Taylor Swift owes her first big tour to Eric Church, and she thanked him with a Gold Record.

Getting fired doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Back in 2006, Eric Church got fired from as one of the openers for Rascal Flatts because he played too long. That turned into an opening for Taylor Swift, and that tour turned into her first big break.

Eric recalled the story during a Q&A session at the annual radio conference:

“She wanted to make sure there was no bad blood. She had just had the ‘Tim McGraw’ song. I joked with her and said ‘You owe me your first gold album.’ Four days later … sure enough, she came to a show of mine and she had (a gold album). I still have it. It’s in the Hall of Fame, I think. It said, ‘Eric, thanks for playing too long and too loud on the Rascal Flatts tour. I sincerely appreciate it.’

The other opener for the tour? Jason Aldean.  

It seems like getting fired turned out to be a great opportunity for Taylor Swift, but it wasn’t all that bad for Eric either.

11-9-21