Nice little boost to the ego.
When you ask this current generation of country artists for their biggest inspiration in the genre, I think it’s safe to say Eric Church is going to be the most frequent answer you get.
Superstars like Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen, HARDY, Ashley McBryde, Lainey Wilson, Jelly Roll…ask any of them and they’ll cite Church as one of their biggest influences.
And you can add Conner Smith to that list too.
During a recent appearance on the Make It To Midnight podcast, Smith revealed that he considers Church his “king” and his roadmap for his career for the way that he’s managed to buck the system throughout his career – citing the surprise release of his Mr. Misunderstood album as an example of Church doing things his own way:
“Eric Church is my king. Church is like my roadmap for everything.
Do you know how many times he just bucked the system and just like made these crazy risks moves? Bro put out a whole album that his record label didn’t know about at one point. … He made a record completely in secret and then just mailed it to all of his fan club. And then the head of his record label called him and goes, ‘Hey, Eric, is there is there something you need to tell me?’
Like can you imagine how much he got yelled at? But he just kept taking those risks, and now you look at him he’s like, he’s every artist’s favorite artist, he’s got this cult following, he’ll play shows for the rest of his career. He’s so respected as a songwriter, as an artist, and so I always look at that, I’m like ‘Golly, he did it right,’ and it was just taking risk after risk after risk.”
@makeittomidnight The #1 reasons Eric Church is one of Conner Smith’s biggest role models in country music #nashville #musicindustry FULL EPISODE is out on all platforms!
And as it turns out, Conner had his own run-in with Church when the two happened to be playing the same festival a couple years ago.
As Conner recalls, he played earlier in the day, but hung around for the rest of the performances so that he could catch a free Eric Church show. But he wasn’t able to meet Church before his headlining set, because Church didn’t fly in until shortly before the performance.
Luckily though, Conner says that he had a crew member whose father was friends with Church, so he was able to watch the show from side stage:
“I’m standing side stage and I see him for the first time kind of come around the corner about to walk on stage. And he’s got his guitar strapped and he’s way taller than you think, bro. He’s like 6’4″. Especially in those boots, man. He’s like a stud. He’s got his Ray-Bans on and he kind of looks over our way, just gives a little smirk and walks on stage. And I’m just standing there the whole time. And I’m just like, dude, this, this is it.”
Conner calls the show “the best show ever,” and afterwards he decides to shoot his shot and try to catch up with Church:
“He walks off stage and immediately walks down to the bus. And my buddy’s like, ‘Hey, follow me.’
We end up kind of catching him right before he gets on the bus. And I shake his hand. He’s looking at me through his Ray-Bans.
He said, ‘Eric Church.’ I said, ‘Connor Smith.’ He looked at me, bro. And just like piercing me through his eyes. And he just paused and he goes, ‘I like what you do.'”
Not a bad thing to hear from your idol, as Conner admits how much it meant to him to receive the compliment from Church:
“That marks a man, bro.”
@makeittomidnight @Connersmith says he became a man the day he met Eric Church and I think we all would have the same reaction if we were in his shoes too. #ericchurch #countrymusic
The 25-year old up and comer first went viral with his song “I Hate Alabama” back in 2021, which landed him a record deal with Valory Records, an imprint of Big Machine Records. During his time on a label, Conner had his biggest hit with “Creek Will Rise,” which peaked at #22 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart back in 2024.
But recently, he decided to walk away from his record deal and start releasing music independently so that he could release songs at his own pace instead of being tied to a label’s release and promotion schedule.
Sounds like a pretty Eric Church move to me…
