It sounds like country superstar Eric Church inherited quite a bit from his mom, Rita. The “Monsters” singer says his mother is the strongest person he knows and credits his musical talents to her side of the family.
“My mom, even though my dad won’t like this, my mom is by far the toughest person that I’ve met,” the superstar shares. “She’s tough. One of those people that’s been through a lot in her life, adversity wise and never complains, always really resilient with anything that’s happened to her. And it’s just that attitude, the positive attitude regardless of what has happened that I think is the one thing that I got from her. With career, she’s always been a person that’s been really positive through times that I couldn’t find a positive streak, [laughs] and she was always really positive, and very much believes in tough it out, keep working hard, and that’s her motto with stuff like that. I’ve always been impressed with that stuff.”
In addition to certain personality traits, Church also believes his love for music was passed onto him from his mother.
“Then musically, she’s where I get my talent from, musically. She sings great, always has, her mom sang great. I owe my musical chops to her,” he says. “And she still sings some. So, career-wise, I owe her everything. And just in life-wise she’s given me a lot of the qualities that it has taken for me to get me where I am. Not only as a musician, but as a man.”
For the most part, the North Carolina native keeps his personal and family life out of the spotlight, however, in 2011, his parents opened up about his rise to stardom in an interview with the Hickory Daily Record. They praised their son for his hard work and dedication, telling the publication, “It’s not as easy as it looks – he deserves every penny he makes.”