'You Just Never Really Break Away': Eric Church Discusses Long-Awaited Australian Debut

"What happens in Australia will only happen in Australia," Church teases of his 2027 visit.

Just last month it was announced that, more than two decades since the release of his debut album, North Carolina country artist Eric Church would finally be coming to Australia.

Serving as one of the three headliners of CMC Rocks, and performing two headline dates in Melbourne and Sydney, it's shaping up to be one of the biggest country events of 2027.

With anticipation for the events rising, and his Australian Church Choir keen to welcome him to local shores, Church spoke to iHeartCountry Australia’s Justin Thomson in Nashville recently about the upcoming trek.

By his own admission, Church doesn't do many interviews, nor does he maintain a personal social media presence. He notes that he chooses to "just do music", and enjoy the process of an interview when he does choose to partake.

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Needless to say, with a rare opportunity to speak to Church himself, Thomson wasted no time in asking about the forthcoming visit to Australia, sharing in the disbelief that he's yet to visit the country.

"I think a lot of what happens is you kind of get on this kind of hamster wheel of your career and over here in the States, and you're touring, and recording and touring, recording and touring, and you just never really break away to do some of that stuff," he explains.

For the March visit, Church will have his kids in tow, eager to show off how he's received in a country which boasts "great country music fans, great music fans, and a great environment".

As for what fans can expect from the long-awaited trip, Church explains that it's about ensuring he offers the best possible experience for everyone who has made the decision to come and see him.

"Every time I get on a stage – and a lot of this comes from my upbringing in bars, clubs, and struggling to get to where we got to – I think that I never take for granted what that moment means to the people that have waited for that for however long they've waited for, or wherever they drove from, or wherever they flew from," he reasons.

"I understand that moment and there's never a night I mail that in. I make sure whether it's the conceptualisation of the show, or it's the delivery of the show, I try to make sure that it's everything that I have, and sometimes it's incredibly unique."

The structure of the forthcoming Australian trek is one that he's keeping under his hat currently, but he notes that his recent tour – featuring strings and horns – is a one-and-done affair that won't make another appearance.

"What happens in Australia will only happen in Australia," he explains, later adding, "it'll be an Australia-specific tour."

However, while fans might not get the chance to see the past tour live on stage, Church also spoke about the recent IMAX release of Evangeline vs. The Machine: Comes Alive, a concert film which captured him performing his most recent album in Nashville.

Though it's already premiered in the US, Church does confirm that Australian audiences will get a chance to see it at some point in the future, though he doesn't specify when.

"IMAX was something that when we came up with this whole Evangeline [album], all the people on stage, and actually just reimagining what music could be," he begins. "All of those songs on the Evangeline album started with me and a guitar. And then we got in a room with a lot of different people who lent their creativity to it, and it turned into a whole different thing.

"So the first time we ever played that live was what we filmed. We filmed two nights at the Pinnacle here in Nashville. And there's a lot of anxiety and nervousness when you do something [like that]. I always say that the greatest take for a song in a studio is the first take.

There's probably gonna be mistakes, but it's the take that everybody plays with their heart, and then every other take they play with their head. And we tried to create that at the IMAX."

Elsewhere in the chat, Church opened up about his experience with surviving a near-death experience following a blood clot brought on by a birth defect ("It was the first time for me that my own mortality had been something I thought about"), and how just months later, he'd performed at the Las Vegas music festival which would see dozens of fans shot and killed two days after he had performed.

"Concerts are a sacred safe place for me," he explained. "That's where I find solace, and those bullets shattered that."

Thankfully, Church is aiming for a far more positive and relaxing experience while he's in Australia, where he also hopes to take in some sights, play some golf, and potentially even try some Vegemite while he's on ground.

As Thomson warns him though, he might want to prepare himself for the barrage of fans urging him to do a shoey. "Are there clean boots?" he innocently enquired.

Tickets to CMC Rocks and Eric Church's headline dates are on sale now.