AIR DATE: March 2021

SHOW THEME: Casey Beathard

 

ERIC: Hey everybody, it’s Eric Church back for the seventy-third episode of “Outsiders Radio.”  Just a few weeks to go before the release of “Heart & Soul.” Those of you in the Church Choir can expect your copy soon.  The making of this record was so much fun.  We recorded it in the mountains of North Carolina. Last month, we featured one of my songwriting buddies: Luke Dick.  THIS month, you’ll meet the man who was sort of the M-V-P of this album.  You’ll see his name on 12 of the album’s 24 songs: Casey Beathard.  He’s had songs on all of my albums, and we even wrote a few BEFORE my first album.  Here’s a song Casey & I wrote that was a single in 2005 for Terri Clark.

 

 

I wrote that song with my good friend Casey Beathard long before anyone heard of Eric Church.  Casey & I have written a lot of songs together.  He joined me in North Carolina in January 2020 to write some songs. 

 

Casey: It was presented to me as let’s go have fun and create, no pressure, just try to write a song in a remote setting near where he’s from in the mountains, in Boone, it was a beautiful place, the environment couldn’t have been better, the views, the quietness, everything about it, it felt like writing songs.

 

Casey: Up there, it was so beautiful, so awesome up there.  I like to take ideas in my head.  I went for walk, especially in those mountains, you talk about a hell of a view, that’s what came to me when I was walking that morning. So I came back to the room and grabbed a guitar and started playing, and that melody came to me before Eric came in. He walked in and I said what do you think of this? I think it was one of those things that just happened. Just the mountains, where we were, it’s hard not to get inspired. The Lord blessed us with such a beautiful setting it was hard not to write that song that day.

 

 

 

Gary Allan with an early song written by Casey Beathard, who’s our featured writer on Outsiders Radio.  You know a lot of Casey’s songs, and we’ll continue to play them in the show today.  Last summer, I put a single out called Stick That In Your Country Song.   I didn’t write it, and neither did Casey Beathard. It was actually written by Jeff Steele. But Casey had a lot to do with it getting on the album.  We’ll let him pick up that story.

        

Casey: Man I think I’m more proud of that one than any other song on that thing, and it shows you who Eric is.  They know what their fans love and they want to give them what their fans love.  Jeff & I were in the cabin one day, just talking. I go, you got anything you love? And he said I got this one song.  And he tells me about the song, and I asked him to send it to me. He sent it to me, and I was blown away.  I thought about it for 5 minutes, and I sent it to Eric. I said it’s great and it sounds like you.  He goes ‘I’m gonna cut it,’ and it was awesome. It was perfect timing, exactly what he wanted at that time.

 

 

 

Rodney Atkins recorded that song written by our featured writer Casey Beathard.  Here’s a little inside story about Casey.  Right before we did our writing retreat in North Carolina for Heart & Soul, there was a tragedy in Casey’s life:  One of his sons was killed.  That was on his mind the day we wrote “Doing Life With Me.”

 

Casey: That happened on a walk that morning. That was a special time for me, I was looking for a lot of answers on that mountain, I’d go on walks, and that was right after my third son went to heaven right before that. I was very emotional, life was on the forefront in my world, and I came back from a walk with that whole concept, it just happened, when you watch Eric get involved with his boys and his family too, we talked so much about what mattered, that time in North Carolina, it was folks centered around life and what matters. That’s where that song came from.  Nothing brought me down to earth like the tragedy that happened in my life. I want to make sure that the things that matter, I want to do it for the ones doing life with me. That just happened on a walk. The Lord just gave it to me on a walk. That was a gift, you know.

 

 

 

 

That’s Tucker Beathard, who is the son of our featured writer Casey Beathard.  Tucker is also the inspiration behind Homeboy, from Chief.  He was a teenager at the time.  You might wonder where songwriters get ideas for their songs.  Casey gets them from the important things in life, as well as a few good books.

 

Casey: I read a lot of the Bible, that’s what I do, and I read other books that are encouraging and life-type books. That’s what inspires me. But also just life, I’ve been raising kids so long, it inspires me in every thing I do, I get more in the middle of real life things of baseball, football games, at church. It’s a no-brainer to me, I put my life in real situations so much, you get to see real people and what matters to real people, and that’s what inspires me, just getting in the middle of life. My wife is not a big fan, most times I drift off in song ideas just watching it happen. I’m distracted by it constantly.

 

 

 

That’s the King: George Strait with a song written by Dean Dillon and my featured songwriter Casey Beathard from about ten years ago.  Earlier Casey talked about being “inspired by life,” and that’s the story behind a song that became a hit for Kenny Chesney: Don’t Blink.

 

Casey: That’s a hard song for me to sing, but I love doing it, it’s made a lot of impact in a lot of people’s lives. I remember my oldest was about to be 13. He was 12, so that was 15 years ago. I remember my wife was nostalgic and in a funk, and I asked her what’s going on. She says ‘CJ is about to be a teenager.’ I was thinking, wow, that went fast. So the next day I had a co-write with Chris Wallen, and he said he had this title and no one’s written it. The title is Don’t Blink, and I go ‘Whoa that’s exactly where I was last night with my wife, what happened, where’d the time go. We’ve gotta write that. That’s where I am.’ That’s what happened there.

 

 

 

 

Kenny Chesney and “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem,” written by our featured writer Casey Beathard.  We could play a lot more of Casey’s songs, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t have him tell his side of the story behind the song that inspired this radio show: The Outsiders.

 

Casey: That was cool, that was also done up in the mountains, but at a different time. That was a song he wanted to write, he had the title. I had a little cube amp, that had all these effects. And he was like, ‘What is that, that’s cool, I’ve got a song for that. I wanna write who we are, we are outsiders, going against the grain, and he went out and bought that amp and he & Jay mic’d up that amp to record that song. That’s how they made that record.

 

 

We’re really looking forward to the month of April for many reasons.  First of all, we’re releasing three albums in April: Heart & Soul, starting with Heart on April 16^th.  Two days later, we’ll have the Academy of Country Music awards, where we’re honored to be nominated.  So many exciting things happening, and we can’t wait for you to hear more of the new music.  As we wrap up this edition of Outsiders Radio, here’s a song nominated for ACM Music Event.  I’m Eric Church, we’ll see you next time on Outsiders Radio.