At this point, it's impossible to deny how great Eric Church is and what he brings to country. He's always been a pretty stellar and candid songwriter. Moreover, he maintains the true spirit of what the genre is about stylistically, never sacrificing his music for trends. Clearly, Eric's approach has paid off in spades, given the crazy numbers he still brings in. Plenty of number one singles, nearly 10 million records sold, and frequently selling out arenas for his tours. The work speaks for itself with Church. However, imagine being the record executive in Nashville who nearly let him walk away.
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Recently, Mike Dungan, former music exec at Capitol Records, went on Church's Outsiders Radio. There, he recalls some of his early impressions of the "Hell of a View" singer. Apparently, Church didn't do much to particularly blow him away. The only thing that gave him a fighting chance was the glimmer of potential Dungan saw in him. "He came into my office, just him and a guitar, to audition in the typical Nashville manner. I wasn't blown away," Mike says. "But I saw enough in that experience with him to ask if he could pull together a show with a full band."
Eric Church Didn't Leave a Great First Impression on Nashville Music Exec Mike Dungan
Afterwards, Dungan has Church perform at a local club in Nashville to see how he translates in a live setting. The slight bit of potential that Mike saw blossoms that night, to the point he knew he had to sign him. "He did that at a tiny club here in Nashville called the Mercy Lounge," he recalls. "And it was there that his performance completely blew me away."
From there, the rest is history. Church signs that big record deal he'd been gunning for at the time. As for Dungan, he remains glad that he didn't shrug and dismiss Eric as just another country singer waltzing into his office wanting a record deal. Mike's intuition to see how he translates in the live setting pays off big time. "I can tell you that signing him was one of the luckiest days of my life," Dungan says.
