Eric Church’s CMA Moment

Eric Church won the CMA Album of the Year for his Platinum-selling CD “Chief.”  But he actually walked in the arena with five nominations.  He told Country Countdown USA’s Lon Helton that he was starting to get the feeling he was going to lose every category: “We had lost twice by the time Album came up.  I was begining to think it wasn’t our night.  I was up for Single and Song, and you have that feeling.  If we’d had 20 nominations or no nominations, it doesn’t affect what we do.  I can’t control whether we win or lose.  So I was in a good spot sitting there going, win or lose…after you lose the first two, you start getting in a good spot, you have that talk with yourself that it might not be your night.  But my wife was the most interesting thing.  We hadn’t talked expectations.  When they said Album of the Year, she had a different body language.  So I could tell that SHE thought we were gonna win that win.  And then, I wish we’d won another one so I knew what that moment felt like, and I could thank some of the people I left out, because I really don’t remember what happened.  I remember high-fiving some people, and then I saw Willie Nelson, and maybe he has that affect on everybody if you look at him, but everything went blank.  Then I remember I walked backstage, and there’s this girl who takes the trophy from you before you do press, and I asked, ‘I didn’t curse, did I?’ She said, ‘I have no idea.’  I said, ‘Good, I don’t know either.'”

LISTEN: 12-51 Eric1

Have you gone back and watched the video?  “I have.  And I don’t remember much.  I remember thanking my wife.  The thing I liked is I didn’t think about it.  It just came from the heart.  But if I had one more shot, I think then I’d know what it feels like.”

Aldean won it the year before, did he say anything? “He said congrats.  We talked after the show, and the same thing with the year before, I thought he made the best record the year before.  So we chatted, said well deserved, and went off into the night.”

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Category: Audio