Uploaded July 2018 | Updated September 2026, 43 minutes ago
Eric Church drew from a difficult period in his own life when he wrote his new single, "Desperate Man." In a new interview, the singer reveals the song was inspired by the emotional aftermath of the mass shooting that took place at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas in October of 2017.
Church headlined the first night of the three-day festival on Sept. 29, and during Jason Aldean's headlining set during the closing night on Oct. 1, a gunman opened fire into the crowd from his hotel room adjacent to the concert site, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds more.
Church wrote and performed a tribute song for the victims of the shooting titled "Why Not Me," but though he put up a brave front in public, he tells Rolling Stone Country that the shootings haunted him so much that it impacted the making of his new album.
“I was a little lost for a while. I think like a lot of people I was in a little bit of a funk after something like that,” he reflects. “I was still a little burned out. A little bit going through the motions. I think that’s part of what happened when I first went into the studio, is I still wasn’t quite ready to get there."
Church teamed with Ray Wylie Hubbard, who he previously name-checked in "Mr. Misunderstood," to co-write "Desperate Man." He says the collaboration helped him kickstart the creative process for the upcoming album of the same name, which he will release on Oct. 5.
“That’s where ‘Desperate Man’ kind of came from,” he states. “I wrote that in the studio. I got a little bit desperate in there to just find an album, because it was not fu--ing happening.”
READ THE REST @tasteofcountry.com/eric-church-desperate-man-inspiration
Eric Church drew from a difficult period in his own life when he wrote his new single, "Desperate Man." In a new interview, the singer reveals the song was inspired by the emotional aftermath of the mass shooting that took place at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas in October of 2017.
Church headlined the first night of the three-day festival on Sept. 29, and during Jason Aldean's headlining set during the closing night on Oct. 1, a gunman opened fire into the crowd from his hotel room adjacent to the concert site, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds more.
Church wrote and performed a tribute song for the victims of the shooting titled "Why Not Me," but though he put up a brave front in public, he tells Rolling Stone Country that the shootings haunted him so much that it impacted the making of his new album.
“I was a little lost for a while. I think like a lot of people I was in a little bit of a funk after something like that,” he reflects. “I was still a little burned out. A little bit going through the motions. I think that’s part of what happened when I first went into the studio, is I still wasn’t quite ready to get there."
Church teamed with Ray Wylie Hubbard, who he previously name-checked in "Mr. Misunderstood," to co-write "Desperate Man." He says the collaboration helped him kickstart the creative process for the upcoming album of the same name, which he will release on Oct. 5.
“That’s where ‘Desperate Man’ kind of came from,” he states. “I wrote that in the studio. I got a little bit desperate in there to just find an album, because it was not fu--ing happening.”
READ THE REST @tasteofcountry.com/eric-church-desperate-man-inspiration
