The Label Threatened To Drop Eric Church But He Released The Song Anyway

Before Eric Church became the outlaw-country titan we know today, he was just a rising artist trying to push boundaries, and he nearly got dropped for it. Back in 2010, Church faced a career-defining moment with the release of his single Smoke a Little Smoke, a rebellious, cannabis-inspired anthem that ruffled feathers at Capitol Records Nashville.

“My label told me if I release that, they were gonna drop me,” Church shared on The Bobbycast, when asked about a song he almost didn’t record. “‘No marijuana song’... there was no song like that in the year it came out.”

The track, his seventh single from his sophomore album Carolina, marked a major turning point. “The label was like, ‘If you do this, you might as well go somewhere else,’” Church said. And for a moment, he almost backed down. “I got close to going, ‘Yeah, I don’t think this is gonna work.’”

But the gamble paid off. Smoke a Little Smoke broke into the Top 20 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and, more importantly, gave Church some serious credibility with his label.

That success opened doors. Instead of continuing to push back, the label loosened the reins. “They just went, ‘Hey, I don’t know, that smoke song works, just let him run a minute,’” Church laughed.

That freedom helped shape his breakthrough album Chief, featuring the bold single Homeboy, and solidified his legacy as a country artist unafraid to go against the grain.

Now, nearly two decades into his career, Church is still with Capitol Records Nashville, having just released his 8th studio album, Evangeline vs. The Machine, on May 2. Turns out, betting on authenticity was a long game and a winning one at that.