Eric Church leads the list of CMA nominees this year with five. He’s up for Male Vocalist, Album for his platinum-selling Chief, as well as Single, Song and Video of the Year for “Springsteen.”
The 46th annual CMA Awards will broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena November 1st at 8pm ET on ABC.
AUDIO: Eric Church talks about making his platinum-selling album, Chief.
Eric Church (making of Chief) OC: …its heartbeat. :59
“We have built our career on the backs of our fans. We have not cared what else was going on around us. The other thing, we went and played shows, and we have given those fans the keys to this vehicle, and we said, ‘Drive it!’ And they have told people about it, and they’ve spread the word, and they’ve preached that gospel, and they’ve just become an army out there. This record when we made it, it needed, for me, to sound like a live show. It needed to sound like we had recorded it live, like you were watching something that we didn’t rehearse, that we didn’t think out. And there’s so many tracks on this record, where I am interacting with the musicians, because I am in the room with them, and either I will sing a melody line or the guitar will be playing a melody line, and we’ll pick up on each other, and it will turn into this little jam moment. And that is where the magic happens. We didn’t plan it, we didn’t talk about it, there’s as much unrehearsed magic on this record as we’ve ever had. There’s a lot of mistakes on it, and I think that’s part of a live show. We mess up every night live, and we talk about it after a show. We left it on this record. Those mistakes are in there, and I think that’s what gives it its heartbeat.”
AUDIO: Eric Church explains what the song, “Springsteen,” means to him.
Eric Church (Springsteen) OC: …my favorites. :44
“The interesting thing about this song is it has probably less to do with [Bruce] Springsteen than it is about what’s happening at this amphitheater up on the lawn. I had this experience. If you’ve had this experience, no matter whether you stay together or don’t stay together, when you hear that person’s music whether it’s Springsteen or anybody else, you always think of the person you were with at that show. And I have that. I just thought it was an interesting story about two people falling in love at a concert, and for the rest of their life that’s the soundtrack. That artist is the soundtrack to their love, to that time. I just love that. It makes me feel 17 again every time I hear it, and I think that other people feel the same way. It’s just a track that I’m very, very proud of. It might be my favorite on the record. I mean, I go back and forth between a couple, but that’s one of my favorites.”
AUDIO: Eric Church is shocked at receiving the most nominations for this year’s CMA Awards.
Eric Church (CMA nominations 2012) OC: …get this done. 1:13
“I really don’t know what to say. The funny part of the story is I’ve been on vacation for the last week and I lost my phone in the Gulf of Mexico when I was swimming. And I had no clue that even the CMA nominations were today and just landing on an airplane, and really just been unplugged and not paying attention to what’s going on in the world. I got whisked to my management office and they had a screen up that said we were the most nominated artist, so I’m still a little bit in shock. I’m truly speechless. I think it’s a testament to really fans that believed in the music and loved the music and told people about the music. Otherwise, we don’t really have really the track record to be the most nominated artist at this point in time in our career for the path that we’ve taken. I think it’s truly because of the fans and because they did something that’s, I think, really going to be judged as pretty special and pretty unique that we were able to get this done.”
