AIR DATE: February 2019

Hey everybody, it’s Eric Church back for the forty-eighth episode of “Outsiders Radio.”  We’re also about six weeks into the Double Down Tour.  I hope you’ve been enjoying the live broadcasts of our shows here on The Highway.  We’re havin’ lots of fun with the tour this year, occasionally surprising fans with pit passes.  In fact the whole show is filled with surprises…there’s no hard set list, so the order of the songs changes every night.  You never know how the show will start, but we kicked things off in Minneapolis with this one.         

As I said, we love surprises out on the Double Down tour this year.  A few weeks ago, a group of fans were walking to our show in Boston.  A black limo pulls up along side them, the window rolls down, and there I am with pit passes for the fans.  In Minneapolis, a group of fans had seats way up in the nosebleed section.  I snuck up there before the show, and handed out some more pit passes.  So you never know.  You might get to meet me and see the show from the pit.  Then when the show starts, there are even more surprises.  Here’s my tour manager Todd Bunch with the backstage story from the Double Down Tour.

Todd: This is the first tour where video has been a huge element of the show. Eric has never been a big video fan. That’s why the video always looks different than any other act. Our video director is a very talented guy. The screens interact with the musicians I guess you could say. A lot of things going on, we’re using some new technology that hasn’t been done a lot with the screens & the video. Our show designer is one of the best in the business. I think when people see this show, they’ll be in total awe, it’s quite the production. If you’re a fan, it’s definitely one not to miss for sure.

Yeah we’re rollin’ across the country on the Double Down Tour.  Let’s put that aside for a bit and talk about some OTHER music news in the last few weeks.  The Grammy Awards show took place out in Los Angeles.  That same weekend, we were in Minneapolis.   Big congrats to Kacey Musgraves on winning the Album of the Year Grammy.  Not just Country Album (which she also won), but all-genre Album of the Year.  That’s hard to do.  Only a handful of country artists have ever done it.  Taylor Swift in 2010.  The Dixie Chicks in 2007.  And before that: Glen Campbell in 1969.  That’s it. 

Think of all the albums that have ever been released, and only four country artists have ever won the Album of the Year Grammy.  So hats off to Kacey Musgraves for sticking to her guns, making the album she wanted to make, and then winning awards with it.  Kacey was part of Kenny Chesney’s No Shoes Nation tour that I did back in 2013.  That was the year her debut album was released.  Now 6 years later she’s won a total of six Grammy awards, including 4 this year.  Here’s the Grammy-winning sound of Kacey Musgraves.

A pair of songs from the Grammy-winning “Golden Hour” album by Kacey Musgraves.  While we’re on the subject of Grammy Awards, the legendary Willie Nelson won his 9^th award this year in the category of Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album award for My Way.  That was his tribute record to Frank Sinatra.  Let’s get some Grammy-winning Willie.

That song won Willie Nelson his first Grammy back in 1975.  He’s picked up 8 more, plus the Grammy Legend and Lifetime Achievement Award.  What an amazing career.  We were part of an all-star tribute to Willie last month in Nashville.  I got a chance to sing with Willie & Kris Kristofferson…it was a moment I’ll never forget. 

Also there that night was Margo Price.  I’m gonna spotlight Margo now on Outsiders Radio, because she opened some shows for me in 2017, and she was nominated for Best New Artist at this year’s Grammy Awards.  She spoke with reporters before the Grammy show.

Margo: I was actually working in LA, so people started calling me at 5AM, and I’d stayed up til midnight west coast time, so I assumed the worst. Nobody’s calling me in the middle of the night unless it’s bad news. So I finally looked at my phone and saw we were nominated for a Grammy, and it was a complete shock, course I got on the phone with my mom, but the first call was from Jack White, who was filming a video with the Rocketeers, I’ve been a fan of theirs for years, they passed the phone around, it was surreal.

That’s Margo Price and a song from her debut album Midwest Farmer’s Daughter. Margo’s been getting a lot of attention in the Americana world, where she won their Emerging Artist award.  She was also nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy.  That’s a lot of attention for someone who doesn’t have big hit records.

Margo: The lines are a little blurred, when you pop on the radar of the mainstream, is what they say. I still feel a little bit underground, I’m on an indie label, I don’t have major money behind me, I’m really happy with the way things have spread, word of mouth, really organically in a lot of ways. 

That was the 2018 Song of the Year at the Americana Music Awards, done by Margo Price.  Margo opened some shows for me in 2017, and she’s become friends with a lot of country legends, including Loretta Lynn. 

Margo: Yes she’s been incredibly supportive of my music and my pregnancy right now, I was talking to her daughter Patsy Lynn about having a mom who toured all the time, she assured me that it would be fine because kids who grow up in this business don’t know any different. A week later, Loretta called me on the phone, to thank me for being at her album release, and she said, ‘Patsy said you’re thinking about having another baby. I just want you to know if you do, you can use Lynn as the middle name.’ So we’ve got the middle name picked out.  Nobody knew I was pregnant at the time. It feels like she’s the fairy godmother for us.

        Best country solo performance

That’s what a legend sounds like.  That’s Loretta Lynn and a song that was nominated for a Grammy this year.  Speaking of which, I noticed that Chris Cornell won a Grammy for Best Rock Performance.  I’ll never forget that we were on the Holdin’ My Own tour in Washington DC the day Chris passed away.  That night, we honored him during our show at the Verizon Center.

That was our tribute to the late Chris Cornell from 2017.  He won a Grammy a few weeks ago.  The bad news about him winning was that Halestorm was also in that category.  My fans will remember that Halestorm joined me on The Outsiders Tour in 2014.  Lzzy Hale remembered that tour when she spoke to reporters before this year’s Grammys.

Hale: He’s fantastic, he took us out as his secret weapon on that tour as he put it. First day of tour, he came in the dressing room and said, ‘Alright I don’t want you catering to the audience, nothing countrified, no ballads, I want you comin’ our swingin,’ that’s why you’re here.’ Apparently there was some uproar from some people, but all of his people said that’s why you’re on the tour. So we caused a bit of a ruckus. But it was fantastic, and just to be introduced to a whole different audience, and have this country guy, when you talk about validation, oh no, he’s into rock music and he wants that diversity in his show is very cool.

I’m Eric Church, and as we wrap up this edition of Outsiders Radio, I want to thank all of you who’ve come out to our Double Down Tour so far this year.  We’ll be out through the end of May…of course that’s the big stadium show in Nashville.  In the meantime, we have a new single out at country radio right now, so here it is.  See you next time on Outsiders Radio.