Eric Church

Inspired by the traditional country of Merle Haggard, the outlaw leanings of Hank Williams Jr. and the hard rock of Metallica, Eric Church established himself as one of Nashville's most streetwise singer-songwriters. Born in Granite Falls, a small town in the foothills of the North Carolina mountains, to a teacher mother and furniture business owner father, Church first began writing songs aged 13 and spent much of his high school senior year performing a mixture of his own compositions and Jimmy Buffett covers at a local bar.

While studying for a marketing degree at Appalachian State University, he formed a band, Mountain Boys, with his brother and college roommate and after graduating, headed to Nashville to pursue a career in songwriting. Church soon landed a publishing deal with Sony/ATV, where he penned tracks for the likes of Dean Miller ("Whiskey Wings") and Terri Clark ("The World Needs A Drink"). But due to the personal nature of his material, he was encouraged by producer Jay Joyce to become an artist in his own right and the pair began working on demos which would eventually attract the interest of Capitol Nashville.

In 2006, Church reached the Billboard Top 30 with his debut album, Sinners Like Me, scored his first US Hot 100 hit with" How 'Bout You" and played the Grand Ole Opry for the first time. Church also developed a reputation as a country rebel in the same year when he was kicked off a joint tour with Rascal Flatts and Brad Paisley for playing too loud and for too long. Church continued to build on his early potential with 2009 sophomore effort Carolina, scoring two Top 10 country singles with "Love Your Love The Most" and "Hell On The Heart."

But after becoming the second artist to sign to the EMI Records Nashville imprint, it was 2011's Chief which catapulted him into the big league, topping the Billboard 200, selling 145,000 copies in its first week and spawning his first country number one, "Drink In My Hand," and his first mainstream Top 30 hit with the twice Grammy-nominated "Springsteen." Following a hit 2012 collaboration with Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan ("The Only Way I Know") and 2013's Caught In The Act, a live album recorded at Chattanooga's Tivoli Theatre, Church reached pole position for a second time with 2014's fourth studio effort, The Outsiders.