At Home With Eric Church: The Playlist

It took some time for Eric Church to get back into the swing of things after he came back home from a tour supporting his 2018 album Desperate Man. “We were fat and we were happy, and there was no real sense of urgency,” Church tells Apple Music. “When I got back in the studio, myself and the band, it was hard because we were just there to make a record. We were comfortably uncomfortable.” That record eventually became Heart & Soul, a 24-track triple album the country-singer-songwriter wrote while on a recording retreat in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. “When I set it up, I wanted it to be the hardest—but it was one of the easiest records we’ve ever made,” he says of the experience. As he prepares for the album’s release, Church curated an exclusive Apple Music playlist—an all-encompassing collection that was originally, in his own words, “280 songs.” Below, check out some of his picks and the stories behind them. Aretha Franklin, “Eleanor Rigby” “When I met my wife, I knew she was probably the one, but there was one negative and one positive. So the one negative was she had a little small yippy dog. And when I came in the door, the dog was just at my knees and jumping up and down. We ended up loving each other, but my first thought was ‘I'm out on the dog. Dog's got to go.’ But I remember she had ‘Eleanor Rigby’ playing. And I went, 'I'm going to see where this goes. We'll let the dog go that way, but I'm going to stay a while.'” Bob Seger, “Travelin’ Man” “My first tour in country music was with Rascal Flatts. It didn't work out. I got fired from that tour. I got replaced by—I don't know whatever happened to her, some artist named Taylor Swift. So after that happened, I was in a real not-good spot as a brand-new country music artist. I got a call from Bob Seger. And Bob said, 'Hey, I love your Sinners Like Me album.' At that time, I was getting 15 minutes to play in front of Rascal Flatts. And he goes, 'How about coming out and opening to me, and I'll give you 45 minutes.' He saved my career in a lot of ways. But more importantly, he saved my faith in music.” Emmylou Harris, “Two More Bottles of Wine” “This is a total '70s rock song. And I think that it was kind of that genre-less era when it's not about where you fit. It's about making music. And this song is one of the ones that, I think, more than defines that. And I just think it's just rad as hell. Just listen to her sing it and do it, and it's still something that I'll break out a lot if I'm jogging or whatever.”