It’s timeless advice, and Ella Langley would be smart to keep it in mind as she continues on this rocket ship she’s on in her career.
She opened up a handful of shows for Eric Church on his Free The Machine Tour in February, and I’m sure it was a dream come true for Ella to open for a legend like Eric, and of course, she didn’t miss the chance to get some sage advice from one of country’s most successful modern artists.
During an interview on the radio show Country Countdown USA with Lon Helton no too long ago, Ella opened up about some of the advice Eric gave her about having longevity and success you can actually enjoy in the music business:
“He told me, ‘When this thing gets weird, make it about the music.’ He said, ‘I’ll never make another ‘Chief.’ That was it. You get one ‘Chief,’ and that’s what it is.’ Then he’s on to the next thing.”
He’s certainly speaking from experience… of course, Church fans will always know and love Chief, but Eric has evolved so much since then and continues to surprise fans with the types of records he has released, which speaks to his talent and artistry. To have the kind of longevity he’s had in the music industry is absolutely not easy, and I think the earlier an artist can figure out how to cater to their core fan base, while still evolving as an artist in the way they want to, is an incredibly tricky balancing act very few pull off and do it well.
Ella also talked about the really cool tour present she gave to Eric. It’s pretty customary for artists to buy their openers gifts, especially if they spend the majority of the tour together, but Ella flipped the script, so to speak, and got Eric a very special gift to commemorate their run of shows together. She happened upon an antique pocket watch from the 20s that had an “E” engraved on the back, which sounds like a really cool and unique gift which is probably unlike most other items in his accessory closet (which he probably doesn’t have, but you get the point):
“I randomly got him a pocket watch at an antique store. I gave it to him. It was like a pocket watch from the 20s, with a gold chain connected to a pocket knife. There was engraving on the back, and it was an ‘E.’ So that was cool.”
And during a recent interview with Katie Neal, Eric told his side of the story, saying he enjoyed being the “old guy” in the room and sharing some of his experience when he went through similar career growth:
“It was kind of fun to be the old guy in the room, as we started talking about advice and where she’s going and stuff. I’ve been there, and it was fun to just hang out with her. She’s great.”
Ella’s sophomore studio album Dandelion is already a smash hit, and Eric says he told her that things are going to “change quickly” after you have a hit album or song like “Choosin’ Texas,” so it’s important to always remember that the music is the most important thing. Of course, tons of other opportunities come when your career takes off the way Ella’s is, and Eric says it’s hard to get back to the music if you stray too far with other distractions, for lack of a better word:
“Um, your life changes. When you go from where she is and where I’ve been, and you’re struggling, you’re struggling, and you find something that kind of is like a rocket ship, things change quickly. All the outside noise becomes pressured noise and kind of what I said to her was, ‘You gotta keep it about the music, and what you want to do long-term.
Because you’re going to have a lot of opportunities to do things that take it away from that. And that’s just normal, and that’s great but the further you get away from your anchor there, the harder it’s going to be to get back to that. That was my advice.”
I mean, if there’s any artist I would be taking advice from, it’s Eric Church… as long as Ella keeps it about the quality of her music, she’s going to be more than fine, and I don’t ever see that changing.
Here’s a little bit of their performance of “New York State Of Mind”:
@rachelmcap New York State of mind 😍🤠🎤#ericchurch #ellalangleylive ♬ [Raw recording] Record playback noise 01 (3 minutes) – Icy Light
