Travis Tritt Ain’t Buying Eric Church’s Cancellation Excuse
If it wasn’t for “the slap,” the biggest story in all of entertainment last week would have been Eric Church choosing to cancel his sold-out show on Saturday, April 2nd at San Antonio’s AT&T Center so he could watch the Duke Blue Devils take on his North Carolina Tar Heels in the NCAA Final Four. It was the first time in Final Four history the two teams squared off against each other, though they play each other every year.
Eric Church wrote a letter to his fans explaining he wanted to experience the once-in-a-lifetime moment with his family, and later booked a makeup show, though in a much smaller venue (still waiting on details of how that will work). The gamble paid off for Church in one respect. The North Carolina Tar Heels ended up winning. If they had lost, it might have resulted in even more second guessing.
But public sentiment on the matter still remains very mixed among many country music fans, and even some artists. Late Saturday night (4-2), the always-opinionated Travis Tritt chimed in, letting folks know where he falls on the matter.
“FYI – Over the years I’ve missed friends and family’s weddings, funerals, family reunions and a bunch of other events I would have loved to have attended because I was booked for shows,” Tritt said. “I don’t think I could ever get by with canceling a show because I wanted to watch sports.”
And Travis Tritt was not alone from the performer class. Though Jason Aldean was not nearly as direct, he recently said, “This is a tricky question because Eric is a friend of mine. I’m a diehard Georgia Bulldogs fan, and Atlanta Braves, so I understand somewhat where he’s coming from. I don’t know that I could cancel a show to make it to a game. I feel like people are buying a ticket to see your show, you kinda have to hold up your end of the deal on that. But I know Eric’s a huge basketball, Carolina fan. And I don’t want to dive into that too much, but I don’t think I would feel good if I did that so I don’t know if I could pull it off.”
But some artists came to Eric Church’s defense. Fellow North Carolinian B.J. Barham of American Aquarium said, “Y’all ever called into work to take a personal day? Explain the difference. You let your employer down. You let your coworkers down. You let your customers down. Genuinely curious why straight job folks have normalized personal days, yet a musician is vilified for doing it.”
B.J. Barham later clarified, “Please don’t confuse my understanding of his actions for condoning his actions. It was a selfish move, but as a sports fan, I totally understand the move.”
What’s for certain is this issue will be talked about for years to come, and will go on Eric Church’s permanent record, evoked by detractors whenever his name comes up. Hopefully though, it doesn’t result in a new era of excuses for concert cancellations that are already more common after the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Monday (4-4), it was revealed rapper Kanye West has dropped out of his performance slots at Coachella for undisclosed reasons, and j over a week before the two-weekend festival was set to transpire. Kanye was the main headliner for the event that is seen as the flagship festival for popular music.
April 4, 2022 @ 10:42 am
A full-time musician has the rare honor of being able to do a “job” few get to, and most dream of. PJ and Church can suck it.
April 4, 2022 @ 10:46 am
When I take a personal day, 20,000 other people aren’t inconvenienced — financially or otherwise.
April 5, 2022 @ 3:19 pm
I agree. It reminds me of the time my son lost his pilots license after he blew a 0.38 in a breathalyzer before a flight. He was unable to fly, which inconvenienced the several 100 passengers on the plane.
April 5, 2022 @ 5:21 pm
Yeah wow basically the same thing…
April 11, 2022 @ 7:15 pm
Spoiled!!!
If you ain’t a man of your word you ain’t squat.
Church you made a big mistake, you probably hurt your listeners & fans and soon you will find out that country music fans are the best until you let them down, then they’ll you to kiss their …… Well y’all get the picture.
April 4, 2022 @ 10:49 am
Damn, who’d have thought Jason Aldean would display more integrity than BJ Barham on any issue at all?
April 4, 2022 @ 10:52 am
Aldean has a right to speak out on this. He had to hurry off-stage when his fans were shot out in that Vegas mass shooting. If anyone should feel a sense of pride about “showing up” it’s him, regardless of what I think of his bro-country music.
April 4, 2022 @ 11:08 am
That is actually a very good point that I had never thought about until just now.
April 4, 2022 @ 2:32 pm
I think both of their points are made with integrity. Thats why this is such a complicated issue
April 5, 2022 @ 5:43 am
Yep – Barham’s “This is insanely selfish. I also get it.” is a pretty great summation, for my blood.
And it’s worth noting that Barham doesn’t support either team – he just understands what the game meant in North Carolina.
April 5, 2022 @ 8:32 pm
His catalog might be 50/50 but at least he’s not afraid unlike 95% of mainstream country artists to stand by his political leanings.
April 4, 2022 @ 10:50 am
Hell must have frozen over — I agree with Travis Tritt on something. And I disagree with BJ on something. Canceling a big show is not the same as phoning in sick to miss a day. If Church missed a band rehearsal, fine. This isn’t that. If I had a big customer meeting on a huge deal, and called in sick because I decided to go to a basketball game, I would get flatblasted by my employer. And rightly so.
Also, again, Church didn’t even go to NC. GTFO of here man. Not even your alma mater! Lame. He’s entitled to do whatever he wants. But he can’t be surprised when people call him out on it. Street goes both ways.
