By Ryan Gueningsman

When everyone in Nashville goes right, Eric Church wants to go left.

Considered a newcomer by industry standards, the North Carolina native has actually been in Nashville for six years. And, he came to Music City not to be a singer, but rather a songwriter.

“For me, it’s kinda cliche, you know, everybody talks about ‘it all begins with a song,’ which is quite literal for me, because the songwriting led me to the record deal. And, don’t get me wrong, I always wanted that, but I just didn’t know how to do it,” Church said recently.

The key song that led Church to the record deal was a cut by Terri Clark called “The World Needs a Drink.”

Around the time that song was cut, he was introduced to producer Jay Joyce, and the two clicked. Church landed a record deal with Capitol Records Nashville shortly after, and set to work making his first project with Joyce – even though Joyce had never produced a country album before.

“I’m a guy that, when everyone in Nashville goes right, I want to go left,” Church said. “I want it to sound different, I want it to be different. I’m too creative to make the record that everybody else is making.”

Pretty strong words from someone still in the beginning stages of his career in country music. But, that’s Eric Church – he’s not afraid to tell it like it is.

“We got probably as close to failing on this project as you can get,” Church admitted. “We used a guy who never produced a country record, we used half the musicians who never played on a record, the other half were record guys, and we stuck them all in the basement of a studio.

“We did everything where most people would do the other thing, and the only reason that this record sounds the way it does, and sounds alive and has the energy, is because we got that close to falling on our face. It was one more step and this thing would have unraveled, but we got just close enough where I think that’s where the energy and breathing and the life of this record comes from.”

For coming that close to failure, Church’s first offerings from “Sinners Like Me” have been a breath of fresh air on country radio stations nationwide.

“How About You,” “Two Pink Lines,” and his most recent single, “Guys Like Me,” have all done well for Church on the charts. Even with the depth of his debut album, Church is continually writing new material.

“I’m always writing – I’m always being a songwriter,” he said. “I can’t turn that off, that’s who I am.”

Church said his fans can probably expect two more singles off of “Sinners Like Me,” because of the depth the album presents.

“The old joke is that you spend your whole life making your first record, and six months making your second,” he said with a laugh. “For us, we wanted to make sure that we really took care of record one, and really want to show people that kind of depth there.”

As for what those next singles might be, Church isn’t sure yet what they will be.

“I knew when we did this, that ‘How About You’ was gonna be first, ‘Two Pink Lines’ was gonna be second, and, if I had my way, ‘Guys Like Me’ would be third,” Church explained, adding he’s not at the point yet to decide the follow-up single to “Guys Like Me.”

“There’s about five songs competing for those two spots,” he said. “I’ve decided to just kind of wait until the time comes, and not try to over guess that right now, but it’s time to maybe come and show more of a ‘meatier’ or ballad-type thing – we’ve kinda hit people three times with tempo.”

But, songs that lean more toward the ballad category, are a bit hard to come by.

“There’s only three on the record, so it’ll be one of those three,” he said.

One of those ballads, “The Hard Way,” in particular, stands out in true Church fashion – telling it like it is. Church co-wrote that with two other guys. Three songwriters combined three separate experiences, and it worked.

“I was the second verse of that song – the girl and having the diamond ring,” Church said. “The first verse was one of the guys who wrecked their car, and the third verse was the only guy who had lost his dad. It’s very rare that you have a song idea that you can pull three different people’s experiences into the same idea.”

The song, which talks about things in life so many people have gone through, proves that everyone has lessons that they learned the hard way.

“I’m the kind of guy that, I don’t think I learn anything until I learn it the hard way,” Church said. “It was a cool experience for me, songwriter -wise. It was a really cool song to be a part of.”

Church said he actually came to Nashville to be a songwriter, and didn’t think having a recording career was attainable.

“I mean, I didn’t know how to get a record deal, but I knew I could be a songwriter, and make a living at that,” he said. “If it all went away tomorrow, and I could still write songs for a living, that’s fine with me because that’s my passion and that’s what I do.”

