Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton's iconic 2015 CMA performance pulled the rug from under Eric Church's surprise album Mr. Misunderstood. Or at least, Church thought so.
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On the last day of the Country Radio Seminar (CRS), Eric Church and Jelly Roll sat down together to talk of their own stories and insights in the industry. Of course, Eric Church has been around a lot longer than Jelly Roll, but it turns out they're pretty firm friends.
Per Whiskeyriff, Jelly Roll asked Eric Church about his surprise album Mr. Misunderstood. If you were around back then, you may remember that Mr. Misunderstood had dropped secretly, with some fans receiving the album in their mail before it was officially announced and released.
The plan then was to perform the leading single, "Mr. Misunderstood," at the 2015 CMAs. Church shared that he expected it to be the defining moment of the night, one that would make headlines.
"Sometimes in my life...you have things that are timestamps in your life... But we walked out on the CMA Awards, and we played Mr. Misunderstood, and I feel great about it. I end it and I'm like, 'This is going to be the greatest campaign of all time. This is going to f--k up music for a decade.'"
After his performance, however, Chris Stapleton and Justin Timberlake hit the stage and tore the house down.
Eric Church Was Worried His Surprise Album Was Screwed Thanks To Legendary Performance
After that iconic performance that really made Chris Stapleton, how could anyone remember about Mr. Misunderstood? Church admits to feeling a little deflated.
"I got one minute into that and went, 'We're f--ked.' I just knew," he recalled. "Your whole moment is like, 'Ok this is it.' And then I went, 'Oh, no it's not.'"
"It ended up being ok," he admitted, but couldn't shake the feeling that it could have been much better had Stapleton and Timberlake not stolen his thunder.
Of course, no one is to blame and nothing could be helped, but it shows that even Eric Church has suffered through his fair share of curveballs in his career. I'm sure those personal insights would have been valuable to the new artists tuning in to CRS.
