via: WRAL
A country superstar with North Carolina ties has canceled a concert to attend Saturday night's Battle of the Blues game in the NCAA Tournament. CMT reports Eric Church, who attended Appalachian State University and is a self-proclaimed UNC basketball fan, canceled his Saturday show at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas, so he can watch the Tar Heels play the Blue Devils in the Final Four game. Ross Martin, a reporter for Inside Carolina, tweeted a screenshot of the announcement from Ticketmaster, which features a direct statement from Church himself. The statement reads in part, "This is the most selfish thing I’ve asked the choir to do: give up your Saturday night plans with us so that I can have this moment with my family and sports community." Church also writes, "Woody Durham always said, 'Go where you go and do what you do,' thanks for letting me go here and be with the Tar Heels."
Church's message to his fans about the cancelation.
It takes a lot for me to blog about non-Orville Peck country music news, but this story is the perfect crossroads of music, sports, and hashtag good guy-ness, so I had to chime in. As you likely already read, country music superstar and North Carolina native Eric Church canceled a show in San Antonio (Texas) scheduled for Saturday night to watch UNC-Duke in New Orleans (Louisiana) at the Final Four.
Fans are not thrilled about his decision!
Ya boi is Natalie Imbruglia times Rip "Torn" on this one. Part of me is like this is a super scuzzy thing to do to your fans. It's the antithesis of a hashtag good guy move; keep a commitment one time! Even though I'm sure a chunk of his fans think it's a hoax, COVID fucked up people's social lives, and this could be their first big show since things started opening up. So I understand that disappointment/anger. I'm still bummed that I missed out on Thundercat in March 2020.
Sure, Church/TicketMaster is issuing full refunds on the tickets (which means he's taking a significant hit on this decision). Still, people who planned on traveling to the show and already booked flights, hotels, rental cars, child care, etc., likely won't be able to get refunds on those expenses, which stinks. Maybe you had a bachelor/ette party planned that you've been looking forward to for months. I get being upset in those spots. Sure, I don't understand why someone would travel far and wide to fucking San Antonio of all places in April for one show (music festivals are a different story), but I'm sure some people are like, why would you see Tame Impala twice in five days (which I recently did)? ***this is why***
So I'll try to be less judgy than usual, even though it's so fucking easy to make fun of slow-talking, Capitol storming, sister-fucking, country fans. (I kid...sorta)
But then part of me, the sports fan in me who went to David Ortiz's last regular-season game at Fenway and Tom Brady's return to Gillette Stadium, totally gets the appeal of attending a "once in a lifetime" sporting event. Now that I've saved up a LIL money, I've used it to experience things I would've had to skip out on in the past because I was broke. Like, I would've never dropped $1500 on a pair of Pats tickets in 2017, but I can afford it now and wanted to experience that game with my dad, so I fucking flexed, NBD. If I were a millionaire like Eric Church and loved UNC, I'd likely do the same thing and you probably would too. I'd want to buy tickets to see the first-ever NCAA Tournament matchup between UNC and Duke with my family and friends; ESPECIALLY when there's the chance, it could be the final game of Coach K's career. This is one of the most hyped games in NCAA history and has the potential to be an all-time night in the life of a UNC fan. If you consider yourself a UNC super-fan and have the funds, you'd be a fool to miss this. It's what you dream of as a sports fan. Plus he even admitted it was a selfish move. At least he was honest, cause it is a selfish move, but also one I think most normal people can get behind. What would happen if he said it was canceled due to "mental health issues**," so people would lie about him being brave, then he got spotted at the game? It's like someone breaking up with you because they fell out of love. Would you rather they were honest and ended it or strung you along, constantly cheating because they don't care about you? They're not perfect analogies, but I'm just saying he was truthful about the cancelation which should count for something. I linked one of the tweets and saw more saying how he didn't even go to UNC, but that does not matter with college fandom. It's low-hanging but true; I witnessed it firsthand and came across this take in middle school...it's super ironic that college sports are so big down south when the education quality is terrible and so many people have no affiliation with "their school." You see a little of it in RI with Providence College and losers who literally graduated from URI but align themselves with PC. When I lived in Jacksonville, it was all "are you Florida or Florida State?" despite likely attending neither. It's just commonplace in college fandom, even though I think it's weird/stupid; it's not that big of a deal and worth getting mad about. 
The main thing that I take away from this story is how big of douchebags the "fans" hoping this ruins his career are. Like you really want this guy that you allegedly love to perform to half-full arenas because he slightly inconvenienced you? What kind of fan are you? It's not like I know the personal details of all my favorite artists, but I'd like to think I know a few details about the ones I genuinely love. Like Pearl Jam fans would probably understand if Eddie Vedder postponed or outright canceled a show during the 2016 World Series to see the Cubs break the Billygoat Curse because they know what they mean to him. I'm just saying if you're such a big Eric Church fan, you'd think you'd know about his fandom and have a little better understanding of the situation instead of throwing a pity party online. "Wahhhh I don't get to hear him say Springsteen"
If you're saying, "if he's such a big UNC fan, why would he even schedule concerts during March Madness?" you're an idiot. UNC was an 8 seed this year and, despite being a blue-blood program, they weren't expected to get this far; plus, they're playing fucking Duke during Coach K's last run. It's a perfect storm of Tobacco Road basketball. If they were playing Illinois or Michigan, he's probably not canceling the show. I don't know how many times I have to say it, but I'll say it again...this is a once in a lifetime game for UNC/Duke fans. Of course, a rich super fan is gonna go. That's how the world works. Now I'm a champion of the common man, woman, and they. I agree, it's not the chillest move by Eric Church, but I also fucking get it. Sure, I can poke fun at simpleton country fans, but you were never a real fan in the first place if this is all it takes for you to turn on someone. Kevin Parker could run me over, and Currents would still be my favorite album of the past decade. Florence Welch could embezzle funds from underfunded public schools, and I'd still love her + the machine. Mac DeMarco could fuck my married sister, and I'd probably just hope it turns into something real so we could be friends. Get over it and go Tar Heels! (it was always fuck Duke)
P.S.
Calling your fans the "Church Choir" is so fucking corny that it makes me wanna take back any potential back-having this blog may display. It's still fuck Duke, though.
**Double P.S.
I've said it in previous blogs but in case you're new, I'm a mental health guy. I literally had an appointment with my shrink today, but I hate how "mental health" has become a no follow up, everything is fine excuse because some ass holes take advantage of that and ruin it for those who are actually struggling.
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