ERIC CHURCH'S CHIEF IS CELEBRATING ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY.

Artist: Eric Church

Eric Church celebrates the 10^th Anniversary of the release of his third studio album, Chief. The collection, which he says “changed his life,” produced five singles, including Eric’s first two No. 1 hits on the country charts, including “Drink In My Hand” and “Springsteen,” as well as the Top 10 tunes “Creepin’” and “Like Jesus Does” and the Top 20 “Homeboy.”

The title of the album was a combination of his nickname on the road, as well as his grandfather’s title as he was the Chief of Police in Granite Falls, North Carolina. “The initial inception was, my contacts would fall out, pop out on stage, and I would be blind for half the show, so I started wearing sunglasses. Then I put on a hat to stop the sweat and it just became this thing, and we got in bigger venues, I tried to adjust that, but people in the crowds would have on hats and sunglasses and wouldn’t let me adjust that, so it just became this thing naturally. So, that was show time, it was kind of my uniform. The band started joking with me, when I put the hat and sunglasses on, they go ‘Alright, its Chief time, Chief’s here.’ But I laughed about it, it was a joke,” says Eric. “But what they didn’t know, the really cool part of the story, my grandpa was the chief of police in Granite Falls, North Carolina, and everybody called him Chief. Everybody, my dad called him chief as his son-in-law, so it was just very neat to me, that across generations, it became my nickname naturally and nobody knew about it being my grandpa’s nickname, nobody. When it came time to title the record, because it felt live, and because it was something I wanted to show — a part of the live show, Chief was the right title from my point of view, but also because of my grandfather and what he meant to me.”

When it came time to record the album, Church had a sound that felt different from his first two releases, Sinners Like Me and the gold-certified Carolina. “This record, more than anything else I’ve done, is breathing and alive,” he says. “There’s a wildness to it. It’s untamed and not very harnessed.”

Chief Track List:

“Creepin” (Eric Church, Marv Green)
2. “Drink In My Hand” (Eric Church, Michael P. Heeney, Luke Laird)
3. “Keep On” (Eric Church, Ryan Tyndell)
4. “Like Jesus Does” (Casey Beathard ,Monty Criswell)
5. “Hungover & Hard Up” (Eric Church, Luke Laird)
6. “Homeboy” (Eric Church, Casey Beathard)
7. “Country Music Jesus” (Eric Church, Jeremy Spillman)
8. “Jack Daniels” (Eric Church, Jeff Hyde, Lynn Hutton)
9. “Springsteen” (Eric Church, Jeff Hyde, Ryan Tyndell)
10. “I’m Gettin’ Stoned” (Eric Church, Jeff Hyde, Casey Beathard, Jeremy Cradey)
11. “Over When It’s Over” (Eric Church, Luke Laird)

We're celebrating the 10 Year Anniversary of Chief the best way we know how. Shop the Exclusive Anniversary Edition Vinyl and Team Jersey beginning Monday with special giveaways and daily promotions all week! Follow Chief Merchandise on Instagram so you don’t miss anything! pic.twitter.com/yBpNFAOsCM

— Eric Church (@ericchurch) July 23, 2021

Eric is currently making his way up the country charts with his new single, “Heart On Fire.”

Eric Church (title of Chief) OC: …title to me. 1:25
“Well, Chief became my nickname on the road, really as a joke, um, for the last couple years, maybe 3 years now, we have been playing a lot of little bars and clubs and honkytonks where the lights are about a foot from your face. And I wore contacts, where this all started, the initial inception was, my contacts would fall out, pop out on stage, and I would be blind for half the show, so I started wearing sunglasses, then I put on a hat to stop the sweat and it just became this thing, and we got in bigger venues, I tried to adjust that, but people in the crowds would have on hats and sunglasses and wouldn’t let me adjust that, so it just became this thing naturally. So, that was show time, it was kind of my uniform. The band starting joking with me, when I put the hat and sunglasses on, they go ‘Alright, its Chief time, Chief’s here.’ But I laughed about it, it was a joke. But what they didn’t know, the really cool part of the story, my grandpa was the chief of police in Granite Falls, North Carolina, and everybody called him Chief. Everybody, my dad called him chief as his son-in-law, so it was just very neat to me, that across generations, it became my nickname naturally and nobody knew about it being my grandpa’s nickname, nobody. When it came time to title the record, because it felt live, and because it was something I wanted to show — a part of the live show, Chief was the right title from my point of view, but also because of my grandfather and what he meant to me. And I just thought it was the right title, and you know it happened so naturally, it happened so not thought out, you know. When I said the title of the record, I had to explain to everyone why, you know. They were going, ‘What’s chief?’ ‘Well, Chief’s a nickname.’ Then it became a cool thing when they heard about it being my grandfather’s nickname, too. It just felt like the perfect title to me.”

Eric Church (Drink in my Hand) OC: …play that one. :42

“‘Drink in My Hand’ is absolutely, when we wrote this song …we were on tour, this is a song that was written after the cabin, and we were out on tour. I think we were on tour with Miranda at the time, and I was on the bus with a couple of co-writers of mine, and we had just walked offstage and saw the crowd, saw our fans and saw ‘em put their beers in the air. You could just tell that they had worked all week and this was their moment to let all that wash away. And that was where the title was born from really. ‘Everything’s OK now, I’ve got a drink in my hand, and I’m relaxing and I’m chilling.’ That just became a really good song born from our fans. They’re the ones that inspired that, and it was on tour. It was on a tour bus, and I’ll never forget it. I’m happy it turned out the way it did, and I think our fans are gonna love putting their beer, or whatever they’re drinking, up in the air when we play that one.”