Eric Church breaks down talking about Las Vegas massacre
Eric Church is as passionate a singer-songwriter as you get in Nashville, but he’s not known for being emotional: During every concert, he shields his eyes behind his signature sunglasses.
But Wednesday night at the Grand Ole Opry, Church couldn’t hide his emotions as he talked about headlining the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas last Friday night, two days before a gunman killed 58 people and injured hundreds in the audience. He broke down as he remembered the fans joyfully basking in the music.
“I saw that crowd. I saw them with the hands in the air ... and what I saw, that moment in time, was frozen. There’s no amount of bullets that can take it away,” Church said, his voice breaking. He turned away from the microphone and tried to compose himself.
“That night, something broke in me, on Sunday when that happened,” he said tearfully. “And the only way I’ve ever fixed anything that’s been broken in me is with music. So I wrote a song.”
Church played a new song with lyrics that included: “The Lord is my refuge, my fortress, my God with whom I trust/But I’ll never know why the wicked gets to prey on the rest of us.” He then segued into his ballad “Those I’ve Loved” and ended with a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
He also paid tribute to Sonny Melton, a 29-year-old surgical nurse from Tennessee who died in Las Vegas while shielding his wife, Heather, from the shooter. Heather Melton told CNN that they went to the festival because Church would be there, and they had tickets to see him at the Opry on Wednesday. Church turned the crowd’s attention to their two empty seats.