Throwback Thursday: Eric Church & Lzzy Hale, ‘That’s Damn Rock & Roll’
Relive one of the greatest performances in country music history.
Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly series showcasing an album, single, music video or performance of a bygone era and its personal and/or cultural significance.
When I settled into my press seat for the 2014 CMT Music Awards, I wasn’t expecting much. It’s a mainstream country show and not one of the more established big dogs like the CMAs or ACMs. It’s a fan-driven affair to kick off the yearly CMA Music Festival that takes place in and around downtown Nashville. No one expects it to be this transcendent or even memorable telecast ⎯⎯ but lo and behold, that muggy summer evening delivered far more than I could have anticipated. When Halestorm front-woman Lzzy Hale wailed in true rockstar fashion on Eric Church‘s “That’s Damn Rock and Roll” goosebumps ran high and mighty along my spine.
It was an unlikely pairing, but in the context of Church’s 2014 studio album, The Outsiders, which zagged between metal and rollicking country-rock to more striped, organic-hewn work, there is little hesitation that, on paper, it made total sense. “It ain’t a needle in a vein / It ain’t backstage sex / It ain’t lines of cocaine on a private jet,” the modern-day country outlaw listed on the opening stanza, chronicling exactly what’s not rock ‘n roll music, setting the stage for what would quickly cement what rock ‘n roll music should be. “It ain’t havin’ a posse full of hangers on following you around / It ain’t long hair, tattoos, playin’ too loud…”
He continued, towing his electric guitar along and ripping into the chords with stately cool, “It ain’t a middle finger on a t-shirt, the establishments tryin’ to sell / It’s a guy with the balls who told the establishment to go to hell / It ain’t about the money you make, when a record gets sold / It’s about doin’ it for nothin’, ’cause it lives in your soul…”
“That’s damn rock and roll,” he confirms. The production was just the right amount of sizzle, but it didn’t really hit its stride until Hale stormed the stage. She’s got the kind of stage swagger that’s alarmingly akin to Janis Joplin. She has no filter, a burning no-fucks attitude, and her talent is immense. “Need some band to blame it on,” rang out over the screaming audience. Even in the far corner of Bridgestone Arena, Hale’s knife-edged vocal cut through the air like a warrior’s arrow, tearing the rafters from their rivets and sending a spiral of frenetic energy coming in waves across the space. Four years removed, I can’t imagine a performance more potent in its simplicity and raw, virulent electricity than the meeting of two such geniuses as Church and Hale. It’s a moment I still can’t fathom actually happened, and I was there to witness it.
Watch below:
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