April 5, 2022 @ 5:49 am
Read the second BJ tweet.
Also, a shorter version of your second paragraph would be “I don’t know anyone from North Carolina,” haha.
I know Duke alums who support the Tar Heels, haha.
April 5, 2022 @ 6:56 am
So my thoughts are that he should give everyone who had tickets to that show a refund. He should then do two free shows to make it up to the ticket holders. It’s only fair. Then we could call it the celebration concert. You know, since his team won.
April 5, 2022 @ 9:22 am
Exactly. My husband freelances for live TV sports/events crews and the deal is, if you have to miss a day you need to find yourself a qualified replacement person. Otherwise, no excuses unless you are really, really sick. And even then you need to try to find another person to do your job because you can’t do a live TV show with no audio.
But in Church’s case there are no replacements for a star. So, unless you are really sick or your tour bus crashed, you show up.
April 5, 2022 @ 9:51 pm
I agree with you about the cancellation (although it didn’t make me mad enough to have “cancelled” Eric Church, if I listened to him in the first place). I wouldn’t have done it, as it strikes me as unprofessional. I do disagree with you on one thing – that since UNC is not Eric’s alma mater, he shouldn’t need to attend the game. I am from West Virginia, and while I didn’t attend WVU, I’m a big fan like everyone around here. When I lived in Kansas I rooted for the Jayhawks – I didn’t go to KU either. I’m sure Eric was a UNC fan since childhood. Whether he attended the school doesn’t have much to do with being a fan.
April 4, 2022 @ 10:50 am
Also the example PJ provided shows how mentally deficient he is. Your weekend isn’t ruined when you go to Starbucks and Jessica called out sick. It is ruined if you planned a weekend after your 40 hour work week to see a Country artist and they cancelled the show. “Sorry Eric Church or PJ Bottoms or whoever called out today, but the Neil Mccoy is working today instead.”
April 4, 2022 @ 11:03 am
The BJ Barham quote just floors me. He’s “genuinely curious?” Ok. If I took a day off on short notice, it would be OK as long as nothing critical was going that day that required my presence. And it would be understood that it wouldn’t impact any time near turn deadlines that I had. But if I took off a day on short notice where my presence was critical for whatever was going on that day, my reputation would take a major hit.
April 4, 2022 @ 11:17 am
BJ also tweeted- “Please don’t confuse my understanding of his actions for condoning his actions. It was a selfish move, but as a sports fan, I totally understand the move.”
April 4, 2022 @ 12:05 pm
**when you role play living in another decade so hard you forget digital recording is universal now. Huckin Fipster
April 4, 2022 @ 12:21 pm
Also, I think BJ was just trying to play a little Devil’s Advocate here.
The reason I included BJ Barham’s quote on the matter is because I wanted to illustrate both sides of the perspective so people could come to their own conclusions. It wasn’t to throw him under the bus. I’m a little surprised at the vitriol going toward BJ. He shared his opinion, but it was Eric Church who cancelled, not BJ. I don’t know an instance when American Aquarium has cancelled a show for spurious reasons. BJ’s one of the hardest touring guys out there. He’s also one of the most opinionated, kind of like Tritt, which means he’s used to receiving his own backlash for things.
April 5, 2022 @ 7:32 pm
Barham is catching it because his “understanding” of it and how he worded it shows a cluelessnes toward a typical fan.
I just missed work Monday to see Clutch out of town Sunday night. Had a non refundable room. I had to make sure this worked with my jobsite and have another guy available to run subs. If I’m lucky I can do this 3 times a year. It’s a big deal to a lot of fans.
April 4, 2022 @ 11:18 am
Go Heels@@
April 4, 2022 @ 11:30 am
Travis Tritt and Jason Aldean can both get bent. They’re both douchebags of the highest order.
April 4, 2022 @ 2:07 pm
e.c. trumped them in the douchebag dept.
April 4, 2022 @ 9:14 pm
Church gets the D-bag of the Decade award.
April 5, 2022 @ 10:57 am
Not at all. Tritt and Aldean are still much bigger douchebags than Church.
April 11, 2022 @ 12:54 pm
Settle down Beevis. We’re picking on Eric right now.
April 4, 2022 @ 11:39 am
Jesus Christ, we supposedly love and admire these folks, but look how quickly we turn on them. No wonder so many artists are suffering from substance dependence and mental health crises. It’s time to let this one go.
April 4, 2022 @ 12:04 pm
That’s not why substance abuse is a problem. Often it’s to either to stay awake, or come down from the “high” of being onstage and receiving all that energy from the audience. Choices have consequences. The only people that isn’t true for is children.
April 4, 2022 @ 1:46 pm
The argument that a life spent on the road and away from one’s home, family obligations, etc… doesn’t wear down artists and contribute to social problems is clearly wrong. And of course the intense pressure from fans, and the mindfuck of how quickly adulation can turn into castigation. I don’t know that I’ve ever consciously listened to a single Eric Church song, so I don’t know anything about him, but I truly feel for a guy who does one thing for himself, and suddenly is torn to shreds, from people to who profess to love country music. It doesn’t add up. Maybe people already dislike him and this is just a reason to pile on. At any rate, it says much more about the people criticizing him than it does about Church.
