Eric Explains His Video Cameo

If you’ve seen Toby Keith’s video for “Red Solo Cup” (and who hasn’t), you know that it ends with cameos from some of Toby’s friends, including Carrot Top, Craig Ferguson, Joe Nichols, Sammy Hagar, Ted Nugent, and Eric Church.  Country Countdown USA’s Lon Helton asked Eric about appearing in the video: “When Toby asked me to do it, he said ‘It’s the stupidest song you’ve ever heard, but there’s something catchy about it.’  So I watched everyone’s part in the video, and that’s how I came up with my part.  My band made a smoking apparatus.  They told me the song would never see the light of day.  First they said they were never going to release the song.  Because it would never be a radio hit.  They were going to release it virally on the web.  So we made a smoking apparatus, and they filmed it, we put Smoke a Little Smoke on it, and that was it.  Then a week later, it was the single, it went to CMT and GAC and all over the internet, so it was funny.  The first time I saw it, I knew I was in trouble.”

LISTEN:  12-02 Eric3

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Lon asked Eric how they came up with the “smoking apparatus:” “What I love about my band & crew is we did this on the road in about an hour.  I came to them and said, ‘What have we got to make this apparatus,’ and they said ‘Give us an hour.’  We used parts of mics, tin foil, cups, pennies and quarters, it was incredibly well put together, and in fact it’s on my road manager’s desk.  It’s like become this collector’s item.  It’s American Ingenuity with a Red Solo Cup!”

Tags: eric, toby

Category: Audio, VIDEO