For Eric Church, the hardest part of dealing with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic isn’t the missed work or lost wages. For Eric, it’s not knowing what’s to come that is the most challenging, but he is learning to find joy even in the uncertainty.

“The hardest thing about this for me as a dad, as a husband, as a business leader, as a citizen, has been the unknown,” Eric said, prior to performing a new song, “Never Break Heart” during the ACM Presents: Our Country TV special. “I believe we fear the unknown. And after some thought and a lot of prayer, here’s what I know — I have hope and you should have hope, because since the beginning of time, people have gathered.

“They’ve gathered for fellowship, they’ve gathered for worship, they’ve gathered for prayer, they’ve gathered for song, they’ve gathered for communion, they’ve gathered for grief –– but they’ve gathered,” he added, and we will gather again. The important thing to remember is to not fear, but to be brave, and endure.”

It’s unclear if “Never Break Heart” will be on Eric’s next album, but he did promise his next set of tunes will be markedly different from anything he has released in the past.

“We removed all of the barriers about what people think of the song,” Church shared at Country Radio Seminar earlier this year (via the Tennessean). “Just let it be the most creative thing for that one day, chase that as hard as you can (and) move on. Go on to the next one.”

Church wrote and recorded an astonishing 28 songs in 28 days, embracing his unprecedented flow of creativity that he experienced.

“For me, it’s as far out there as I’ve gotten … I couldn’t shut it off,” Church recalled. “For three or four days, I wasn’t sleeping because I was in the studio all night and getting up in the morning. I couldn’t turn it off. … It really opened up some great stuff, creatively.”

Photo Credit:  Joe Pugliese