April 4, 2022 @ 8:01 pm
Um, I’d argue he turned his back on quite a few fans. People plan vacation days, hotels and whatever else around shows. Then there’s the fact that for a lot of people, probably their first big plans for 2 frigging years and to get canceled over someone wanting to watch a college basketball game? That’s crappy.
April 4, 2022 @ 8:19 pm
For one tickets are outrageously expensive and for another some people have to travel to see some shows. It’s not as simple as just calling into work. He chose this job, just do it!
April 5, 2022 @ 3:33 pm
He knew when the playoffs were, why did he schedule a show at that time. How about all the average hardworking people who planned to attend his concert also had other expenses than the concert tickets. Then he thinks doing a free concert in a smaller venue in a different town makes it right. Getting their money back is only a part of many other expenses. You can’t compare calling in sick for an average person. The average person doesn’t make the money he makes in one night. He was beyond selfish. I’m not a fan of his, but if I was I would never go to a concert of his ever! Just my opinion.
April 5, 2022 @ 9:58 pm
While I don’t agree with his cancelling the show, I wanted to say in Eric’s defense that while you can know when the playoffs will be, you cannot know who will be playing. Duke and UNC have never before faced each other in the NCAA Final Four. I guess he could have left that date open “just in case, but this was a pretty big “just in case.”
April 4, 2022 @ 11:40 am
I was wondering, do you think he reached out to the venue to maybe see if they could pull the shoe off at maybe 1 or 2 in the afternoon and then he could have just taken a jet to new New Orleans and easily made the game. I bet at least 80% of original ticket buyers could have done this. I am sure most people were within driving distance or flew in the night before to enjoy the city for a weekend.
April 6, 2022 @ 7:09 am
On the fans side, if something better comes along at the same time as his concert they can’t cancel their ticket & expect a refund. Just saying.
April 4, 2022 @ 11:42 am
Merle Haggard had a clause in his contract that if it rained on an outdoor stage within 24 hours of a show, he didn’t have to play, no questions asked. He could just cancel. Within 24 hours.
Church gave more notice than that.
I bet Church’s critics on this probably don’t have a problem with that.
April 4, 2022 @ 12:12 pm
On it’s face I have a problem with it. Can you provide a source? My first guess for the reasoning would be for safety issues due to electrical shock. I am curious.
April 4, 2022 @ 1:22 pm
Merle Haggard situation was contractual. If the venue didn’t agree with the terms they would not have booked Merle. And I agree that was about safety. Church not only let down his fans but he also screwed the venue that was counting on revenue from concession sales, T shirt sales, parking etc. And of course there are all the folks that were going to work the event and didn’t get paid. So bad form all round. He’ll never get booked in that venue again. And other venues are taking note. Having worked at a music venue for years my experience tells me that there was most likely a financial clause for cancelling so late for a non legitimate reason. So not only is his reputation being compromised but that hit him in the wallet. And I sure do hope he paid his band and crew.
April 4, 2022 @ 3:22 pm
Was Church’s stage outside? Was watching ball games included “in his contract”
April 4, 2022 @ 4:25 pm
The venue knowing that can also take an insurance policy related to weather out then as well. It probably isn’t really an option now or completely unaffordable but Wimbledon took out pandemic insurance in 2002 I believe it was after sars virus in Toronto and in case of future cancellations. It cost them 2 million a year and got finally paid 138 million when it was cancelled in 2020.
The venue wouldn’t be able to take out an insurance policy on him just cancelling to go do something he enjoyed.
April 4, 2022 @ 5:50 pm
I wouldn’t walk across the street to see Eric Church if it was free !
April 4, 2022 @ 11:46 am
Who is Travis Tritt? He’s a singer?? I think he is playing at the Appleby’s by my house this Friday.
April 4, 2022 @ 11:48 am
Barham’s comments on this and the Turnpike Troubadours situation really shows that some musicians are idiot savants and only qualified to sing.
Eric Church isn’t a normal guy. 17,000 people dedicated time and money to attending his concert. Missing events is the price of being a successful musician. In exchange for that burden, they are rewarded with legions of devoted fans, financial security, and fame.
April 4, 2022 @ 12:08 pm
I think Les Paul and Brian May are two good examples of why, once again, you are absolutely wrong. Good try Princess!
April 4, 2022 @ 12:09 pm
While cooking rice in a microwave no doubt.
April 4, 2022 @ 12:47 pm
I’m willing to bet it’s because of ticket sales. This show wasn’t sold out. Where I live (this was years ago) Eric Church sold out one night and added another. When the other show didn’t sell out, he said someone was ‘sick’ in his crew and they cancelled the show the night before. He has a history of doing this.
April 4, 2022 @ 12:47 pm
Then this backlash should be no different for BJ. If he admits his point was wrong, all this will dissipate. When one wears the hat of an “intellectual” the blowback is gonna be harder when they have a dumb opinion.
