Eric Church has prided himself on being a country-music maverick. So when he makes his first Twin Cities stadium appearance on June 11 at U.S. Bank Stadium, he'll bring along Nashville's pariah of the moment, Morgan Wallen.
Church has always done things his way, like playing back-to-back nights in an arena, as he did in 2019 at Target Center in Minneapolis. An avowed libertarian, he posed for the cover of Billboard magazine in April 2021 getting his COVID vaccine jab. After pridefully calling his 2014 album "The Outsiders," he released his 2021 project, "Heart & Soul," as three separate discs during the same week.
Now Church's latest coloring-outside-the-lines move is inviting Wallen, Nashville's best-selling outcast of the past year or so, as an opening act.
Wallen has been ostracized since he was captured on video in January 2021 saying the N-word in a clip shown on TMZ. Radio stations banned his songs, award shows neither nominated nor welcomed him, and his concert plans evaporated. Nonetheless, country fans gobbled up Wallen's 2021 release, "Dangerous: The Double Album," making it the year's best-selling project in any genre, with 3.2 million copies sold.
A Tennessee native, Wallen, 28, competed on NBC's "The Voice" before finding his footing in Nashville. His chart-topping "Whiskey Glasses" was one of the best songs of 2018, and "Dangerous" has yielded four No. 1 country songs, including this year's "Wasted on You."
Wallen got in trouble before the racial slur. In May 2020, he was arrested for public intoxication and disorderly conduct outside Kid Rock's bar in Nashville. In October, he was partying without a COVID mask in a Tuscaloosa bar after an Alabama-Texas A&M football game and thus bounced shortly thereafter from a scheduled appearance on "Saturday Night Live" for violating the show's strict COVID protocols.
As for Church, since his 2006 debut, the 44-year-old North Carolina native has scored 10 No. 1 singles, including "Springsteen" and "Record Year." He has picked up a dozen awards from country organizations, including 2020 CMA entertainer of the year.
Church's One Hell of a Night Tour will also feature new country singer Ernest, who unexpectedly brought Wallen onstage at the revered Grand Ole Opry this January to sing his hit "Flower Shops," which caused an uproar among musicians in Nashville, especially those affiliated with the Black Opry organization.
