Passing on some of his wisdom to the next generation.
It’s graduation season, and nothing makes me feel as old as seeing kids who were born when I was in high school graduating from college. It takes me back to my own college graduation and that sense of excitement that I felt when it was finally time to go out into the world and chase my own dreams. (Turns out my dreams led me to go back to school and get yet another degree, but you know what I mean).
Well the University of North Carolina held their 2026 graduation ceremony today, and the commencement address was delivered by North Carolina native and diehard Tar Heel fan Eric Church.
And it was unlike anything you’ve ever heard.
Church, of course, found a way to put his own – musical – spin on the graduation speech, and broke out his guitar to deliver some powerful lessons to the graduates.
Throughout the speech, Church used the instrument and its strings as a metaphor for life:
“When all six are in tune, the chords they make can stop a conversation cold, carry a broken person through the worst night of their life, or make a roomful of strangers feel for three minutes like they’ve known each other forever.
If one is off, the whole chord unravels. Not gradually, politely. The moment you strike it, you know. I believe your life runs on this principle.”
And according to Church, each string on the guitar represented a pillar that makes up who we are:
“String one, the low E, that is your foundation. The low E is the thickest string. It is the heaviest. Every chord a guitar can make rests on this string being in tune.
Your faith is the low E of your life. The thing that sits at the very bottom of you. Your belief about what this life is for, what you owe, what holds the universe together when science reaches the edge of its own explanation and shrugs. The people who tend to their faith in ordinary seasons do not come undone in extraordinary ones.
They still hurt, they still sit in hospital waiting rooms asking unanswerable questions at 3 in the morning. But they have a foundation to return to.
The world will try to untune this string through busyness, through slow accumulation of a full schedule, full inbox, a full life.
Listen to me: Tend to your faith, now just when you’re broken, but when you’re whole.”
Amen, Chief.
He then turned the focus to family:
“String two is family.
Look at these bleachers. Somewhere in that crowd is someone who has loved you longer than you’ve been easy to love. Someone who saw you at your actual worst, not your public-facing worst, and didn’t leave you. Someone who worked a job they didn’t love to put a book in your hands you sometimes didn’t open. Someone who sat alone in a quiet house and cried the weekend you moved into dorms and wondered, ‘Have I done enough?’
That is family. And the A string is where the magic starts to get warm. It gives a chord its body, its richness. It’s the string that makes you feel like you’re not alone in a room.
I want to warn you about something: You’re going to get busy in ways that feel important, and many are. Professionally ambitious, creatively alive, building the life you’ve been pointed toward for four years.
And family, because they love you with a grace you will spend most of your life trying to deserve, will rarely demand your time. They’ll tell you they understand, and they’ll mean it.
Do not take them up on it. Call your people, not when there’s news, not when there’s nothing. Show up when it costs you something. Let them see you when things are hard. The A string is not a holiday string. It’s an everyday string. Protect it.”
That one hits hard, and is a good reminder for us all. There have been plenty of times where I haven’t called or visited my family when I could have, for one reason or another. And now there are plenty of calls that I would give anything to have the opportunity to make. Don’t miss out on spending time with those who are really important.
Next, Church spoke about the importance of finding the right partner in life:
“The D string, the heart of a chord. On a guitar, the D string sits right at the heart of the instrument, in the middle of the low and high strings, giving the chord its body and its soul. Strike a full chord, and the D string is what you feel in the center of your chest. That is not an accident.
That is exactly what the right spouse and partner will do for your life. The person you choose to share your life with is the most important decision you’ll ever make, outside of your faith. They will either amplify every other string you’re playing, or slowly pull the whole instrument into an out-of-tune mess.”
Of course Church has been married to his wife Katherine, the mother of his two children, since 2008 – and he was quick to point that out. But he also shared wisdom about what to look for in a partner – and took a not-so-subtle shot at UNC’s rival:
“Find your best friend. Someone you want to talk to at the end of a long day. Look for shared values over shared interests. You don’t need to leave the same food or music. You need the same compass – though it would be a benefit if you both hated NC State.”
(Gotta be honest, I expected him to say Duke there, but he managed to sneak in a shot at them later).
Next Church turned his attention to the G string, which got some laughs from the crowd as Church joked that he “didn’t name the damn thing.”
“The G string drifts faster than the others on a guitar. I can promise you that. It’s true. I have dealt with it my whole life.
It’s because ambition and resilience both live on this string, and they pull in opposite directions. I want you to want things. You should want things. The world has more than enough people standing at the edge of their own potential waiting for a permission slip that was never going to arrive.
Want the thing. Say it out loud. Build toward it with everything you have.
And when you fail – and you will fail – Hemingway wrote it plainly, right in the sternum: “The world breaks everyone. Afterward, the best of us are stronger at the broken places.”
Get back up, tune the string, keep playing.”
Church then talked about something that this generation faces that others before didn’t have to worry about: Social media and the comparisons it invites. I’ll be honest, I’m thankful that social media wasn’t as big as it is now back when I was in college. We had Facebook, and there are some pictures out there that I wish weren’t on there, but we didn’t have to worry about living our entire life for the rest of the world to see. It’s a danger that Church warned about:
“Your generation faces a temptation no generation before has ever faced: The temptation to perform for everyone, and belong to no one. To be globally visible and locally invisible. To have thousands of followers and no one knows actually where you live.
Resist this. Plant yourself somewhere. Put down roots with the full intention of growing there. Learn the actual names, not usernames, of the people around you. Volunteer. Coach the team. Build the thing your community needs, even if the internet will never see it.
Generosity is not something you do after you make it. It’s how you make it.”
And he spoke about the importance of the community the graduates have built during their time in Chapel Hill:
“You will find yourselves, speaking from experience, high-fiving strangers wearing Carolina gear in far away airports, or staying up across time zones to catch the last moments of a game, or canceling a show in Texas to be with your people in the Final Four as you vanquish Coach K – you’re welcome – and having the ultimate pride knowing that’s the night my boys learned the Carolina fight song ends with ‘Go to hell, Duke.'”
I mean, you knew he would have to throw some shade at Duke in there at some point.
Finally, Church spoke about the final string of the guitar – the highest note, and the one that stands out above all the others – and the importance of not changing what stands out about yourself to conform to societal pressure:
“This is the thinnest string. It’s the highest note. The one that carries the melody, that single line above the chord that everyone in this room recognizes and takes with them on the way home.
It’s also the one bent most easily by outside pressure. Social media is going to show you a thousand versions of a life that looks better than yours. The comparison will be relentless, curated, and a lie dressed up in really good lighting.
Someone’s comments, someone’s criticism, someone’s cold opinion, is going to try to convince you to re-tune yourself to match what they think you should sound like. Do not let them touch your string.
You were made uniquely, wonderfully, distinctly. There’s a sound only you can make, a voice that has never existed before you and will never exist again. A contribution only you can bring, a way of seeing that belongs only to you.
The world does not need another cover song. It needs an original.”
Church ended the speech with his own original song, a tribute to his home state, “Carolina,” as the graduates celebrated and some wiped tears from their eyes.
It was a powerful speech delivered in a way that only someone like Eric Church could, and he did it the same way he’s made his career: A guy, a guitar, and a message to deliver.
