Eric Church sat down with us on Friday morning to talk about a number of exciting things, including his Academy of Country Music award for Top New Solo Artist. He's now nominated for Top New Artist, competing against The Band Perry in a fan-voted award. But the same weekend as the ACM Awards, the NCAA Basketball Final Four championship will take place in Houston. Eric said if his favorite team, the North Carolina Tarheels, make it, he will commute between cities.I’m a basketball nerd. Two years ago, when Carolina won the national championship, I watched it from a hotel room in Vegas. And here’s what broke my heart: I had a chance to have suite passes in Detroit, and I was stuck in Las Vegas. This year, I can get to Houston on Saturday, and get back to Vegas for the show on Sunday.
This is a unique experience because not many artists can go on an awards show having already won Top New Solo Artist. That takes a lot of pressure off. I like having won that award because we won it our own way. I’ve not had #1 songs. We’ve been different. I’m proud we got here, and I’m proud it’s fan voted. That’s why we won.
I’m competitive. I want to win every award a guy can win, then change to falsetto and win the Female Vocalist awards. I like The Band Perry, so it’s bittersweet that one of us will have to lose. I sent them a text and said, “I’ll vote for you if you vote for me.” The way I see it is I net two extra votes. But we get to play on the show and see what happens. I don’t make music to win awards, because if I have to change who I am to win awards, it’s a disservice to the music.
