Eric Church Loves Taylor Swift's '1989' Album: 'I Think the Record Is Brilliant'

There is no doubt that Taylor Swift's multi-platinum 2014 album 1989 riled up country fans. The all-pop record was Swift's first complete step out of the country world, and few Nashville stars lent their support during her big move.

But do not count Eric Church as one of the haters. The 37-year-old "Talladega" singer told nola.com that he loves Swift's new stuff.

"From Taylor's standpoint, I think the record is brilliant," he said. "I own the record. You know what I love about it? It's creative. It's what she wanted to do.

"What she'll do next, I have no idea. And that's what I think is cool about it. I have no clue where she's heading. That's the exciting part. When you do something like that, it kind of shakes everything up so much — no pun intended — that you're intrigued. That's exciting to me."

Church not only has mad love for Swift, but for a more traditional artist: George Strait, the King of Country. The pair sang "Cowboys Like Us" at the 2014 CMA Awards.

"There's certain people you just kind of hit it off with," Church said, via The Boot. "You think George Strait, with 61 No. 1 hits — it wasn't always like that. When George came to town, cowboy hats and cowboys were not in vogue."

Church even went as far as two compare his work to Strait's.

"There's a commonality in our career paths," he said. "We were doing it our own way at a time when everybody was doing it a different way. I don't have anymore respect for anybody else than I do for George Strait. I respect him more than anyone. It's been great to get to know him and become friends with and have somebody you can talk to about certain things."

Check out their performance below:

Tags

Eric Church, Taylor Swift, 1989