CAPITOL RIOT INSPIRED ERIC CHURCH TO SING ANTHEM
ERIC CHURCH WILL SING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM WITH JAZMINE SULLIVAN AT SUPER BOWL LV.
Before Jan. 6, Eric Church had little to no interest in singing the national anthem.
“I’ve avoided it forever,” the country star says. “It’s an incredibly hard song to sing. And I’m not a vocalist — I’m a stylist. Somebody like me, you take some liberties with it, then you’ve gotten too far away from the melody and suddenly you’re a communist.
“Honestly, there’s just more to lose than to gain.”
Yet last month’s storming of the U.S. Capitol changed Church’s thinking about “risk versus reward,” as he puts it. So when the NFL reached out a few weeks ago with an unexpected invitation — would Church like to perform the anthem with the acclaimed soul star Jazmine Sullivan at Super Bowl LV? — he did what he always said he wouldn’t: He said yes.
“With what’s going on in America, it feels like an important time for a patriotic moment,” says the 43-year-old North Carolina native known for yearning but muscular hits like “Springsteen” and “Give Me Back My Hometown.”
“An important time for unity. The fact that I’m a Caucasian country singer and she’s an African American R&B singer — I think the country needs that.”
On Feb. 7, the two artists will collaborate in public for the first time before the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers face off in Tampa — the same Florida city where Whitney Houston gave an iconic rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” 30 years ago.
Overseen by veteran musical director Adam Blackstone as part of Roc Nation’s deal to shape the NFL’s musical offerings, the performance will be only the second anthem duet at the Super Bowl, following Aretha Franklin and Aaron Neville’s joint reading in 2006. (Other acts set for Sunday’s game include The Weeknd, who will perform at halftime, and H.E.R., who will sing “America the Beautiful.”)
For Church, named entertainer of the year at November’s Country Music Association Awards, the Super Bowl gig comes just as he’s announced the upcoming release of three studio albums — “Heart,” “&” and “Soul,” each due in April — that he recorded last year with his longtime producer, Jay Joyce, during a sojourn in the mountains of North Carolina, far from his usual setting in Nashville.
Q: You said you agreed to do this after the Capitol riot. What were you thinking as you watched the events of that day?
A: I feel like in this country, we’ve given up the common ground. When I’m at a concert, I’m not thinking about how many people there are Republicans or Democrats. But that’s how you win elections — you have to create the division, to rile up a base. And because of COVID-19, we’ve lost the things that used to unite us: concerts, sporting events, trips to Vegas with the boys. I can tell you from the concert standpoint, the longer we go without people being able to put their arms around the person next to them and have a moment of communion, it gets more tenuous and more dangerous.
Q: Has it been hard for you not to play?
A: Yeah. I’ve been able to keep all my band and crew and all my guys — we’ve not even cut salaries, and I’m proud of that. But it’s been an incredibly strange and trying time, and I know I’ve got it a lot better than most people. But I’m hopeful. I didn’t feel as hopeful late last year, but I like where we’re heading. I think 2021’s gonna be a redemption year and 2022’s gonna be the s-.
Q: You’re booked to play a number of festivals later this year. Think they’ll happen?
A: I think it’s a fourth-quarter deal for me, but depends on what state the festival is in. I wish we were in a place right now where we could use concerts to vaccinate people. But I feel good. There’s so much antivax(stuff) that goes around, but I’m seeing less of that now. People just want out. Somebody asked me if I’d take the vaccine. I said I’d take it in the eyeball to go strap on a guitar.