By Adam Lucas

 

FRESNO—Ten years in the music business is a long time.

 

Ten years in the musical touring business might be a lifetime.

 

And so, when Eric Church returned to Fresno on Friday night after a ten-year hiatus since his last show here (January 22, 2015), it was impressive that he’s still having the success that enables him to fill arenas like the Save Mart Center. The last time he was here, there was no Mr. Misunderstood, no Desperate Man, no Heart & Soul and no Evangeline vs. The Machine. It’s hard to even remember what a Chief show looked and sounded like without “Stick That In Your Country Song,” “Record Year,” or “Mistress Named Music,” none of which existed the last time he was here and all of which were on Friday’s set list.

 

But it’s downright amazing that in addition to his musical success, many of the same members of the crew were in Fresno Friday night who were here on the last visit. There are the faces you see on stage, of course. The Eric Church Band is still Driver Williams and Jeff Cease on guitars, Lee Hendricks on bass, Craig Wright on drums and Jeff Hyde doing a little bit of everything. Joanna Cotten was here on that last visit in 2015 and remains an important stage presence, because who else could perfectly mash up “Smoke a Little Smoke” with “Proud Mary”?

 

The faces you don’t see, however, are similarly unchanged. MJ Sagraves is still Church’s guitar tech. Todd Bunch is still managing tour logistics. In total, there are at least ten crew members who have been here at least a decade (the crew knows them as Michael Todd, Porkchop, Stoner, Sambo, William, MJ, Ben, Charlie, Brandon and Todd), and there are far more who have several years with Church than those who are relative newcomers.

 

In music, crew members bounce from tour to tour. There’s a very good reason why: if you’re not on tour, you don’t get paid. But once you get on an Eric Church tour, you usually don’t leave.

 

That’s partially for financial reasons. Church takes very good care of his crew, including paying them during COVID even when no tours were taking place, a highly unusual move that forever solidified the vast majority of his personnel.

 

But it’s also because you don’t leave a family. And a Church tour has become the closest thing you’ll find to a family on the road. Sometimes they argue, sure. Sometimes they roll their eyes at the dumb things other family members might do. Ultimately, though, they’ll all gather in catering to celebrate Kolin’s birthday (if you ever want to feel really bad about yourself, try singing Happy Birthday in a room filled with musicians) and they’ll enjoy a Thanksgiving meal before tomorrow’s show in Inglewood. Above all else, they will do two things: they will be the fucking best at their jobs…and they will laugh. Usually in that order, but not always.

 

Stage manager Sambo Coats sends out a weekly email reminding the crew of that week’s various arena setups and any logistical challenges. This week’s email included this line (along with a healthy dose of exclamation points, Coats’ signature punctuation mark): “Families agree, fight, laugh, struggle, work hard, play harder, we disagree, we get pissed off, we scream, we forgive, we learn from our mistakes, we move forward and most importantly we created something unlike anything else out there.”

 

It only takes a couple of weeks on tour to realize that this is different. Charles Wesley Godwin has been the opener for the last three weekends. In his career in music, he’s seen every kind of tour. But he’s never seen one like this. “When a tour gets this big, it’s easy for the culture to get away,” he says. “The culture comes from the top down. And it says a lot about Eric that our entire crew has noticed that everyone on this tour has fun, is incredibly friendly and respectful to us, and still makes sure everything happens exactly the way it’s supposed to.”

 

“It starts from the top,” Sambo says. “Before I even started with them, my mother was in the ICU in Mississippi dying of cancer. Eric and Katherine sent an entire Thanksgiving dinner to the hospital. I fed the entire floor with what they sent—every nurse, every family that was there. I hadn’t even started on the job yet. There is no wall I won’t move for them because of what they did for me. Everyone on tour knows that when we need them, they will show up for us.”

 

The tour runs in a way that makes you proud to be part of it—and, as a fan, proud to support an artist who has such a comprehensive outlook on what makes a successful tour. Sellouts, merch sales and standing ovations—absolutely. But there’s more to it.

 

At every single stop, catering director Bob Schneeberger—a 13-year veteran with Church—works with an organization called Musically Fed to identify a local charity that can utilize any leftover food. The catering crew packs the meals and a runner drops them off at that charity, and it’s not unusual that when Church comes to any given town, approximately 50 meals every night are going to those who might not otherwise have anything to eat. It’s not unusual for crew members to spot a kid at their first show or a family having fun and spontaneously hand out a guitar pick, set list or pit upgrade.

 

Security director Pete Martinez has worked on some of the biggest tours in the world. But he stopped looking for other tours when he landed with Church.

 

“On this tour, it doesn’t matter who you are,” he says. “As soon as you walk in here you are family. I’ve toured with the best of the best, and it’s not like this everywhere. We all bleed and sweat together, and the guys who have been here the longest are the first ones to welcome anyone who is new.”

 

How much does Pete believe in this tour? His 19-year-old son, Justin, is on the tour for the first time this fall. “He’s in a spot where he can do anything he wants in life,” Pete says. “And the opportunity for him to see what a family is like outside of your immediate family and experience the world is epic.”

 

And there’s no telling where he might go from here. It’s not unusual for crew members to work their way up through numerous positions. Ben Rigby filled several roles before taking over front of house before the Outsiders Revival tour.

 

“When I first started, I was a stage right PA,” he says. “And I was surrounded by guys like MJ and Sambo who were such huge characters but also so good at their jobs, and I remember thinking, ‘If this is what touring is, I want to be part of that.’”

 

And that is indeed what touring is, at least with Eric Church. It’s going off the set list (sure, why not add “Drowning Man” and “Like Jesus Does,” as he did Friday night) and late nights and early mornings and Halloween costume contests and football sheets and cake slams.

 

But most of all, it’s family. Sometimes that hurts. The crew still misses Marc “Earpy” Earp, who died in 2021 after nearly two decades with Church. He remains one of the most formative influences in Church’s live shows and touring crew. Jason “Sarge” Hudgens was a combat veteran and former police officer who died unexpectedly in December of 2024. It still doesn’t feel quite right to walk anywhere near the stage and not see him hard at work. “Sarge!” you could yell out, and he’d inevitably respond, “Yes SIR!”

 

Somehow you still feel the presence of both of them when you are at an Eric Church show. That’s just the culture. People are important.

 

One day there will be one of these stories written about Katherine Church, and she will absolutely hate it because she doesn’t want any of the attention. Until then, though, this is what you need to know about the family she and her husband have created simply by being themselves—by being people who take the time to invest in others and learn names and share a laugh with a crew member whether it’s their first show or thousandth show.

 

“If the people on the crew aren’t at their best, the show can’t be the best,” she said. “The whole reason we are able to do this is because God has blessed us to have the same people with us for so long. It takes so much to do this on the road. You have to have a road family you can lean on, and everyone has to have each other’s backs. I can’t imagine doing this without all the people who have our backs.”