Hey, guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast.

My thanks, as always, for clicking and listening along.

I am very excited to bring you my conversation today with one of the biggest stars, not just in country music, but in all of music.

His name is Eric Church. Big country star, of's not just in country music, but in all of music. His name is Eric Church.

Big country star, of course, for many years, and really transcended that in 2011 when he released

the album, Chief, which debuted at number one on the country charts, but also debuted at number

one on the Billboard 200. That's all of music. It went platinum

four times over. He's been selling out arenas and stadiums ever since. Comes from North

Carolina. Deep roots played music, loved music growing up. Also an athlete went to college at

Appalachian State in North Carolina where he played in a college band.

He graduated with a degree in marketing, considered another career, but decided it was worth a shot and went to Nashville.

When he got there, he had this kind of attitude you'll hear him talk about where he said,

you will listen to my sound.

It's different.

It's unique.

It's not like what's on the radio now.

And Nashville says, oh, no, we will not. So he struggled for a while, finally got a record deal,

started to put out a couple of albums that did well, pretty well, relatively well. You know,

he had some hits in the top 20, and then it was chief that changed everything. And you'll hear him

talk about why he thinks that

happened. Got a new album out right now called Evangeline versus the Machine. It's really good.

He's one of these guys who's just a musician. So it almost in some ways sounds like, I don't know,

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