According to Eric Church, the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene in western Carolina is “biblical.”
God may have provided the ideal song to raise notice of the storm damage.
Church discussed “Darkest Hour” and gave an update on his folks before to his appearance at the 2024 CMA Awards.
His words, “They’re doing good,” “We’re starting over. The resilient nature of the people of western North Carolina is one of their many wonderful qualities.
- Church spoke with ToC at CMA Radio Row, ahead of the Nov. 20 broadcast on ABC.
- He’s part of a performer lineup that includes Kelsea Ballerini, Brooks & Dunn, Luke Combs, Riley Green, Jelly Roll and Cody Johnson.
- Lainey Wilson, Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning will host the CMA Awards this year.
Related: How Much Was Raised by Eric Church and Luke Combs’ Hurricane Relief Concert?
In late September, Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida, then moved through the southeast before settling over eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. In North Carolina alone, almost 100 people lost their lives. Damage from the hurricane exceeded $100 billion.
Church has significant ties in the area, having grown up in Caldwell County, but he spends roughly half of the year there with his family. As he promises to construct 100 homes in the neighborhood, he claims to have even gotten his boys (ages 9 and 14) engaged in the cleanup effort, attempting to set a good example for them.
“We’re pretty good in this country at the 911 part, which is the food, the water, the diapers,” he says. “We’re not very good at the next part, which is how do we keep people there, how do we rebuild the community?”
“And I realized pretty quickly that these people need a place to live, otherwise we’re going to lose the people, and we’ll never rebuild the communities if they disperse.”
The song that Church will sing at the 2024 CMA Awards has not yet been revealed, but he is slated to perform at 8 PM ET on ABC.
He claims that although “Darkest Hour” wasn’t created with this purpose in mind, he was happy to have it in his pocket following the storm.
“‘In your darkest hour, I’ll come running,’ is a line from ‘Darkest Hour.'”And I understood that we must rush to help the folks there,” he says. And in order to at least raise awareness of this cause, I knew I would regret not releasing the song and turning it become an anthem.
“Darkest Hour” will be featured on Church’s upcoming album, which he claims will be released in 2025.
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