Eric Church Shares What He Would Do Differently After His Younger Brother’s Death in 2018
Eric Church doesn’t talk about losing his brother often. When he does, he doesn’t soften it.
In an interview on All There Is with Anderson Cooper, released on Feb. 19, the country star shared regrets about decisions he made after his brother Brandon Church died.
He also shared the advice he received from Vince Gill and a description of grief that runs counter to what most people expect: it’s getting more frequent, not less, eight years later.
Vince Gill Gave Eric Church Blunt Advice
Not long after Brandon Church died in 2018, Vince Gill — someone Eric had met but didn’t know personally — called him. The message was blunt.
“You’re never going to be the same,” Gill told him. “Your mom and dad are never going to be the same. Your sister’s never going to be the same. Y’all are never going to be the same as a unit.”
“Nothing is ever gonna be the same,” Gill told him. “And the quicker you understand that, the better you’ll deal with it.”
Church said he didn’t believe Gill at the time. Looking back, he can see Gill was right.
“When my brother died, I didn’t comprehend that it’s never going to be the same again — with my parents, with their relationship, with our relationship, the whole family dynamic,” Church said. “I wasn’t prepared for that part.”
“It never is the same,” he added. “When something like that happens, it changes everything. And it becomes a new normal.”
Brandon Church died of “consequences of chronic alcoholism” in 2018, according to People. He was 36.
The Funeral Decision He Now Calls a ‘Mistake’
One of the most striking parts of the interview: Church’s honesty about keeping his kids away from the funeral.
Church and his wife decided not to take their two sons — around seven and five at the time — to the service.
“We left them back with a relative,” Church said. “At the time, it sounded like the exact right thing to do. ‘Cause I was a wreck. I was a mess. My family was a mess.”
Now, he describes it as a “mistake.”
“I look back on it now and sometimes it’s good for a child, if they’re in that age, to see everybody hurting, to see the life changing, to see what that death is,” he added. “So that’s one thing I regret. If I could go back, I would do that different.”
The singer shares two sons — Boone McCoy, now 14, and Tennessee Hawkins, now 11 — with his wife Katherine Church (née Blasingame), according to People.
Church also addressed something that gnaws at many people who’ve lost a loved one to addiction: how he responded while his brother was still alive.
“I did a little bit of the ‘You’re not doing the things you’re supposed to be doing,’ and it was a little bit of the ‘tough love,’ big brother thing. I wish I’d had more grace and been more compassionate, now,” he said.
“But at the time, you think, ‘Oh, come on, get your s**t together.’ I regret that now,” Church added.
Brandon Church Shaped His Brother’s Career
Church credited his brother as the catalyst behind his success in country music. The story is specific.
Church had moved to Nashville to pursue music but said he was “treading water” for a few years. He reached a point where he was ready to give up and leave. Brandon wouldn’t let him.
Brandon showed up at his doorstep one day and lived on his couch for a year so Eric wouldn’t leave Nashville.
“A year later, things started to kind of happen, but I don’t tell a lot of people that, but I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him doing that, because that was an ultimate commitment. He dropped everything,” Church said.
A younger brother dropped his own life to sleep on a couch for twelve months, betting on his sibling’s dream. That gesture ended up being the foundation for one of country music’s biggest careers.
The brothers went on to co-write the song “How ‘Bout You” off Eric’s 2006 debut album together. They also co-wrote 2009’s “Without You Here” together.
Grief Isn’t Fading — It’s Arriving More Often
Perhaps the most counterintuitive part of the interview is how Church describes grief eight years out. The common expectation is that loss dulls over time, that the sharp edges round off. Church’s experience is the opposite.
“It’s been eight years, and those [emotions] will come out of nowhere,” he said.
“You would think, after five, six, seven years, that wouldn’t happen, or they would be less frequent,” he added. “But I’ve found that they’ve been more frequent over the last few years.”
That admission runs counter to the tidy grief narrative most people carry around — the idea that time heals in a straight line.
Church’s description of increasing emotional waves, arriving without warning years after the loss, suggests the process is far less predictable than conventional wisdom suggests.
Production of this article included the use of AI. It was reviewed and edited by a team of content specialists.
