Eric Church has released his new live album, Caught in the Act, and the collection was sitting at number-one on iTunes the day of release. The North Carolina native, who picked up the ACM Award for Album of the Year for Chief on Sunday, says the title, Caught in the Act, perfectly describes how they recorded the album. “We wanted it to be as loose as it could be because that’s what our career has been. It’s been real,” says Eric. “I remember…like an hour before that first show of myself and the band, two hours maybe, we pulled out a sheet of paper and we took out a pen, and we went down and made a set list. We didn’t know what we were starting with. We didn’t know what we were finishing with. We just went down and said ‘Hey, what do you want to play? What do you want to play? Hey, man remember, we haven’t played this in a long time.’ There were songs that I thought there’s no way I’ll get through that but our sentiment was let’s try it. Let’s go for it.”

“I think that with the Caught In The Act, it was very much you had to catch it because it may or may not have happened. It was just one of those things that it was so by the seat of our pants and off the cuff that it may or may not have worked,” adds Eric. “We could have easily recorded this, filmed this and came to the end and went ‘This isn’t good.’ We could have done it. We treated it that way. It wasn’t overthought. It was let’s try to see if we can create this environment that the magic and the music can mesh together.”

The compilation includes selections from his previous three albums – Sinners Like Me, Carolina and Chief. Eric is currently heading up the country charts with his latest single, “Like Jesus Does.”

AUDIO: Eric Church explains why his live album was titled Caught in the Act.

Eric Church (title of live album) OC: …came from. 1:10
“With Caught In The Act we tried not to make too much of a deal about ‘Hey, we’re setting up here. We’re making a live record.’ We wanted it to be as loose as it could be because that’s what our career has been. It’s been real. I remember we have some footage like an hour before that first show of myself and the band, two hours maybe. We pulled out a sheet of paper and we took out a pen, and we went down and made a set list. We didn’t know what we were starting with. We didn’t know what we were finishing with. We just went down and said ‘Hey, what do you want to play? What do you want to play? Hey, man remember, we haven’t played this in a long time.’ There were songs that I thought there’s no way I’ll get through that but our sentiment was let’s try it. Let’s go for it. And I think that with the Caught In The Act, it was very much you had to catch it because it may or may not have happened. It was just one of those things that it was so by the seat of our pants and off the cuff that it may or may not have worked. We could have easily recorded this, filmed this and came to the end and went ‘This isn’t good.’ We could have done it. We treated it that way. It wasn’t overthought. It was let’s try to see if we can create this environment that the magic and the music can mesh together. And that’s where the title came from.”