Eric Church Discusses the Importance of “Darkest Hour” Ahead of His Performance at the CMA Awards

Tomorrow night, Eric Church will perform at the 2024 CMA Awards. He is also attached to Morgan Wallen’s Musical Event of the Year nomination for “Man Made a Bar.” When Church takes the stage tomorrow night (November 20), he’ll deliver a rendition of his latest single “Darkest Hour.” He released the song in the wake of Hurricane Helene and signed over the song’s royalties to his home state of North Carolina.

Ahead of the CMA Awards, Church spoke to Audacy’s Katie Neal about the devastation of Hurricane Helene, “Darkest Hour” and the impact he hopes the song will have.

[RELATED: Eric Church Signs Over Publishing Royalties of His New Single “Darkest Hour” to His Home State of North Carolina to Assist with Disaster Relief]

Eric Church on “Darkest Hour”

Katie Neal pointed out Eric Church’s generosity during their conversation. “You announced that you’re going to be donating 100 percent of the proceeds from ‘Darkest Hour’ to those who were affected [by Hurricane Helene] for years to come. Because, like we’ve talked about before, it’s going to be a very long process,” Neal said.

“Forever,” Chuch said. “We gave the song to the state. And, beyond that, I realized pretty quick with the funds that we raised that the biggest problem that we have in this country, is we do a pretty good job at the immediate 9-1-1 need of food and water and diapers but we don’t do as well with keeping people in the community from a housing perspective,” he explained. “So, we committed to putting 100 homes in Avery County, which is one of the counties hardest hit. That’s been the big focal point,” he added.

“’Darkest Hour’ has helped raise the awareness and keep the attention. We tend to move on as a society and those people are going to need help for a long time,” he said. “It’s more of an anthem. And part of the reason I’m doing it on the CMAs is to keep the focal point on those people that still need help and I need their help,” he added. “There’s still so much need there. That’s what we’ve committed to and we’re going to do as much as we can to help the people that lost everything in Western North Carolina.”

Featured Image by John Shearer/Getty Images for Concert For Carolina