Johnny (Eric Church song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Johnny" | |
|---|---|
| Promotional single by Eric Church | |
| from the album Evangeline vs. the Machine | |
| Released | September 12, 2025 |
| Recorded | 2024–2025 |
| Studio | Neon Cross Studio (Nashville, Tennessee) |
| Genre | Country |
| Length | 5:03 (album version) 4:20 (single edit) |
| Label | EMI Nashville |
| Songwriters |
|
| Producer | Jay Joyce |
"Johnny" is a song by American country music singer Eric Church. It was released on September 12, 2025, as a promotional single from his eighth studio album Evangeline vs. the Machine. Church co-wrote the song with Luke Laird and Brett Warren.
Church debuted "Johnny" during the 2025 Country Radio Seminar (CSR) in Nashville, Tennessee.[1][2] He performed the song on the Ryman Auditorium stage, initially with only an acoustic guitar before being joined by a gospel choir.[3][4]
The song was written in the aftermath of the Nashville school shooting in March 2023 at The Covenant School, which occurred roughly a mile from the school attended by Church's two sons.[1][2][3] Church described the difficulty of dropping off his children at school the following morning, calling it "the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, parent or otherwise."[1][2][4] Sitting in the parking lot, he heard Charlie Daniels's "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" on the radio and reflected, "Man, we could use Johnny right now, because the Devil is not in Georgia. He is everywhere."[1][3] He went home and wrote "Johnny" that same day.[1][4][5]
The performance also drew from Church's personal history with mass shootings, as he had performed at the Route 91 Harvest in Las Vegas the night before the mass shooting that killed 60 people.[3]
The studio version was released alongside his eighth album, Evangeline vs. the Machine, on May 2, 2025.[2][6] In September 2025, Church issues a standalone promotional single edit, timed amid a series of widely publicized violent events in the United States.[5]