April 4, 2022 @ 1:47 pm
Yes, but someone’s opinion is different than someone’s action. Sure, when you share that opinion publicly, you’re subject to backlash and ridicule. Trust me, BJ knows this as much as anyone. I’ve made my opinions clear on this matter. But I also feel like it’s important to highlight other people’s perspectives. That’s all that happened here. Disagree with it, but let’s not act like BJ is somehow complicit or responsible for Eric’s cancellation.
April 4, 2022 @ 12:57 pm
My Grandpa Patty was born in 1866. He worked six days a week his entire adult life. If he “called in sick” it was because he was dying or already dead… and his job didn’t even impact that many people. He would be disgusted if he heard about this today.
April 4, 2022 @ 1:03 pm
Boys,boys…..
April 4, 2022 @ 1:06 pm
Something must be in the air when a Country performer misses a gig to watch a black-coached team.
April 4, 2022 @ 1:08 pm
MY great-grandparents couldn’t take ANY days off because they were slaves.
April 4, 2022 @ 1:22 pm
Do you want the reparations for suffering that wasn’t yours via cash or check?
April 4, 2022 @ 2:18 pm
@CountryKnight.
That was a totally uncalled for comment.
Below the belt, & disrespectful. It would be the gentlemanly thing to do, to apologize for that comment.
April 4, 2022 @ 4:31 pm
Apologize for what? A witty comment written in response to the original non-sequitur?
The poster has trolled the comment section for months with those types of race baiting posts. He has another one just above it.
What is the point of his comment? Some of my ancestors are Slavic. “The term slave has its origins in the word slav. The slavs, who inhabited a large part of Eastern Europe, were taken as slaves by the Muslims of Spain during the ninth century AD.” Most of our ancestors couldn’t take days off.
I apologize for misconduct. A harmless joke isn’t misconduct. Don’t go all Will Smith on me.
April 4, 2022 @ 5:21 pm
: D Good man
April 5, 2022 @ 7:00 am
So my thoughts are that he should give everyone who had tickets to that show a refund. He should then do two free shows to make it up to the ticket holders. It’s only fair. Then we could call it the celebration concert. You know, since his team won.
April 4, 2022 @ 1:57 pm
Oh, yeah?
April 4, 2022 @ 1:56 pm
Travis Tritt nails it as usual. 🙂
April 5, 2022 @ 12:01 pm
Personally….Travis Tritt nailed it. I’m a ” true country” fan, meaning I like the traditional country ( 70s- 90s) more than today’s ” pop country”. Travis puts on a great show and supports and honors the military at his shows.
April 4, 2022 @ 2:47 pm
Taking BJ Barham’s text out of context is not right. He said he didn’t condone it and he also said this…”16 years in and I’ve never once cancelled a show. I’ve played with food poisoning. Fever. Laryngitis. I played the night my mother died. My entire career is built on taking care of the fanbase before myself. Trust me, I couldn’t forget the “little guy” if my life depended on it”
April 4, 2022 @ 3:24 pm
Barham said those things walking back his original tweet. Trig didn’t take the original tweet out of context and he’s not responsible for what Barham says later in the comments of his original tweet because he was feeling the heat from fans (the link is provided in the article).
I’m disappointed that the man that wrote “The Luckier You Get” and “Tough Folks” took his original stance. I stopped listening to Cody Jinks when I realized he no longer (or never) cared for the blue collared man. I’ll give Barham a little more rope.
April 4, 2022 @ 4:00 pm
What did Cody Jinks do to lose the respect of the common man?
April 4, 2022 @ 4:08 pm
Back in October he posted on social media a “help wanted” sign from outside a restaurant and said he sees this across the country and it seems no one wants to work anymore.
April 4, 2022 @ 9:31 pm
He’s not wrong. When I first entered the workforce in the early-1950s, I worked 60 hours a week and brought home $35 a week. Now kids won’t even work one hour unless they are paid $15 plus benefits.
April 4, 2022 @ 11:14 pm
$35 in 1950 adjusted for inflation today is $412 and one out of every three workers back then belonged to a union. The problem today isn’t that people don’t want to work. It’s that they don’t want to wait tables part time for LESS than $7.25 an hour. You can’t afford the gas to get to and from work on that, let alone afford groceries, utilities or rent. Corporate profits are at record highs across the board, but that’s all going into the pockets of the CEOs. There’s a wage shortage, not a labor shortage.
And a lot of people are working, but not in traditional jobs. I quit a job in the medical field last year and now do online retail full time. I’m on pace to match what my previous yearly salary in the first seven or eight months of the year. I work when I want and if I decide I’d rather go fishing on any given day, that’s what I do. Anybody can do what I do and a lot of people are and you’d need to offer a hell of a lot more than $15 an hour for me to ever consider having a boss again.
April 5, 2022 @ 5:59 am
Yep – we’re actually at crazy low unemployment levels.
There’s a shortage in certain sectors because workers have options.
Why spend day after day on your feet, working irregular shifts, for $4/hour before tips when you can get $17/hour, plus benefits, working 9-5 from your kitchen table?
April 4, 2022 @ 6:51 pm
Nothing.
