Eric Church's "Talladega" is About Life, Not Racing

Whether you're a NASCAR fan or not, chances are, if you hear the word "Talladega," you think racing (or at least the movie, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby). However, Eric Church told Billboard recently that his single by the same name has nothing to do with racing. The song, according to Church, is about life itself, and the track name just was what he used as the "avenue through which the commentary took place."

Life, and all of the things that lead up to those big events are what Eric and co-writer Luke Laird set out to capture with the tune which was born on the tour bus outside of the WGNA Countryfest. With the Coke Zero 400 pre-telecast muted on the TV, the two men were just playing around on their guitars. The broadcast sparked a memory for Church about growing up in Granite Falls, North Carolina and the trips he used to take with his buddies to the Martinsville Speedway in nearby Virginia as a teen.

"NASCAR was as hot as any sport back in the ’90s, and it was a thing where a group of your buddies go take stuff, tents, camp out, stay a few days, walk back and forth to the track," Church shared. "We actually lost the damn car, you know; you’re so far away. I can’t tell you who won the race, but I could tell you all the experiences we had in a two- or three-day period."

For Luke, his fond memories of freedom had nothing to do with racing. Raised in Pennyslvania, his summer memories were of Jamboree in the Hills, a huge music festival in Ohio that is called the "Super Bowl of Country Music. "Me and some of my buddies would camp out for like four days, and I did that probably the summer before my senior year and then maybe like two summers after that," said Laird. “It’s just kind of that feeling of that time in your life when you [felt] freedom."

Growing up, my grandma always used to say, "It's not the destination that's important; it's the journey to get there." I get that now more than I ever did back then. Those summer trips to the beach with friends were about so much more than how high the waves were or hot the sand felt. They were about that glorious freedom you can only find when you're somewhere with your very best friends, living in every moment and not worrying about tomorrow.

Share your own "Talladega" type story in the comments section below.

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Eric Church