Eric Church released his new album, Desperate Man, on Friday (October 5th), and while he felt the need to make an album, he didn’t want to rush the process.

“Everyone approached this initially as we need to make an album. We have to make a record, and I don’t believe you can ever make a record when you walk in going, ‘I have to make a record.’ I don’t think it works that way. Ever. Historically,” says Eric. “I think you just have to get in there, you have to tune your guitar and play nothing for three days. You gotta vibe it. You gotta feel it. And I think one that we don’t do very well these days is we don’t just let it happen. We don’t let the creativity happen. And I think for this album, Mr. Misunderstood and this one in our entire career, have been the most creative albums. We just let it happen. We walked in with less of plan than we have in the past, and we let the plan develop.”

Eric will kick off his new Double Down Tour January 18th and 19th in Omaha, Nebraska.