He pointed out how more people want to live off the government instead of going to work.
April 4, 2022 @ 9:19 pm
And he was right, sadly.
April 4, 2022 @ 4:05 pm
I did add a subsequent comment from B.J. Barham clarifying his position, but like Hoptowntiger says, I’m not responsible to hunt down every single statement he made about this matter. Honestly, if I did anything more, I would just delete B.J.’s comment since it’s become a distraction, except with all the comments in this comments section about it, people wouldn’t have any context about what we’re all discussing.
Again, the only reason I included B.J. Barham’s tweet was I felt if I was going to highlight one artist’s perspective on the Eric Church cancellation, it only seemed fair to find an artist who defended Eric Church and share that perspective too. Was just trying to be judicious on how I covered this story, and unfortunately it became a focus as opposed to an addendum.
April 4, 2022 @ 2:54 pm
All that really matters is what Jason Isbell thinks about this…which is…Eric Church and Travis Tritt are both white privileged, so they’re both wrong.
April 4, 2022 @ 3:05 pm
Did I miss a memo…did Hell freeze over or do I find myself agreeing with BOTH Travis Tritt and Jason Aldean? Good lord!!
April 4, 2022 @ 3:42 pm
I’ve commented on the subject before. But again, what is the point of building up goodwill, if you can’t occasionally call it due?
April 4, 2022 @ 5:21 pm
That Jason Aldean quote has to be fake
He’s not that well spoken OR polite
April 4, 2022 @ 6:04 pm
You are too much involved with your “stardom “,but forget about the folks that bought your records and went to your concerts! You need to remember where you came from, and, not where you think you are! Without us, you are just another performer!! Never forget that, Mr. Dude!!!
April 4, 2022 @ 6:08 pm
Like your music, but you just lost my respect,!!!
April 4, 2022 @ 6:12 pm
At my work, living through Covid seemed to teach us all to see each other more as human beings. We saw inside each other’s houses, each other’s living situations, kids and pets crawling around, mental health getting worn down, relatives dying that you’ll never get to see again. We learned life was short and we could all give each other a bit more room to be human. I thought that’s what this pandemic was teaching us. The pressures and stress have been incredibly challenging. I will always remember the first video Church put out during the pandemic, with his poem, we will gather again. He helped me and probably a lot of other people through some tough times. Time to give each other a little grace. Having recently had to cancel tons of flights, hotels, and other things for a variety of reasons (pandemic shutdown, getting covid myself, etc.), I discovered that every hotel and flight I booked I got my money back in full or in credit, if you cancel before 24 hours in advance. Only concert tickets are typically costs that you have to eat, so if he’s refunding that, it sounds like taking a deep breath and allowing him to be a human being wouldn’t be a bad approach. Like how he extended a hand for Morgan Wallen after that dude acted the fool. Rethinking the demands we place on artists and musicians and actors to always be on for you might not be a bad next item.
April 5, 2022 @ 4:25 pm
What Covid taught us is that all our leaders have to do is induce a little fear into the public sphere and people will gladly sign away their rights and freedoms for false security from a virus with a 99% survival rate for anyone who wasn’t over 80 or morbidly obese.
The only demand placed on musicians is for them to show up and play in exchange for money. They are working at a job that is their dream.
April 4, 2022 @ 6:41 pm
So George Jones’s habitual no-shows are excused because he was drunk or on pills, but Eric Church’s one no-show should make him a pariah forever. Got it.
Truth is, if you really like an artist, then you really like the artist. You’re not going to “cancel” them because they did a bad thing. We’re not talking “O.J. Simpson”-bad. (And truth be told, O.J. still has his fans. He still gets greeted with “Juice!” and asked for autographs, wherever he shows up.)
April 5, 2022 @ 5:49 am
What makes you think that George Jones was “excused”? Even some of his most ardent fans were so angry about his “no shows” that once they got burned they never purchased a ticket to another one of his concerts again. Many promoters and venues refused to book him because they did not want to take the chance that they’d lose money if he did not show up. Attendance for the shows that he did play suffered. Jones definitely took a huge hit financially for his erratic drug and alcohol induced behavior. At one point he was forced to declare bankruptcy when he was more than one million dollars in debt The negative publicity from all of that coupled with the video of his belligerent intoxicated drunk-driving arrest took a major toll on Jones’ career.
He was never “excused” by any means.
April 5, 2022 @ 6:03 am
Hell, Jones saw far more backlash from fans and the industry over missing shows than he did for beating the shit out of Tammy Wynette.
April 5, 2022 @ 6:15 am
That’s true but in the pre-internet days much of Jones’ most egregious behavior was not widely known. The worst aspects of his dark side came to light in books written many years later.
April 5, 2022 @ 4:20 pm
Yeah. That knowledge wasn’t well-known at all. I have been reading this site for years and this is the first time that I have seen it brought up.
Willie Nelson, as Trigger wrote once, also beat a wife. It didn’t impact his career because it wasn’t known. And once it was released, it was so far in the past that fans simply weren’t upset about it.
April 4, 2022 @ 7:07 pm
Who’s Eric Church?
