If you tried to buy a set of knifes in the middle of the night from the Shop At Home Network in the early 2000s, and were told no…you might have been speaking with Eric Church.

When he first moved to Nashville and he was trying to make it in the business, Eric would write music during the day, and work on his contacts and everything else that came with building a music career. But at night, Eric would head to a job that he wasn’t really happy with, and he wasn’t going to be a part of letting people make late-night decisions that they wouldn’t be happy with come the light of day.

Eric shares the story, “My worst one was when I first came to Nashville. I got a job at the Shop at Home Network. I worked midnight to seven or eight. And what I had to do at the job…I sold knives and, anytime somebody calls you at 3 am and needs 200 knives for $19.95, I knew they were drunk. I knew what they had done. They’d just come home from the bar, flipped on Shop at Home and said, ‘You know what? I need that.’ So the reason the job didn’t last long for me is that I was maybe the worst salesmen in history because I ended up talking a lot of these people out of it, I’d say, ‘I’ll tell you what man, go to bed, call me, I’ll be here in the morning. If you get up in the morning and want these knives you call me back.’ Because I knew what was going to happen, you know. They bought 200 knives for…first of all some of these people you didn’t know whether you should call the cops. What do you need 200 knives for? Even though I’m selling them…what do you need them for? So, it was awful doing that job. And then they got rid of me because, they were like, ‘You’re the worst. I can’t believe you’re talking people out of it.’ I was like, ‘Man I know…I’ve been there.’ [laughs] I’d want some to talk me out of buying some of the stuff I’ve bought at 2am.”

Luckily, Eric Church’s music career took off, and he could stop telling people to not buy knives in the middle of the night. Now, fans might be buying his music in the middle of the night – like his current single “Heart On Fire.”

Photo Credit: Anthony D’Angio