Eric Church Discusses Brother’s Death and Regrets Over Funeral Decision

Eric Church has recently shared his experience of losing his brother Brandon, who passed away at 36 years old in 2018. In a recent interview, he discussed how grief has changed who he is as a person and as an artist, the effect it has had on his family and his faith, and how public figures manage grief with the demands of their jobs and the private pain they may feel.

Church said he initially coped by immersing himself in touring and work, using performance as a shield rather than sitting with the loss. In the immediate aftermath, he and his family made difficult decisions while overwhelmed by grief.

"We left them back with a relative," he explained. "At the time, it sounded like the exact right thing to do. 'Cause I was a wreck. I was a mess. My family was a mess." Looking back, he now questions that choice.

“I look back on it now, and sometimes it's good for a child, if they're in that age, to see everybody hurting, to see the life changing, to see what that death is,” Church continues. “So that's one thing I regret. If I could go back, I would do that different.”

Church also expressed regret over how he handled his brother's struggles before his death. “I did a little bit of the ‘You're not doing the things you're supposed to be doing,' and it was a little bit of the ‘tough love,' big brother thing. I wish I'd had more grace and been more compassionate, now. But at the time, you think, ‘Oh, come on, get your s–t together.' I regret that now,” Church reflects.

Years later, he said grief still arrives unexpectedly. “It's been eight years, and those things will come out of nowhere,” the singer reflects. "I just don't see it coming. That train's not coming. And there it is,” he continues. “…You would think, after five, six, seven years, that wouldn't happen, or they would be less frequent. But I've found that they've been more frequent over the last few years.”

Faith has become central to his understanding of the loss, guiding him through questions about suffering, purpose, and eternity without offering easy answers. Church has woven themes of mortality, redemption, and spiritual searching into his songwriting, giving his performances a more confessional weight.

By being so candid, he hopes to establish more normalcy in the conversation about grief in families, churches, and the community at large, indicating that faith can serve as an anchor for one's soul rather than remove one's grief. While continuing to tour and create, he remains committed to honoring Brandon's memory while deepening his role as a father, his sincerity, and a faith honed through adversity.