April 4, 2022 @ 8:08 pm
I have no interest in Travis Tritt’s opinion on this topic. Could somebody please find Ja Rule? Get ahold of him so I can make sense of all this. Where is Ja?
April 5, 2022 @ 12:41 am
I usually don’t agree with Travis tritt or Jason , but I will agree with you.
April 5, 2022 @ 2:35 am
What if he was struggling mentally and a night off was what was needed to prevent a crisis? What if his wife complained about their marriage and insisted he go? What if the only thing his dead grampa asked for was for him to cancel a show and go to a game? What if he got a threat from someone and was forced to go? We have no idea, so why would we jump to conclusions (right as they may be) and say mean things about him as a person? The fundamental attribution error is a major error!
April 5, 2022 @ 2:50 am
Really??
Well, one thing out of all that nonsense you scribbled mau be spot-on…
His “struggling mentally”.
This guy must have some degree of disconnect in order to BLOW-OFF HIS MUSIC PURCHASERS WHO SPENt THEIR HARD-EARNED MONEY ON HIM.
And for one last-minute decision to watch a sports event — he disses his entire ticket buying crowd.
Integrity and TRUST mean a lot in the legitimate music business.
April 5, 2022 @ 2:53 am
Often if my wife wants to argue she does the same thing – misses the forest for the trees. You insulted me for offering some grace and mercy. It just makes me sad.
April 5, 2022 @ 2:54 am
Not at all familiar with this Eric character. But am very ‘familiar’ with the music circuit after 50+ years as a sideman. In all my years on the road, I cannot recall a more dumba** decision by anyone at any level of the music entertainment business.
First thing that came to mind was… ‘Dude?? While there are a myriad of methods in which to lose trust and respect of potential venue owners/promoters/agencies — this ridiculous stunt has to be one of the most ignorant of choices!’
Next thing I thought was, ‘Does this chooch not have any contractual obligations??’
Perhaps he has a line item in his contract rider that will save his sorry _ss from any legal repercussions?
Hey man… Whatever degree of entitlement you believe you may have… it will not afford you much pity from whatever fan base you enjoy at the moment.
He apparently underestimates the power of the dissed music fan & purchaser!! They are not obligated to spend their hard-earned dollar on people like you. People who undoubtedly rearranged their schedules to attend your “show” have jobs, kids, bills to pay, etc., and your lame decision to BLOW THEM OFF will surely give them pause to think; ultimately cause them to support someone with a better sense of dignity and integrity.
You may want to start looking for a job with your favorite basketball organization as your little stunt is likely to backfire on you. I wouldn’t wait too long if I were you.
People like this Church character piss me off because there are so many (often better) talents who never get the opportunity step foot on a stage; much less enter a recording studio. And this guy sh*ts on them all, and jeopardizes his own current status just to watch his favorite team’s game at the last minute??
Priorities, dude!
Get a grip before it’s too late. And don’t put your faith in a mediocre apology. Talking at people, as if you’re some lame politician feigning your “apologies”, is not a great option.
‘Sorry’ ain’t gonna cut it.
April 5, 2022 @ 6:07 am
And yet you haven’t even heard of him? Very long comment about something you admit to know nothing about.
April 5, 2022 @ 6:30 am
Your reading comprehension skills may be suspect.
What I know something about, and understand, is the music business.
In addition, I have seen people make the same mistake as this guy, Church. Not a good result.
Try reading again… only don’t skip portions of it.
April 5, 2022 @ 6:39 am
Not sure that you have to know that much (or anything) about him to have a strong reaction to what he did.
April 5, 2022 @ 8:07 am
Eric Church should take the backlash as a welcomed warning. No artist is guaranteed a spot at the top forever. He’s lucky to be a headliner and to be selling out shows now. How long that will last is dependent on his audience. EC is not prolific enough nor does he have the body of work to guarantee this position til he retires.
April 5, 2022 @ 6:09 am
For cancelling a concert performance just to attend a basketball game Eric Church deserves every bit of flak that he has received.
But Travis Tritt’s criticism rings hollow for a man that has so little concern for the health and welfare of his own fans that a few months ago he cancelled concerts at any venue that required proof of COVID vaccination, mask mandates, or testing. Putting his own fans in harm’s way is extreme and dangerous compared to cancelling a show to attend a sporting event. However neither is acceptable.
Kanye West has created his own category of crazy so there’s no comparison to this situation.
April 5, 2022 @ 7:00 am
In hindsight, those restrictions did basically nothing to stop the spread. The point of contention here is that Tritt didn’t willfully bend the knee to the restrictions. In hindsight, he was right.
April 5, 2022 @ 7:24 am
He was right to put his fans in peril?
And what evidence do you have that restrictions did not stop the spread of Covid except for the contrary ones concocted by science deniers with a political agenda.
Covid is a disease not a political ideology. Over a million people have died of Covid already. Without restrictions there would have been many more. God help us if they had not been in place.
April 5, 2022 @ 4:15 pm
Haha.
You are completely wrong. Tritt is one of the few of the rapidly dwindling number of people in this world that doesn’t subscribe to mass government induced hysteria.
