Born in Granite Falls, North Carolina, Eric began writing songs of his own at the age of 13, later teaching himself to play the guitar. He started playing gigs at a local bar in his native North Carolina during his senior year in high school.
While attending college at Appalachian State, Eric formed a band, the Mountain Boys, that played around western North Carolina. They consisted of his college roommate, brother, and a fellow guitarist.
In 2001 he moved to Nashville with his sights set on being a songwriter, and he earned a publishing deal with Sony/ATV Tree. "I came here to be a songwriter," Eric told Billboard magazine, "I never really came to town to be an artist. I didn't know how to do it. But there were so many people in town that kept saying, 'We love this or that song, but it sounds like it's his.' When that started coming back time and time again we started thinking, 'Maybe we're going about this wrong.' That's when we started at least entertaining that I should be an artist."
His first Nashville job was for a Home Shopping channel, taking credit card numbers from callers on the night shift. Eric got fired after he was caught trying to talk the insomniac shopaholics out of what they'd phoned in to purchase.
When his career was getting started, Eric was forced to deal with heat from the stage lights drying out his contact lenses. He took to wearing aviators and as he began performing in larger venues, his sunglasses and Von Dutch denim trucker hat became his signature look.
Eric got fired from the Rascal Flatts tour in 2006 when he played an overlong set as the opening act at New York's Madison Square Garden. He was replaced by a teenage newcomer named
Taylor Swift.
He has been married to music publisher Katherine Blasingame since January 8, 2008. Their first child, Boone McCoy Church, was born October 3, 2011.
The title of Eric's 2011 album, Chief, refers to a nickname of not only the singer's grandfather, but also his own pet name among friends and family. "My grandpa was chief of police for 35 years in Granite Falls, New Carolina., but the cool part of the story is my nickname on the road is Chief," Eric explained to The Boot. "That's what the band band calls me. That's what everybody calls me, and my grandpa's nickname was Chief so it was kind of a full circle."
Eric Church and Katherine Blasingame's second son, Tennessee Hawkins Church, was born on February 15, 2015. The couple call him "Hawk" - Eric got the idea for the name literally from seeing one of the birds of prey. "Hawk was just something that kind of came to me," he explained to Country Countdown USA. "We have a bunch of property out west of town, and I was out there one day, and honestly saw a hawk, as weird as that is, and I called my wife, and said, 'Have you thought about Hawk? Because I'm imagining myself at 6 years old, and if that was your name, or your friend was Hawk, that's cool. It's a cool name. It's like a Top Gun fighter pilot."
Tennessee, Church added, is a name close to both his and his wife's heart but for differing reasons. "Well she's from Tennessee, so she loved it, and she's a Tennessee Volunteer fan too," he explained. "My meaning was different. I love Tennessee Williams, but also one of my favorite songs was by Don Williams, 'Good Old Boys Like Me,' it's got that line in it, 'Hank and Tennessee.' It's one of my favorite songs, so there's a dual meaning for me."
He's not a morning person, describing himself as a "crack-of-noon guy."
In the summer of 2017, a blood clot in his chest nearly killed him. The clot was caused by a genetic abnormality that left his first rib too close to his collarbone. It wasn't discovered until his arm started swelling and he went to the hospital. He was sent to Duke University Hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery and had that rib removed.
Eric Church's fans are known as The Church Choir.
Church led the charge to help out the North Carolina victims of Hurricane Helene, staging a concert in Charlotte with Luke Combs on October 26, 2024 that raised over $25 million for relief efforts. "The small communities that specifically make up Western North Carolina are these strong, independent, proud communities," he said at a press event before the show. "When the community next door is in trouble, you can count on that community to come help you. And in this situation, there is no community next door, it's all been destroyed. So what you're seeing tonight is, we are the community next door."
Eric Church has a lifelong condition that prevents his eyes from lubricating properly, causing painful dryness under stage lights. Early in his career, he would sometimes be half-blind during performances until a bandmate suggested he try wearing shades on stage. The trick worked so well that it became a permanent part of his image.
Church joked that living behind dark lenses makes the world feel like "a dive bar all the time" - and he's perfectly fine with that.
In 2024 Church and his buddy Morgan Wallen joined a group of investors to purchase the outdoors magazine Field & Stream, which halted their print edition in 2020. They rebooted the brand with various membership options and a twice-yearly journal. Church and Wallen have fond memories of reading the magazine when they were young - Church says his grandfather kept copies in his truck.
He opened a bar in Nashville called Chief's on April 5, 2024, and immediately started performing there in a one-man-show residency called "To Beat The Devil" that ran for 23 shows. The title is a reference to a
classic song by Kris Kristofferson, one of Church's favorite artists.
In 2018 his brother Brandon died at 36 from complications of chronic alcoholism. Eric was devastated, and while he rarely talks about it, he does sometimes perform a song about Brandon called "Church Boys" that he doesn't plan to record.
When he headlined the Stagecoach Festival in 2024 he played an acoustic set with a gospel choir, filling the setlist with lots of cover songs, everything from "Gin And Juice" to "Stand By Me." Fans hoping for a high-energy set of his classic songs were disappointed, and some walked out. For Church, it was a chance to try something different and push boundaries, and those who liked it really liked it. On his next album, Evangeline vs. The Machine in 2025, he kept the choir and stripped-back sound.
