Gave him quite the welcome to Music City.
We’ve heard stories before about what a legendary host Eric Church is: Remember Luke Combs recalling his first visit to Casa de Church that ended with the “Hurricane” singer puking in the street?
Well apparently iconic sportscaster got the full Church experience when the country music superstar reached out to him out of the blue when he first moved to Nashville.
Nantz and Church recently sat down with Chad Mumm on the Vanity Index Podcast where the two recalled the first time they met – and the epic welcome that Church arranged for Nantz when he moved to Nashville five years ago.
According to Church, mutual friend and business partner Ben Weprin informed him that Nantz was moving to town, so Church decided to reach out:
“He had just moved to town, and a buddy of ours, a mutual friend, said ‘Jim’s here,’ and we reached out. We actually went to – I have some property there and we picked you up in the bus and we went fishing at my land. I grilled out, we cooked, had dinner, we talked, we laughed, had a great evening and we hit it off from there.”
And Nantz says he couldn’t have been more impressed with Church’s hospitality:
“Out of the blue, I got a text from him saying, ‘Hey, I heard you moved to Nashville. You might be looking for some friends. Love to get together. You, Ben, come over to the house whenever it works for you. Love to have a chance to catch up.’
Now, who does that? Yeah. Welcome to the neighborhood who rolls out the red carpet like that. Especially when you’re talking about a legend like Eric. And yeah, he’s he’s a special guy and a wonderful friend.”
Nantz and Church are teaming up this week for the inaugural Storytellers Member-Member at Tepetonka Club in Minnesota, where Church’s whiskey brand Whiskey Jypsi serves as the official whiskey partner. And as it turns out, they make a pretty good duo together on the links: They’re undefeated as golf partners.
During the conversation, Church also spoke about his passion for golf and trying to get in a round while he’s out on the road:
“It’s hard because our shows are long. But I do try to sneak out and play when I can. A lot of times I’ll go into a city the day before we play and I’ll try to play and and here’s the great thing. I’ve got two boys and my oldest son who’s 14 has really gotten pretty good at the game. So now when we go to – he doesn’t care whether I have a three-hour show. If we’re in a city with a great golf course and I happen to can get us on there, he wants to go and he wants to play.”
Of course, some cities are better for golf than others, and Church also discussed his favorite cities to tour in that also have great options for golf:
“I would say one one of the best music towns for me my entire career has been Minneapolis. It’s been a place I could come. The there’s a bar here called Cabooze and it’s in downtown Minneapolis. And when I didn’t have bus money, gas money to get from town to town, we would play Cabooze over and over because that’s the place that would always sell out. So to have this [golf course] here in this area’s really special for me.
Boston, great sports town, but also a great music town, has always been really great to me.
And then for me, there’s always that going home kind of show. And whether it’s Raleigh or Greensboro or Charlotte, just to be back in North Carolina is always a special one to me.”
A great golf partner and even better host.
