Eric Church Serenading 9-Year-Old Fan Is as Precious as It Sounds [Watch]
Fans don't often get to see this side of Eric Church. The "Springsteen" hitmaker sat down onstage and took a 9-year-old girl's hand to sing his most well-known song during a Double Down Tour stop in St. Louis on Friday (Jan. 25). It left an impression, to say the least.
The girl's name is Hadley and her father, Brandon Burgdorf, told Taste of Country all about the encounter. The show was Hadley's very first concert, and Church set a high bar.
"She's on cloud nine," Burgdorf shares. "Right afterwards, she was crying and she tells me they were tears of joy. Saturday morning we got up and she was still on cloud nine and this thing has just kind of blown up." Indeed — Whiskey Riff and SiriusXM's the Highway are two other national outlets who shared the story immediately.
Here's how it happened: In October, Burgdorf bought tickets for himself, his girlfriend and his daughter for Friday night's show, then for just the adults on Saturday night (Jan. 26), so he truly doubled down on the "Some of It" singer. They were in the fourth row on the floor, but people directly in front of them cleared space so Hadley could catch his eye. Finally, during the final song before the encore, it worked.
"He just came right to her and she was just going crazy. He sat down and looked her right in the eye and sang to her for about 30 seconds and got up and moved on to another little girl down the way from us," Burgdorf says. "It was really a neat experience."
Fans who know Church as the sunglass-wearing outlaw named Chief may be surprised to see this side of the singer, but Burgdorf has been a fan long enough to see through that.
"It really doesn't surprise me a bit. He's got a couple of kids and he plays the outsider role well, but he's also a family man," he says.
The family is from Evansville, Ind., where they listen to Taste of Country station 99.5 WKDQ regularly. Hadley is indeed a huge fan of Church, which is unusual among her group of peers. Dad is always playing his music, though, and she learned to sing along to songs like "Springsteen" — suddenly her favorite song.
Church's Double Down Tour has just begun. St. Louis was the second stop, with 17 more cities planned through June. The next tour dates are Feb. 1-2 in Boston, Mass.
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