WATCH: Eric Church Brings Out Full Choir for Striking Unreleased Song, 'Johnny', at CRS 2025

This year's Country Radio Seminar was turned into a full-fledged "come to Jesus meeting" when Eric Church took the stage.

He was there to perform an unreleased song, titled 'Johnny', and ended up taking the convention and its attendees to a place of deep meditation and actionable contemplation.

Before introducing the song, the hitmaker gave a little backstory, sharing how his recent solo residency at his Broadway bar and venue, Chief's, opened the door for more intimacy and transparency in his live performances.

"It was interesting," he explained of the stint. "It was just me, and I've always had this thought of I wanted to be with the fans and tell stories that I wasn't supposed to tell, and talk about things that I never talk about, because I really don't ever talk about anything."

He went on to explain there was one particular part of the Chief's shows in which he touches on the year 2018, a time he describes as "the worst year of my life."

"I played in Vegas on a Friday night, and the following night was the worst mass shooting in US history. I lost a lot of fans there. It was a changing moment for me. It was a paradigm shift, and it broke me in a lot of ways, so I talk about that, and I say that to say this: about a year ago, we had a shooting here in Nashville at the Covenant School."

In March 2023, three nine-year-old children and three adults were killed during a mass shooting at the private Christian elementary school.

He continued, "Where my kids go to school, my two boys, is about a mile from that school. I will tell you something, the hardest thing I've ever done in my life – parent or otherwise – is dropping them off at that school the day after the shooting and watching them walk inside. I sat in the parking lot for a
long time, and as fate would have it, as I was pulling out, Charlie Daniels was playing, 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia.'"

He explains how the song's classic lyrics, "Johnny, rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard / 'Cause Hell's broke loose in Georgia and the Devil deals the cards / And if you win, you get this shiny fiddle made of gold / But if you lose the devil gets your soul", struck him on his drive home.

"I remember thinking, man, we could use Johnny right now, because devil's not in Georgia, he's everywhere. I went home and wrote 'Johnny'."

He went on to play the striking tune for the crowd, the chorus of which goes: "Johnny, oh, Johnny, where did you go? / The Devil's broke out of Georgia, and he's feasting on our souls / There's fire on the mountain / And the flames are closing in / So run, get your fiddle bow and send him to Hell again."

Following those words, a group of singers emerged from the crowd to provide vocal accompaniment to Church's emotive new song.

It is not yet known when 'Johnny' will be released, but you can watch the performance below:

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