Looking back at the past year, and the success he’s had, Church considers himself very fortunate, and said he’s been lucky enough to play on some large tours – performing in front of an estimated 35 million people.

“It’s been a pretty unbelievable year for us,” he said. “We were out with Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the confirmation for me was we did about 20 dates with Bob Seger. That was it for me. I’m a huge Seger fan, and have a huge respect for him and the Silver Bullet band.”

Not one that usually gets nervous before his shows, Church said he had “some kind of nerves going on” before his first Seger show in Cincinatti.

“Normally, the band calms me down, you know, backstage before the show, they’re calm and we’re joking, but this particular night, I knew how much we all respect Seger, and I walked in that room and took a look at my band, and they were just as nervous as I was,” Church said with a laugh. “It meant a whole lot to us. I’ll never forget that night in Cincinatti, after we were done, watching Seger come out and seeing the response from the crowd – I got goose bumps, and I do that for a living. It’s very rare you get to see a legend come out and get a glimpse into what it was like.”

Church said he and Seger have similar music styles, and someone gave Seger a copy of Church’s album. Seger liked it, and asked him to open some shows for him.

Even with opening for some pretty powerful entertainers, and having just as powerful of a debut album of his own, Church admits he was disappointed when the nominations for the Academy of Country Music Awards came out recently, and his name wasn’t among the nominees.

“I’m not gonna lie to you, I want to win ‘em all, so there’s some disappointment, but the same time, I can’t worry about that,” Church said. “All I’m worried about is keeping my head down, and taking the music to the people, and I think that stuff will come. I think that comes in time. If you take care of the crowd, and you take care of building your fan base, and you take care of the radio side of things – if you do all those things – it’s inevitable, at some point and time, those things come.”

Right now, Church is taking pride in making a record that could win album of the year.

“You can have all the entertainers you want,” he said. “Album of the year is the one I’m after, so hopefully some point in time, we’ll be able to do that.”

He figured that nobody’s going to sound like a better Kenny Chesney or Tim McGraw or Alan Jackson than Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, or Alan Jackson, and there’s just no way he can beat them at that game.

“I’m going to get beat doing that,” he said. “So, the only thing I know how to do, is going off in my own direction, and being the best Eric Church I can be.”

And being the best Eric Church is the premise and purpose of “Sinners Like Me.” He hopes his debut will continue to develop a sound and try to carve out a niche in the industry that’s a little different than everyone else’s niche.

“I’m very, very proud, and very happy where we are,” Church said. “We definitely have a sound, and definitely have fans who have been very receptive to the sound.”

He is quick to give credit to those fans, and said he has the most passionate fans in the industry.

“I will say nobody, and I don’t care how big the fan bases are, nobody has more passionate fans than we have,” Church said. “I’ve been in the industry awhile, and just in the past three weeks, I’ve seen five Eric Church ‘Sinners Like Me’ tattoos. I have kids tattooing stuff on themselves – that’s something that I don’t take for granted. It was a really humbling thing. I had one radio guy ask me if I thought that’s crazy, and I said absolutely not, it was such a flattering thing to think about what that kid is saying. That kid’s saying ‘you’re my guy.’”

Church said he has a busy year coming up, including doing some tour dates with Dierks Bentley and Miranda Lambert for Bentley’s Live and Loud Tour.

“We’re doing kind of our own thing this summer,” he said. “There’s a lot of fairs and festivals. In fall, there are a couple options, but we’ll probably end up back with Dierks. It’s going to be a busy year, but a year that I have high expectations for.”

He said Minnesota has always been a strong market for him, and said he has a very good fan base here.

“It’ll be fun,” he said about playing at Winstock. “I can’t wait to get there.”

Eric Church called for a pre-Winstock interview the morning of April 3, while in Nashville, where he was preparing for an evening show at the Grand Ole Opry.

Church will perform at the Winstock Country Music Festival in Winsted Saturday, June 9. He is scheduled for a performance at 4:55 p.m.

For more information on Winstock, visit www.winstockfestival.com, or call 888-946-7865.

For more information on Eric Church, visit www.ericchurch.com.

Ryan Gueningsman is at ryan@hjpub.com.