Eric Church and Wife Begin Baby Countdown

Eric Church loves his fans but expect him to curtail some of his heavy-duty touring in a few weeks. That's when his wife Katherine is expected to give birth to their first child, a boy. "We are getting close now," Church tells Taste of Country from his home. "We have three weeks until D-Day. I'm going to make sure I'm here."

The outlaw country star, whose album 'Chief' hit the coveted No. 1 spot when it was released, is currently on Toby Keith's Locked and Loaded Tour that wraps up in the U.S. on October 15. Baby Church was originally scheduled to make his appearance around that date, but things have progressively changed, said the father-to-be.

"They kept moving the due date up. Now we are into an area when I'm on tour," he says. "We're wrapping it up though."

Although Church indicated he'll juggle new dad duties and his concert obligations, he expects to be home with Katherine and their new son for most of the fall.

"By October 15 I'm done, really, for the rest of the year. Then [my band and I] only play about one to two shows for the rest of the year," he says. "I have most of October through late January to be home."

Next year, the man who wrote the song 'Two Pink Lines' -- all about a pregnancy scare -- will headline his own tour. "It's kind of frightening how fast things go from zero to 100," says Church. "But I'm anxious to headline; I'm ready."

If those shows are anything like the headliner gigs he's already played, fans are in for plenty of fun and great music. At two sold-out headlining shows on August 25 and 26 in Omaha, Neb., Church and his band played a set that consisted of all the songs from his first two albums, 'Carolina' and 'Sinners Like Me.'

"I went off the stage without playing 'Chief,'" he says. "I couldn't tell if [the audience] knew what I would do or were a little bit upset at me because I hadn't played [any songs from] 'Chief.' When I came back out, we played the 'Chief' record in sequence. It was an 11-song encore and a 3-hour set. I'm looking at next year and it'll be fun to be able to do things like that from time to time. Those are fun experiences to have with a crowd."

Find out more about Church's upcoming concert dates on his website.