Eric Church Discovers His Doppelganger Is a ‘Lady’
When Eric Church paid a recent visit to the Country Countdown USA radio show, he was in for quite a surprise. In the spirit of the old saying, "You learn something new every day," Eric discovered he's a doppelganger for another country star.
During Eric's interview, countdown host Lon Helton played back a tape of an interview with Lady Antebellum, during which Lady A guitarist/piano player Dave Haywood made a confession: "[Eric's] my doppelganger,' he laughed, and then had to give bandmate Charles Kelley a quick lesson in the meaning of the word: "It's like a twin."
Charles, who had never heard the term 'doppelganger' before, wasn't the only one in the dark.
Eric laughed, "You have to explain it to me! I'm not sure what a doppelganger is. I got mad when I first heard that. I didn't know what the heck that was."
After learning what the heck a doppelganger is, Eric agreed with Dave. "Every year they do a St. Jude radio benefit in Memphis for Country Cares," he explained, "and [Lady A's] first year, they were a brand new act ... hadn't had a single out yet. Dave was in the restroom or something, and they needed to take a picture, so I just jumped in the middle of the picture as 'Dave' between Hillary [Scott] and Charles. It was funny. I told Dave, 'They didn't even miss you! They thought I was you.'"
Eric definitely isn't Hank Williams, Jr.'s doppelganger, but he did become part of his family ... Well, sort of.
Noticing that Eric had a Hank, Jr. medallion on, Lon wondered if it was from the gift shop or did Bocephus actually give it to him after they finished their recent tour together?
"No, it's from him," said Eric. "He actually put on the back [that] I'm a member of the family now. That's what he called me. He gives it to people who either are on his crew or are part of his group. I was stunned.
"I got to hang out with him a little bit ... got to fly his plane a couple times. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done, to be able to hang out with him, talk to him, hear some stories about his dad, Johnny Cash and all these guys he hung out with. He's country music royalty. He's a legend."
Eric explains that Hank taught him a lot out on the road ... including a little lesson in humility.
"When we played Charleston, W.V., the crowd was really, really good to us," Eric recalls. "[Hank, Jr.] got there early. He got to come in and hear the crowd going crazy. We came off stage, and he walks up and right before he went on stage, he said, 'I heard you had them going, brother.' I said, 'Yeah, pretty good.' He [looked at me] and said: 'Watch this.' He went out to a roar -- the crowd went crazy! And I thought: well, Hank just told me where to jump right there. 'Watch this, young buck! You think you're good ... check this out!'"
You can check out Eric on the Country Throwdown tour, where he's just been moved to the main stage. Click here for cities and dates.
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