Eric Church can do a lot of things, including write a hit song and sell out concerts. But one thing he is not good at doing is selling things, which is why he ultimately got fired from one of the jobs he had very early in his career, working for the Shop at Home Network.
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"I sold knives from midnight to 7:00 or 8:00 a.m.," Church recalls to his record label. "And, anytime somebody calls you at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. and needs 200 knives for $19.95, it's automatically an alarming situation. I was young, and I'd been in a lot of these people's shoes. I had done this ...I knew they were drunk; I knew what they had done. They'd just come home from the bar, flipped on Shop at Home and said, 'You know what? I need that.'"
Unfortunately for his bosses, Church was honest to a fault, which is why he lost that job.
"The reason the job didn't last long for me is that I was maybe the worst salesman in history," Church says. "Because I ended up talking a lot of these people out of it. I'd say, 'I'll tell you what man. Go to bed, call me. I'll be here in the morning. If you get up in the morning, and want these knives, you call me back.' Because I knew what was going to happen. They bought 200 knives for $19.95."
Eric Church Doesn't Regret Losing The Job He Hated
Church can now laugh about losing the job he hated, although he admits he has zero regrets about being fired.
"First of all, some of these people you didn't know whether you should call the cops," Church says. "What do you need 200 knives for? Even though I'm selling them...what do you need them for? So, it was awful doing that job. And then they got rid of me because they were like, 'You're the worst. I can't believe you're talking people out of it.'
"I was like, 'Man, I know...I've been there,'" he adds with a laugh. "I'd want some to talk me out of buying some of the stuff I've bought at 2:00 a.m."
Not only was the job awful, but the schedule was also exhausting, and left very little time for sleep.
"I worked midnight, graveyard, midnight to 8:00," Church recounts. "That was bad enough, but then I would work all night, go home, shower, and then I had writing appointments all day because I was trying to get a career started."