He made his decision to not subsidize fear. And the brainwashed hate when someone dares to venture off the plantation.
April 5, 2022 @ 6:16 pm
Wow!
Sorry but I never drank THAT Kool-Aid. I believe in science & reality.
April 5, 2022 @ 8:32 pm
So do I. I studied the data. The COVID virus for most is but an annoying flu.
April 5, 2022 @ 8:59 pm
Please no more Covid discussion here folks. Thanks!
April 5, 2022 @ 6:25 am
I’m a Georgia fan too and REALLY wanted to go see them play Bama in Indy, an hour away from me! But I had to work.
Unlike Eric Church, I couldn’t just ditch all the people who were depending on me to do my job.
April 5, 2022 @ 6:33 am
Travis Tritt’s a Trumpster,which is why he cancelled concerts at any Covid-19-consciuos venue.
April 5, 2022 @ 8:57 am
@blackcowboy,
“which is why he cancelled concerts at any Covid-19-consciuos venue.”
As well he should.
The Jamey Johnson/R. Houser show was originally a “health check required” show. As soon as they dropped the “health check” requirement, i bought a ticket at the ticket window, a week and a half, out.
: D Think i’m giving my money to, & supporting oppressive businesses?
Might want to open your damn eyes
April 5, 2022 @ 9:09 am
Let’s please not veer into back and forth COVID-19 discussions. Thanks!
April 5, 2022 @ 9:47 am
10-4, Kemosabe.
April 5, 2022 @ 6:58 am
Well, here we go. Criticism of Travis Trist because he “dares” to be a conservative. Shame on him. Smack my mouth already.
As for Church, I can take or leave him. Either way is fine.
Now, can we just move on? What good music is cooking for you all?
April 5, 2022 @ 7:03 am
I’d rather a Baker Hotel review than a new Eric Church article, haha!
Step up from Hebert Island, but Will is still a ways from the heights of Rose Queen and Ringling Road.
April 5, 2022 @ 4:17 pm
It is average for sure. Even the title track borrows the laughing from “Ringling Road.” It is still a jam..
But his songwriting has always been hit or miss. Most of his songs even the good ones could use another verse. Great cover art, though.
April 5, 2022 @ 4:28 pm
Honestly, the title track is my least favorite cut from the album.
Anymore, All You Got, and (for my blood) Getting Drunk are the best candidates to make his concert set…as long as he brings Fool Me Once back, haha!
(Look at us! Being civil and shit!)
April 5, 2022 @ 4:35 pm
Really? Hey. Different strokes. I do enjoy folklore so that is probably why I like it.
I haven’t seen him in concert yet. Those songs will probably sound good there.
(Haha. Hey, it is 2022. Besides, your musical opinions are good stuff.)
April 6, 2022 @ 11:09 am
I’ve seen him live 3 or 4 times – unreal show.
It’s very rock-forward, though, so the slow songs with big choruses play really, really well.
April 6, 2022 @ 1:01 pm
Gotcha.
Hopefully he tours near me.
April 5, 2022 @ 7:01 am
Hey Trig – any plans to cover Miranda’s new song or project? Curious your take on the collaborators.
April 5, 2022 @ 7:07 am
Man, three posts for this Eric Church thing? Must really be trying to farm for views. It’s over, and done with. Don’t think adding opinions from two super opinionated artists matter, but I guess when you’re low on content and want to shit stir thats what you do lol
April 5, 2022 @ 8:31 am
Haven’t been “low on content” since 2013. You should see my white board.
I actually think this is a very critically important topic when it comes to the integrity of live music, and had additional information I wanted to bring to it, including how even some of Eric Church’s peers saw this cancellation as problematic, and how now the biggest headliner artist at the biggest American festival has now dropped out of his headliner spot just over a week before the event, which of course, nobody is discussing here to instead take pot shots at BJ Barham. I will cover this story as much as deserves coverage. And the increase in cancellations deserves coverage.
Any by the way, nobody worry. I am fully, 100% committed to posting content nobody wants to read. This is my sworn oath to you all. I know how important it is to everyone to see articles here you don’t want to read and comment on, so I pledge to always spend hours upon hours of my life producing it, and publishing it here for you to ignore. Because I know how important that is to you.
And last but not least, please always remember, COMMENTS DON’T DENOTE TRAFFIC.
April 5, 2022 @ 2:45 pm
Trig, I may not always comment, but I read every single article you post – and share them far and wide. Thank you for being a real journalist, and doing the grunt legwork the rest of us are too lazy to do! I often think of your write-up on “Dead Man’s Blues,” and how you talked about the way we want our favorite artists to do well enough to keep touring, but not quite so well as to play larger venues where we lose the intimacy of smaller shows. You’re right in that same spot. “Keep the album reviews and new artist discoveries coming,” we cry. Then, you do that, and those articles receive little to no public interaction. Then, you put the time, effort, and resources into a well-thought piece about one of the top headliners in the industry, and naysayers come out of the woodworks. Man… I don’t envy you, but I truly, deeply appreciate you. Keep up the great work. Continue to be a voice of reason in a muddied climate. I promise you – there’s a good bit of us who love it and appreciate all the hard, (maybe, sometimes) soul-sucking work you do.
