Eric Church Shares a Hawk Sunday Night

Guess who's back for a Hawk Sunday night?  Eric Church!  It's rare when one artist appears twice in the Top 30, but Eric has his own solo song, "Like a Wrecking Ball," as well as his duet with Keith Urban, "Raise 'Em Up."

Catch Eric Sunday night 7-10pm as he co-hosts Country Countdown USA with Lon Helton.

Keith & Eric performed their duet at the start of the ACM Awards a couple weeks ago.  Lon asked Eric about that experience: "We didn't over-rehearse that song.  When Keith & I went out there, I enjoyed playing with him.  To go out and do it, and it was live TV, you forget it when you're just enjoying the person next to you."

Eric did another song at the opening of the ACMs, a song from his debut album called "Pledge Allegiance to the Hag."  Lon asked Eric how that idea came up: "That was my manager's idea.  He was watching footage from 50 years ago, and Merle Haggard won the Most Promising Male. He got the idea it would be cool to pay homage for the 50th anniversary.  He thought it would never go, and it did!  It's never been done before.  We checked."

In February, Eric performed at the Grammy Awards.  He also brought his wife, who was expecting their second child any day.  In fact, the baby was born one week later.  Eric revealed this: "We had to take a full time nurse who could deliver the baby at 30,000 feet, if we needed her to.  But we did great.  My wife went, she loved it.  The Grammys are a different world.

Speaking of the baby, Eric & his wife Catherine named him Tennessee Hawkins Church.  They call him Hawk, and we all love that here on the Hawk!  Eric told Lon how he came up with the names.  "Hawk was something that just came to me.  We have a bunch of property west of town, and I saw a hawk.  I called my wife and said, 'Have you ever thought of Hawk?  Imagining myself at 6 years old, if your friend or your name is Hawk, that's cool!  Then my wife is from Tennessee, so she loved it."

Eric also has great stories this week about Kenny Chesney, Thomas Rhett, Little Big Town, and The Zac Brown Band.  Plus Eric talks about upcoming shows with the Grateful Dead and Willie Nelson!