Eric Church Explains Why He's 'Holdin' His Own'

Eric Church wraps up his Holdin’ My Own Tour this weekend with shows in Louisville (Thursday, May 25th) and a two-night stand in Nashville (Friday, May 26th and Saturday, May 27th).

He’s had a blast doing his own thing without a support act these past few months, but he feels that perhaps with his career path, he shouldn’t be able to play that long without a bunch of charted hits. However, that’s not the case, because his fans know every word to every song he’s ever put on record.

“People say, ‘Why…why are you playing three and a half hours?’ And I say, ‘Because we shouldn’t be able to, if you look at our career, if you look at our success.’ There was some article, and currently right now Paul McCartney is playing about 37 songs, we’re playing 37, 39, I think [Bruce] Springsteen’s playing 32 and Garth’s playing around 30. Okay, so let’s take those people – Springsteen, McCartney and Garth, [laughs] and then we’re in that. We’re way, way the outlier there, if you look at the success and you look at who they are and the records and one’s a Beatle, for Christ’s sake, and you take all those together,” Eric explains candidly. “But the fact that people have bought so much into the albums and I can play ‘Carolina’ and it’s as big as another song, or I can play ‘These Boots’ or I can play ‘Pledge Allegiance to the Hag’ or I can play ‘A Lot of Boot Left to Fill’ and I can play these songs, and they’re just as big – or ‘Sinners Like Me’ – as the stuff that was on the radio…or bigger in some cases, right? So, that’s what shouldn’t happen, and the fact that it is, I think I owe it to the records and I owe it to the fans that have made it a part of their life to play that long and to play those songs, because again, we shouldn’t be able to [even] play 90 minutes, but the fact that we can go do that and have the kind of show is the reason, that inspires me and makes me want to play that long and play that kind of show.”

He’ll take a break from the road for the most part this summer, and then return with a handful of dates this fall with two of his favorite acts, Brothers Osborne and Ashley McBryde.

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