happened, then it was like (my thing). I’m the only guy that goes to the beach and takes my shades off. I become anonymous as soon as I pull them off. It’s the Clark Kent opposite.”
Of course, these days he opted for a more laid back approach, usually donning Wayfarers as opposed to his old school Aviators look. But like Eric Church said himself, the simple fix has now turned into a staple of the “Chief,” and it’s hard to imagine Eric Church without wearing his sunglasses up on stage.
He’ll certainly have them on when he fires up his Free the Machine Tour, which is set to kick off later this year.
Free the Machine Tour Dates
September 12 Pittsburgh, PA PPG Paints Arena
September 13 Columbus, OH Nationwide Arena
September 18 Philadelphia, PA* Wells Fargo Center
September 19 Boston, MA TD Garden
September 20 Brooklyn, NY Barclays Center
September 25 Green Bay, WI Resch Center
September 26 Milwaukee, WI Fiserv Forum
September 27 Des Moines, IA Wells Fargo Arena
October 2 Detroit, MI Little Caesars Arena
October 3 Lexington, KY Rupp Arena
October 9 Indianapolis, IN Gainbridge Fieldhouse
October 10 Grand Rapids, MI Van Andel Arena
October 11 Cleveland, OH Rocket Arena
October 23 Salt Lake City, UT Delta Center
October 24 Boise, ID ExtraMile Arena
October 25 Spokane, WA Spokane Arena
November 6 Vancouver, BC Rogers Arena
November 7 Portland, OR Moda Center
November 8 Seattle, WA Climate Pledge Arena
November 13 Sacramento, CA Golden 1 Center
November 14 Fresno, CA Save Mart Center at Fresno State
November 15 Inglewood, CA Intuit Dome
