Eric Church Writes Latest Hit With Artist He Once Name-Checked

By kncitom on July 26, 2018
eric church
(Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

In the title track of Eric Church’s last album, Mr. Misunderstood, there’s a line that references three different artists that, in the song, are influences to the young boy Eric is singing about. It goes:

Now, your buddies get their rocks off on Top 40 radio
But you love your daddy’s vinyl, old-time rock and roll
Elvis Costello, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and think Jeff Tweedy was one bad mother

All three of those names are real people; Elvis Costello of course is a punk/new wave legend, Jeff Tweedy heads an alt-country band called Wilco, and Ray Wylie Hubbard is a long-time Texas singer/songwriter most noted for writing an outlaw country classic in the 1970s called “(Up Against The Wall) Redneck Mother” for Jerry Jeff Walker.

Still following? Ok, good.

Ray Wylie, an artist most mainstream country fans probably have never heard of, had himself never heard of Eric, until someone told him about the Mr. Misunderstood. Over time, they got to know each other and became friends. Eric even brought Hubbard onstage in Dallas to sing another (hilarious) outlaw classic penned by Hubbard called “Screw You, We’re From Texas”.

When Eric told Hubbard he’d like to write with him, the 71 year-old said he jumped at the chance. The result? Church’s newest single, “Desperate Man”.

And their collaborative relationship isn’t stopping there: Eric appears on a track on Hubbard’s latest album, a song called “Tell The Devil I’m Getting There As Fast As I Can.”

No word if Church is planning anything with Costello or Tweedy but if he did it wouldn’t be a surprise, given how unafraid he’s always been to blur the lines of his musical influences.

His new album, by the way, is coming out Oct 5th, and you can read more about it, and the difficult emotional process he went through before writing it, here.

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