One of the few times he’s tried to play the radio game. As an avid Eric Church fan, I’ve always had this theory that he doesn’t really like his song “Love Your Love the Most.” To be clear, he’s never said as much (at least not that I’ve seen), but it’s just always the impression that I’ve gotten from Church as he talks about that time in his career. The song was released in February 2009 as the first single from his second studio album, Carolina. It was a modest hit, peaking at #10 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and eventually being certified Platinum by the RIAA. But compared to Church’s previous singles like “How ‘Bout You,” “Two Pink Lines” and “Guys Like Me” from his debut album Sinners Like Me, you can see how this one was different. Rather than the bombastic statements he makes about who he is in “How ‘Bout You” or “Guys Like Me,” or the taboo topic of teen pregnancy addressed in “Guys Like Me,” “Love Your Love The Most” is a saccharine checklist ballad not unlike many of the hits on the radio at the time. And in fact, that’s what he was going for when he wrote it. During a 2016 interview with the BBC, Church was asked about “Love Your Love the Most,” and you can almost see him cringe to think about it as he admits that he was trying to write a radio hit: “That was one of the ones in my career – that was a rough time in our career because we got to a point where we had to have a radio hit, in my opinion, to continue to have a record deal. So that was my attempt to write what was being played on the radio. It’s been interesting since then. I don’t play it a lot anymore. It’s one of those songs that, it’s got lines that are very much me. I do like Faulkner books, and stuff that’s weird like that. I do like mustard on my fries.” When you realize that Church was trying to write the song for radio, it makes much more sense than the song otherwise would in his catalog: As Church pointed out earlier in the same interview, country music at the time was largely female-driven, with ballads and love songs dominating the charts. (Or as he puts it, it was “soccer mom” country). But Church has never really been one to play the radio game, or write a song just to have a hit. Which brings me back to my theory that he doesn’t really like the song, or at the very least wouldn’t record it today if he had it to do over again. As Church mentioned, he rarely plays the song in concert. He did break it out recently during his three-night run at Red Rocks Amphitheater this summer, but in introducing the song he said something that made me seem to think I was onto something with my theory that he doesn’t care for the song: “I promised my younger self I would never do two things: One, I would never cover ‘Sweet Caroline’ at Red Rocks. And two, I would never play this song at Red Rocks. So I suck at keeping promises to myself.” He’s also said that Carolina is the only album that he’s ever compromised on, because he felt like he had to in order to save his career. I have a feeling that “Love Your Love the Most” is one of those compromises he’s referring to… And maybe it’s not fair to say that he doesn’t like the song. Maybe he doesn’t feel it was as authentic as the rest of his music that he released, both before and after Carolina. In fact, after “Love Your Love the Most” and one more single from the album (another song that he doesn’t play live much called “Hell On the Heart”) Church threatened to walk away from his record label if they didn’t release “Smoke A Little Smoke” as a single. Maybe seeing the reaction to “Smoke A Little Smoke” from his fans proved to Church that he was right to follow his instincts rather than try to write a song like “Love Your Love the Most” to chase a radio hit. Regardless, the song is still a popular one among Church fans – even if my theory’s correct and he’s not a big fan of it himself.The post Eric Church Says “Love Your Love The Most” Was His Attempt At Trying To Write A Radio Hit To Save His Career first appeared on Whiskey Riff.