Eric Church Reacts To His 5 CMA Nominations.

Eric Church had no idea he would lead the pack of contenders with the most nominations for the 2012 CMA Awards. Following his first-ever CMA nomination for New Artist of the Year at last year’s awards show, Church received a total of five nominations this year including: Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year (CHIEF), Single of The Year (“Springsteen”), Song of the Year (“Springsteen”), and Music Video of the Year (“Springsteen”).

While swimming in the Gulf of Mexico on vacation this past week, Church lost his cell phone and had no way to be informed he’d even been nominated at all. However, when he returned to Nashville his management whisked him away to their office, projected the press release from the CMA on an oversized screen in his manager John Peets’ office, and waited for his reaction.

“I really don’t even know what to say! I’m still a little bit in shock… I’m truly speechless. I think it’s a testament to the fans that believed in the music… loved the music… and told people about the music because otherwise we don’t really have the track record to be the most nominated at this point in our career. I think that it’s truly because of the fans… they did something I think is going to be judged as pretty special.” -Church

In order to thank them for all of their support over the years, Church created a special video address that went out to Church Choir members exclusively on Wednesday.

On Sept. 13, Church will kick off the fall leg of The Blood, Sweat & Beers Tour in Amherst, MA and will release his first-ever live album in 2013.