An emotional Eric Church broke down in tears while performing a brand new song at the Grand Ole Opry, in honor of the victims of the Las Vegas massacre this past weekend.
Church performed last Friday night at the same Harvest Music Festival that deranged gunman Stephen Paddock targeted on Sunday night, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds.
“That night something broke in me,” said Church, “And the only way I’ve ever fixed anything that’s been broken in me is with music.”
Church describes in detail his concert on Friday night. Towards the end of the concert, he walked around the crowd with his fans, embracing the moment. Two days later, many of those same fans attended Jason Aldean's concert, only to be thrust into the rain of gunfire and chaos that evening.
“I saw that crowd. I saw ’em with their hands in the air. I saw ’em with boots in the air,” he said. “What I saw, that moment in time that was frozen, there’s no amount of bullets that can take it away."
Church told the crowd at the Grand Ole Opry the moment he decided to preform the song.
“Last night, somebody sent me a video, of a lady named Heather Melton,” he said. “And she was talking to Anderson Cooper on CNN. And she had on our ‘Church Choir’ tour shirt. And he said ‘What brought you to Vegas?’ And she goes, ‘We went there to see Eric Church.’ Because it was Sonny’s, her husband that died, it was his guy. ‘And we went there to see his guy.’ And then she said we have tickets for the Grand Ole Opry tomorrow night.
“There’s some empty seats. That’s their seats,” said Church, “The reason I’m here, the reason why I’m here tonight is because of Heather Melton, her husband Sonny who died and every person who was there.”
Church's song, "Why Not Me" was written this week and can be viewed below.
