He was just a young artist looking for a break when he debuted on the Grand Ole Opry on May 13, 2005. Continue reading…

Six strings and the truth. If you haven’t already, you need to take time to watch Eric Church‘s powerful commencement address that he delivered at the University of North Carolina this past weekend. The North Carolina native – and die-hard Tar Heels fan – spoke to the graduating class at UNC on Saturday, using his guitar strings as a metaphor for the things that are important in life: “When all six are in tune, the chords they make can stop a conversation cold, carry a broken person through the worst night of their life, or make a roomful of strangers feel for three minutes like they’ve known each other forever.  If one is off, the whole chord unravels. Not gradually, politely. The moment you strike it, you know. I believe your life runs on this principle.” Throughout the speech, Church compared his guitar strings to important pillars in life – faith, family, community, and maintaining your own moral compass. He spoke of the importance of finding the right partner and not comparing yourself to the best version of someone else that you see on social media. And he ended it with a performance of his own song “Carolina,” his tribute to his home state from his 2008 sophomore album. It’s his powerful closing message to the graduates, though, that’s taken off on social media. The video has been shared hundreds of times and racked up millions of views at this point as people praise Church for his poetic wisdom. Honestly, I’m not even going to break it up here because that would be doing a disservice to Church’s words. But here was his message: “You are made uniquely, wonderfully, distinctly. There’s a sound only you can make, a voice that has never existed before you and will never exist again. A contribution only you can bring, a way of seeing that belongs to only you. The world does not need another cover song. It needs an original. Six strings, six strings of life and willingness to keep them in tune. Six principles, six pillars. When all six are in tune with each other, the chord your life makes is full and resonant and true. All six will drift, not one or two, all six in their own time, in their own season. Your faith will go quiet when you need it loud. Your family will get complicated in a way only the people who love you most can complicate things. You will go through hard seasons with your spouse. Your ambition will hollow out and your resilience will wear thin. Your community will start to feel like an obligation and your world will try to sand down the edges of exactly who you are. This is not failure. This is not weakness. It’s the inevitable universal experience of living in an imperfect world that doesn’t stop to let us tune up. And the difference between a life that sounds like music and a life that sounds like noise is whether you stop and listen. Whether you’re honest enough to hear which string has drifted out of tune, and humble enough to make the adjustment, instead of just turning up the volume and hoping nobody notices. Because YOU will notice. The part of you that knows what the chords should sound like will always notice. It will not let you go. Life won’t be right until it is tuned. Trust what your heart hears and is telling you about your song. So graduates, now I encourage you to take your six strings, make it something worth hearing, and play your song as I leave you with mine.” Honestly was not expecting Eric Church to give one of the best commencement speeches of all time. Chief CRUSHED this pic.twitter.com/UGDq5yaJcv — J.P. Hovey (@jhovey34) May 12, 2026 Powerful. And while Church’s wisdom was delivered to the new graduates, it’s resonating with people of all ages: My goodness. This is beautiful. https://t.co/FbqbsI02ZF — David French (@DavidAFrench) May 13, 2026 This is pretty dang good advice…. https://t.co/V7iVt8HCEH — John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) May 13, 2026 A phenomenal commencement address from @ericchurch that resonates with me and perhaps will have the same influence on you. Songwriters and musicians who speak from their souls is as good as it gets delivering messages. https://t.co/qN0maPTQaH — Ed Werder (@WerderEdNFL) May 13, 2026 Wow This performance by Eric Church puts a lot of very gifted politicians to shame. What an inspiring speech https://t.co/7AVZqKyRnH — Jesse Hunt (@JJHunt10) May 13, 2026 How the heck is anyone else ever supposed to give a commencement address? https://t.co/fGzYcYNVBy — Whitney Westerfield (@KyWhitney) May 13, 2026 I needed to hear this today way more than I realized. https://t.co/JPADOiesan — Amie Ernst (@amieernst) May 13, 2026 Don’t we all. Of course anyone who’s familiar with Church’s music knows his way with words when it comes to writing a song. But he may have also just set the bar when it comes to delivering commencement addresses too. If you haven’t watched the whole thing, it’s well worth your time. The post Eric Church Is Going Viral For This Powerful Quote From His UNC Commencement Address first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Like Zach Top has already proclaimed to the world…. he ain’t in it for his health. There are a lot of rising stars in country music right now, but the one who has often been attributed with bringing back 90s country is Zach Top. His neotraditional sound has tapped into a part of country music that everyone appreciates and longs to listen to, and Top’s latest two albums – Cold Beer & Country Music and Ain’t In It For My Health – have delivered a breath of fresh air to the genre. Simply put, Zach Top has shaken things up, and in a recent interview with comedian Bert Kreischer on his Bertcast, the world found out that the country singer doesn’t mind shaking things up outside of music as well. The comedian and the country star were talking about drinking and sobriety, and both came to the consensus that being sober… is a bit performative. Their words, not mine. Top insisted that people should just a) take care of themselves and b) know how to handle themselves around alcohol, and that drinking isn’t the evil thing that many portray it as: “Keep yourself healthy enough that you can drink all your life. I don’t want to be… sobriety is such a fad, trendy thing right now. The next person I hear say they got sober, I want to hit them in the head. We don’t need that. Just be a normal guy and drink a normal amount. You can do it your whole life. You’re fine.” Zach Top went on to say that there’s just something off about anyone who he’s crossed paths with that has told him they are now sober. The “I Never Lie” singer believes that many aren’t doing it to be healthy, or to take care of their body. Rather, Top thinks it’s all for the clout of being able to say you are sober: “There’s a little bit of attention seeking in it, a lot of times… just do it. If you actually feel that way, it’s a bit of a disease. People do stuff just to be recognized for it versus (doing it for themselves). There’s a difference between doing something just for the love of doing it, and then doing it so that you can post a video and get a bunch of affirmation and a bunch of likes. If you are doing it just for the love of doing it, you don’t have to talk about it as much.”  Hot take? Or reasonable thought process? I’ve got a feeling that the answer to those questions will heavily depend on who you ask. Some people take a lot of pride in their sobriety, and if their decision to cut out alcohol was considered to be a life-saving move, more power to them. But I suppose that Zach Top has a point… there’s a lot of people out there who went sober for no other reason but to be able to tell others about it. There’s also a lot of folks out there lately announcing their sobriety journey like they were drinking a handle a day… when the reality is that they just stopped drinking on the weekends like your average person. It certainly seems like going sober is the trendy thing to do these days, and more power to you for doing it, but it’s not that inspirational in most cases. Now, if you have a serious problem with alcohol, then by all means, please get the help you need… and I’m sure Zach would applaud that as well. Those are the type of people that Zach Top (and Bert Kreischer) have a problem with, and you can hear them talk more about it in the video below: The post Zach Top Isn’t Buying Into the Sobriety Fad: “Just Drink a Normal Amount… You’re Fine” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.