April 5, 2022 @ 3:49 pm
Thanks for reading Jaimito.
April 5, 2022 @ 9:25 am
I mean, George Jones is known for how he would no show his concerts, and it even became one of his nicknames. Still considered top five by almost any serious list of greats. This will pass, he will either build his legacy on his work, or he will be a footnote in the history of this great and storied genre, and this will not affect that one way or the other.
April 5, 2022 @ 10:26 am
I never understood how and why that nickname was used while still thinking of Jones positively. Jones was extremely talented AND also one of the biggest F-ups in music history. It really goes to show how great his raw talent was. Talent aside, Jones was awful in almost every way.
April 5, 2022 @ 10:34 am
Different jobs require different levels of commitment. Yes, the level of commitment for a professional musician is higher than for some other jobs–and less than some other jobs. A job in any field has its requirements; you don’t get anything for free. So I get that it isn’t fair, but it’s what you signed up for.
April 5, 2022 @ 11:20 am
So we can talk about this BS, but not the new Ryan Adams album. FML.
April 5, 2022 @ 9:08 pm
Get over it thanks fpr being a tarehells im sure he will make it go on playing your songs love eric church
April 5, 2022 @ 9:13 pm
You will be ok sticks and stones will never hurt you nor will words go tarhells
April 6, 2022 @ 3:20 am
It makes no difference what anyone thinks about him cancelling a show in any one town. The people in that town will be pissed, but seats will be full in every other town. We dont have a society that’s going to say, “I’m not going to the Eric Church show in Memphis because he cancelled a show for a dumb reason anywhere else.” Rarely are artists or anyone else punished that way. Those people in other towns probably don’t really care. I’m not saying it’s OK, but that’s just the reality of the situation.
April 6, 2022 @ 8:00 am
I think you’re probably right. And the cynic in me thinks his “thanks for letting me do this” line was probably more for the rest of the “Church Choir” as opposed to the fans that bought tickets to the San Antonio show. If it were me who had a ticket to that show, that line would just make me more angry. But like in politics, it’s a number game.
April 6, 2022 @ 2:29 pm
It does raise the question of what a performer owe his/her audience. In general, I’d say, “Nothing.” If you’re a fan, you enter fandom at your own risk. But when the fan has purchased tickets to a performance, the equation changes. There’s been an exchange of money for a service, and the service wasn’t delivered. Re-booking the gig inconveniences the ticket-holder and re-booking it in a smaller venue means some won’t be able to go.
I can understand a performer cancelling a performance because of a health issue or some dire family emergency. In this instance, Church cancelled because something came along that he decided would be more fun than doing his job.
And why does the article refer to the team as “HIS (emphasis added) North Carolina Tar Heels”? Church didn’t go to UNC, let alone graduate from there. He’s just another fan.
April 7, 2022 @ 10:04 am
To have a favorite song, to admire a singer, to buy a album, to buy a concert ticket, to travel for miles, to stand with hundreds of people, to shout out a name in unison, to cry, live, laugh, love threw words and mysic, to be a “fan”, a true “fan”, would it not make sense to know all about the “person” or “team” or whatever it may be that a individual dares to call themselves a “fan” of? If you are a fan of Eric Church you would know that he is a “fan” a “true North Carolina tarheel blue fan” and you would also know that in North Carolina there are two schools known for rivalry. To attend a basketball game at a game hosted by either is a experience not a event. Ask Michael Jordan. Please don’t be so quick to judge Eric Church, he is human, he himself is “a fan” no different than his fans, no different than Travis Tritt fans or Jason Aldean fans. What one person would “decide” to do or not do, may not be what I would do or what you would do, before you decide to judge, condem and shame a fellow singer, a “favorite” singer that one is a loyal “fan” of, read up on the singer, truly know the person you are a “fan” of before you say “I am a fan” ………… ~ Stacy Elaine Grant a true blue North Carolina Duke Blue devil fan showing respect for Eric Church a true blue North Carolina tarheel fan.
April 7, 2022 @ 3:26 pm
With respect, how would die-hard Tar Heel fans feel if they bought tickets to a game and then the UNC players decided it would be more fun to go to an Eric Church concert that night?
Don’t they have an obligation to show up for their game? What’s the distinction between them and Church?
April 7, 2022 @ 3:31 pm
With respect to you as well Carolina has a secondary string to take the place of injured or sick players.
April 8, 2022 @ 6:22 am
That’s a dodge and you probably know it. Just for you, I’ll amend my hypothetical: Let’s say ALL the Tar Heels — starters, second-string, coaches, managers, etc. — decide that they’d rather go to an Eric Church concert than show up for the game.
So, again, don’t they have an obligation to show up for their game? What’s the distinction between them and Church?
April 7, 2022 @ 5:54 pm
Travis Tritt still has a set of gonads. A rarity today
July 2, 2022 @ 4:42 pm
Merle should no way be involved in this. I am a nurse you go to work. Missed a lot of thing’s. Life is hard.