Eric Church Wants to Get Out of Town in New Song ‘Hell of A View’

Eric Church is continuing his steady stream of new music, releasing the adventurous love song “Hell of A View” on Oct. 2. Church wrote the song with Casey Beathard and Monty Criswell, the lyrics chronicling a couple who decides to leave their hometown together despite the risks they might face, as long as they’re together.

“This ain’t for everybody / Toes hanging off the ledge / Like we got nothing to lose,” Church sings in the chorus, his voice accented by longtime backing singer Joanna Cotten’s harmonies. “Ain’t always heaven baby / This living on the edge / You holding me holding you / It’s a hell of a view.” The song is one of 28 that Church and his collaborators recorded in 28 days earlier this year during a writing retreat in the mountains of North Carolina.

Church previously told Bobby Bones on The Bobby Bones Show that the trip includes a four-day period during which he did not sleep. “I think the word’s manic,” he said.

He explained that he came up with the idea for the process because he wanted to try a different approach when it came to writing and recording. “You always have that moment when a song is born, and then you have two months or three months before you get in the studio and you bring that thing to life, and I just thought the feeling and the experience of that is something that we underestimate,” the North Carolina native shared. “I wanted to this time strip all that down, and when the song is born, whatever those things are in the atmosphere that make it turn into something magical, I wanted to try to grab that.”

New music from Church in recent months also includes current single “Stick That in Your Country Song,” “Bad Mother Trucker” and “Crazyland.” Earlier this month, he performed “Stick That in Your Country Song” at the ACM Awards, a performance he began with a spoken-word recitation of Johnny Cash’s “Ragged Old Flag,” which took some effort from Church to receive approval.

“As we got into it, we found the Cash estate and publishers are very protective,” ACM Awards Executive Producer RAC Clark told Country Aircheck. “No matter how much talking I did trying to get it cleared, it was a corporate wall.” Clark suggested to Church’s team that the singer appeal to Cash’s children Rosanne Cash and John Carter Cash in an effort to secure the rights to the song for the performance. Church wrote the siblings a letter, and his request was granted.

“I’m never going to share that letter, but it’s the reason that performance aired,” Clark said. “His passion about what he wanted to say and why allowed them to entrust him with their father’s legacy.”