One hell of a first introduction. In many ways, Eric Church is a bit of an enigma in country music. Oftentimes, he strays away from what many would consider to be classic hallmarks of the genre, including but not limited to rare uses of fiddle in many of his songs and the outright refusal to use steel guitar on many of his songs post Sinners Like Me. Despite this, Church has remained not only one of the best artists in the genre over the two decades but also one of the most important, influencing megastars like Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs as well as alternative country standouts such as Carter Faith, Charles Wesley Godwin, Colby Acuff and more. As we know at this point, he’s always done things his own way. From getting kicked off the Rascal Flatts Me and My Gang Tour early in his career and pushing for the release of “Smoke a Little Smoke” despite HEAVY push back from his label to releasing Mr. Misunderstood directly to fans and most recently delivering the incredibly cinematic Evangeline vs. The Machine, Church has had a long history of never adhering to the conventions of whatever is trending in the genre at the moment. This “outsider” attitude, along with his stellar, non-radio-friendly songwriting, almost led to him not securing his first record deal. He’s discussed this before, but recently, he dove into even greater detail on Will Compton and Taylor Lewan’s podcast Bussin’ With The Boys. As the story goes, after doing his rounds in an attempt to get his first record deal, the Chief thought he had finally gotten his break during a meeting with BMG. Having a killer lineup of songs from his debut album, Sinners Like Me, ready, which included “How ‘Bout You,” “Two Pink Lines,” “Pledge Allegiance to the Hag” and the title track, he thought he had it in the bag. “I sat down, and from a cocky standpoint, [I] was thinking, ‘I bet I don’t get through one of these songs. I bet I never have to play two.’ I think I’m going to start ’em with this. We’ll have a deal done. I don’t even have to work hard here.” After delivering “How ‘Bout You,” which was criticized for having a “weird” beat, “Two Pink Lines,” which was deemed too controversial due to the topic of teen pregnancy, “Pledge Allegiance to the Hag,” which received pushback thanks to Church being “too young” to sing about Merle Haggard and finally “Sinners Like Me,” which proved to be the nail in the coffin thanks to it being a waltz, Church left empty handed. The “Springsteen” singer would then share the harsh words he received from the BMG exec, essentially telling him to go back to wherever he came from. “He said, Let me get this straight. You played me a song I didn’t like. You played me a song about pregnancy. You played me a song about Merle Haggard, and you’ve played me a f****** waltz… I don’t know where you’re from or what you did there before you came here, but I would go back and do that.” Unsurprisingly, Church was discouraged after being rejected and was planning on going back home. But as he recalls it, his late brother convinced him to stay and give it one more shot after a late, booze-fueled night at the Tin Roof on Broadway. That one more shot was a meeting with Arturo Buenahora, who at the time was the Senior Director of Creative Services and Production at Sony Music. And this time, Church walked in with a different song: “Lightning.” “Immediately, I’m not playing ‘How Bout You,’ Two Pink Lines,’ ‘Pledge Allegiance to the Hag’ or ‘Sinners Like Me.’ I’m gonna play what I want to play, and I played ‘Lightning,’ which is a song about a guy getting killed, the death penalty — not exactly what you would lead with.” Unlike the meeting with BMG, it only took Church halfway through “Lightning,” which has remained one of his best and a fan-favorite ’til this day, to secure a record deal with Sony. Recently, Buenahora would reflect on the meeting over two decades ago and note that he was impressed by Church because he was unique among the country artists who were popular at the time: “He just writes great songs. He was writing things that nobody else was writing. It was really honest and authentic, and none of it felt pretend. When your job is listening to songs all day, you hear all the ideas. People chase what’s working. He wasn’t chasing anybody.” And to this day, it remains one of Eric’s best songs: “Lightning” Watch the full Bussin’ With The Boys podcast here: The post How “Lightning” Landed Eric Church His First Record Deal first appeared on Whiskey Riff.