Eric Church on Grief, Grace, and Faith
2/20/202643 min
The year country music superstar Eric Church turned 40, he survived a life-threatening blood clot and headlined a Las Vegas music festival that two days later became the scene of the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. Months later, his brother Brandon died. In this revealing conversation, Eric tells Anderson how these events changed him, as a man and a father, and how he copes with the trauma left behind. For more of “All There Is with Anderson Cooper” visit cnn.com/allthereis.
Host: Anderson Cooper Showrunner: Haley Thomas Producers: Chuck Hadad, Grace Walker, Emily...
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First 90 secondsAnderson Cooper· Host0:01
Welcome to All There Is. I took a couple days off with my kids at a beach this past week, and while I was away, it was reported that I've decided to leave CBS' 60 Minutes, where I've worked part-time for the last nearly twenty years. I was caught by surprise that the story leaked out. I was at a water park with my kids, and I quickly typed out a few lines about why I decided to leave. And what I said was that I've been able to balance both jobs for a long time, but now that I have little kids, I just need to work less. I wanna spend as much time with them as possible, I wrote, while they still wanna spend time with me. And that is very true. David Letterman famously said that after leaving his long-running talk show, "If you retire to spend more time with your family, check with your family first." Well, I did, and my kids definitely like the idea of me being around more. A friend of mine, actually a, a cameraman at 60 Minutes, recently told me that he remembers the moment when his seven-year-old son stopped holding his hand. They were walking to school together, and his son just slipped his hand out of his dad's. My friend didn't think anything of it in that moment, but soon realized that was the last time his son would ever reach out to hold his hand again. I haven't been able to get that story out of my mind. My kids still love holding my hand, or at least they still seem willing to let me hold theirs. That's not gonna last forever, and I've already missed out on too much. My guest today is also the dad of two boys.