Man, I would love to sit around and have drinks at this dinner table.
Eric Church and Morgan Wallen have been known to hit the golf course together on more than a couple occasions, so it seems only right that they would be buddies with one of the best golfers in the world right now.
Throw in a multi-Super Bowl winning quarterback (and one of the funniest guys in sports broadcasting right now), along with Eric partner in his new Nashville bar, Chief’s, and this seems like one hell of a good time.
Two-time PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas posted a picture on Instagram yesterday showing himself with Church and Wallen, along with Eli Manning and Ben Weprin, founder of boutique venture capital firm AJ Capital Partners and Eric Church’s partner in his upcoming downtown Nashville bar, music venue and BBQ restaurant.
The all-star crew was at Rao’s in New York City, but I have a feeling everybody in this group would have been more at home on the golf course (or in the garage drinking a beer) than at a fancy NYC restaurant.
Church is of course an avid golfer, and even wrote a song that was inspired by a golf trip he took with Eli Manning and his brothers.
On an episode of the Fire Pit Podcast, Manning brothers Peyton, Eli and Cooper, along with some other guys on the trip, told the story about a golf trip to the 2022 Open Championship that ended with a song that Eric couldn’t just help but write – even though he tried not to.
Speaking about the song, Eric said:
“It was a place I’d never been in. I’d never seen terrain like that. We’re in a castle. It had just a vibe.
I didn’t mean to do it…I even tried to stop it. I thought, ‘No, no, I’m not doing this.’
And it just kept going. And it was late at night, and I was jetlagged so who knows what that means. But I got up and got out my iPhone and just started recording.
I had the full song by, you know, I sent it to some people the next morning.”
Weprin, who was also on the trip, talked about Eric’s inspiration for the song – and waking up to a new song from Eric the morning after he wrote it:
“We got Tuesday night into Newcastle (Ireland). Eric had written a song that he was inspired by the mountains, and we went to Percy French, which he does what Eric does, and sent it to me and woke up and he had this song and I was like ‘Holy fuck.’
It was unbelievable too. Percy French is this writer and it was this name of our restaurant there, and he wrote this whole thing, which is like, he’s this cyborg. It’s insane.”
But one thing all of the buddies agreed on: This was out of character for Eric, who usually likes to disconnect from music and his career when he’s doing something else.
Says Peyton Manning:
“There’s no doubt about it, when Eric goes on a trip like that, the times I’ve been around him, he is there to get away from the music for awhile.”
And ESPN’s Taylor Zarzour agreed:
“I don’t have anybody in my life that’s better at being where their feet are than him. He doesn’t look at his phone for the longest amount of time. He’s not one of those guys that subconsciously texts and doesn’t even realize he’s doing it.
He is so present at all parts of his life and I’ve taken a lot from that. And he’s especially good at that when he’s disconnecting from his professional life.”
But sometimes, the inspiration just hits and you can’t stop it. And the result was a brand new song from Eric Church called “Ain’t The Only Ghost in Town.”
Check it out, and stay tuned to see if Eric comes up with any new song inspired by this power dinner in NYC:
Eric Church Reveals First Look Inside His Upcoming Nashville Bar, Chief’s
If you’ve been to Nashville in recent years, you know that Broadway is now filled with tons of nightclubs disguising themselves as country bars – venues that tend to do everything but display true, authentic country music.
So, when Eric Church announced that he has a bar coming to Nashville in 2023, it gave me some hope that there might finally be something worth hitting up Broadway for.
Appropriately named Chief’s, the space will be a 6-story bar, BBQ restaurant and music venue
The new venue will be located at 200 Broadway, in the building that formerly housed Cotton Eyed Joe, and will be right beside John Rich’s Redneck Riviera.
Church bought the building for $24.5 million from Rich along with Ben Weprin, founder of boutique venture capital firm AJ Capital Partners, which also owns the building housing the famous Exit/In music venue in Nashville and best known for its chain of Graduate Hotels across the country.
He’s also bringing in a taste of his local Carolinas by partnering with famous BBQ chef Rodney Scott, the James Beard Award-winning pitmaster and founder of Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ, for the bar’s food program, which will be served from the rooftop and contain all-weather seating for visitors.
And to set itself apart from the other artist bars in downtown Nashville, Chief’s plans to feature a two-story seated music venue that would be able to host ticketed live events.
Chief said himself:
“Like everything we do with our music, the same care and consideration has gone into every detail of this place. It will be unrivaled downtown. I can’t wait to play here.”
And this week, he offered us a first look at the new space via Instagram.
The bar will feature a ticketed music venue where Church will be playing himself, along with badass designs and more than 3,000 Church concert posters scattered all on the floor, walls, and ceiling.
It will also have a studio that’s made for live broadcasting Church’s Outsiders Radio Channel on SiriusXM, and will feature legendary Carolina pitmaster Rodney Scott, who is known for his award winning BBQ, manning a restaurant on the rooftop overlooking the skyline of Nashville.
Just judging by the pictures, this place is already living up to the hype surrounding it.
Needless to say, it’ll be a nice change of pace from the tired glitz and glam that Broadway has turned into over the years.